Edna and Jesse

[aandre12]

I have been reading all of the forum posts on bonding religiously since I started the bonding process with my bunnies Edna and Jesse, but I need some situation-specific advice. Edna has been a spoiled rotten only rabbit for close to 4 years now, and we just adopted Jesse about a month ago. Both have been fixed and when Edna and Jesse met, the lady I adopted him from said they would make a good match. I have been doing nightly bonding sessions and things have been going relatively well. They both seem happy to be around each other, they clean themselves, flop, binky, lay down a foot or so apart, but Edna still lunges at Jesse when he comes up to her most times. She doesn’t growl or bite, but she sometimes pulls his hair as he runs by. Is this her being dominant and bossy or is it aggressive behavior? Should I be correcting her with the spray bottle each time? She only chases him on a rare occasion now, its mostly just lunging at him or pulling his fur. Currently, I have only been spraying her when she actually chases him. Hope to hear your thoughts! Thank you!

[xXBunnyNerdXx]

Out of curiosity does Jesse try to whip around and fight back? Or does he keep running to get away from Edna?

[aandre12]

He runs away. He doesn’t ever fight back. He seems to push his limits while she is laying down he hops around and sniffs her until she jumps up at him. It has been the same thing all week. I am thinking of trying a smaller set up or taking a car ride. They haven’t groomed each other since the first day they met. Thanks for asking!

[aandre12]

I am posting a video of a recent date with Edna and Jesse! She still nips him as you can see, but he is not scared of her anymore. He gets so excited to be with her he binkies everywhere. No snuggling and no grooming yet….any thoughts or suggestions are welcome! We did two weeks of bonding in a cardboard box that seemed to help a lot. And now they are in a play pen which is why the video is dark!
http://youtu.be/xnj5WqQlSjU

[aandre12]

Here is another update on the bunnies: I don’t know if anyone is reading this, but I found it helpful to read bonding journals from other people so I hope this will help someone else.

Sunday we had the bunnies out to hop in seperate areas, Jesse in the hall and Edna in the living room, and they were showing a lot of interest in each other through the fence we had between them…So we took a chance and let them hop together. I had been curious for a long time how they would do out together since they have never fought and the aggression from Edna seems to be going away. It went really well!!!! There was nothing more than the mild nip or two from Edna, and they seemed to have a nice time together. Because of Sunday’s success we let them out together yesterday evening as well and it went even better! They were racing all around and doing binkies. They explored seperately but always ended up back together following each other around. There was a small bout of chasing when it looked like Edna kept trying to get him to groom her but he wasn’t doing it. I hope he works up the courage to do it soon, because I think they are really making progress in their relationship. I am a very happy bunny mom and I am very relieved that they can hop together now. It is SO much work setting up seperate spaces!

[aandre12]

This is the final bonding post on Edna and Jesse!

They are officially bonded now, and have been living together for one week. They are inseparable and are constantly snuggling! They had been out hopping in the living room together for the past month and I was waiting for a day or two so I could be home to supervise them overnight…but I never had enough time! So, last Monday we put them together for the first time overnight! I was so nervous about them, but everything went well and they have been together ever since. They both groom each other now and are so happy in their pen that they haven’t been interested in coming out to hop!
I think the key things that helped us with bonding were:
1. Long sessions. I spent hours and hours with them inside of a “tent” in the kitchen since we had very little neutral territory.
2. Living next to each other. They lived next to each other the entire time they were bonding, and I think that helped A LOT.
3. The time they spent in a cardboard box. It got to a point where things didn’t progress much, but they spent almost two weeks having dates in a cardboard box and they got used to being in each other’s space.
4. Me drinking a lot of wine! Ha! It was very stressful! But totally worth it now that they are in bunny love. Good luck to everyone with their bonding process!

[babybunsmum]

Thanks for posting

 I think wine will be incorporated into my bonding routines also.  Lol.  

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