Female acting strange during pre-bonding

[Nutmeg]

So I’ve recently noticed a change in my female – Penelope’s – behavior during what you could call our pre-PRE-bonding and I’m not sure if it’s just because we have officially hit SPRING here in Canada lol

Ok, sorry for the long post, If you’ve read my past posts than feel free to skip to the bottom regarding what happened last night.  
Little back story for those who don’t know me:

1. we have two young bunnies, Penny is now 7 months and Rupert is now 6 months – there has been a delay in spaying / neutering them for official bonding after recovery due to our boy Rupert being a “Late Bloomer”.

2. They take turns get 100% supervised play time – One stays in their cage while the other is out when I’m home.  They can currently sniff each other through the bars while one is out and the other is in the cage – but NOT when they are both in their cages when I’m not home (as they are 2 feet a part) & the cages have very high plastic sides, so they can’t mate through them. But they can touch noses which is why I am with them at all times when they are out.

3. You can see in a previous post that I posted a few months ago about this above set up and was told that was fine as it was always 100% supervised in case the hormones clicked in and they tried to fight through the bars – in which time I found figure out how to fully separate them (easier said than done with our space). 

Everything has been going well for the last 4 months with this set up. They share a litter box in the shared play area. There has been the odd poop outside the shared litter box – to sort of mark their territory I guess, but it hasn’t been excessive and there has been no spraying of pee whats so ever. 
The mirror each other all the time – both grooming, eating, sleeping mostly at the same time. The do binky’s and run outside of each others cages to show off for the other one. They will sniff each other through the bars and then go back to what they were doing. 

*** Now on to last night. 

~ Penny was out first. All was fine, she sniffed at Rupert, as if to say hi, and then went about her fun time.
~ Then a few hours later I put her back and let Rupert out. Rupert said hi to me and ran around a bit.
~ Then he went up to Penny’s cage. They sniffed, all was fine and she moved to her water dish  – so her followed her and was sniffing through the cage…

~ Then Penny stomped her feet, ran in a circle around her cage, into her little hutch back out and back to where Rupert was. Rupert was sniffing again and she did the same thing – Stomp, run around her cage, under the little hutch and back. 
~ Then she went to her litter box and started eating hay – Rupert followed, she did the same thing again. 
~ I decided to put him back and let her out – everything was fine again. She ran around, sniffed at him, sniffed the stuffed bunny that has his scent on it as he had humped it when he was out LOL. Everything was is how it normally was. 

So I wanted your thoughts before I let them back out after work tonight. 
* Now I know the stomping isn’t always a distress call. They stomp when they want something – when I don’t get them their food fast enough in the morning for example lol. 
I’m just wondering what you think about her doing this? 

Could she be getting more territorial of her cage area? Was she just sensing his extra hormonal scent? Or was she wanting to get out to him as she kept going back to where he was? She didn’t lunge or grunt or anything. Just a stomp and run around and back. 

(Man, I can’t wait for them to be spayed/neutered and bonded so that they can have 24/7 access to the whole area!) 

[sarahthegemini]

She’s probably annoyed that he’s out and near her cage whilst she’s confined. I wouldn’t really worry tbh

[Nutmeg]

Posted By sarahthegemini on 5/15/2018 9:48 AM

She’s probably annoyed that he’s out and near her cage whilst she’s confined. I wouldn’t really worry tbh

Thanks Sarah! She’s just never done it in the last 4 months, but they both haven’t been getting as much outside time as I would like – as I can only let them out when I’m home – so that makes sense that she could just be miffed that she’s not out too. 
I’m just extra paranoid as I don’t want them to hold any grudges  
I can’t wait for them to be bonded so they can have 24/7 outside time in the bunny land I built (about the size of a bedroom) as our place is very open concept and we don’t actually have a bedroom that we could make just theirs lol

[sarahthegemini]

I think I remember the photos you’ve posted before of bunnyland. It looked very spacious if I remember correctly! Life will be so much easier when they’re bonded.

If she starts getting annoyed regularly, I would just put up a barrier (cardboard or something) to block her view of Rupert while he’s out

[Nutmeg]

Thanks Sarah! 

That’s a good idea. I try to alternate who gets let out first when I get home so that there is no jealousy that way. 

This is bunny land when we first brought them home. They were separated that day. It is now another foot and a half taller with a swing gate door to get in, as they could hop out of it no problem – unlike my senior bunny who was in before she passed.

Now that there is 2 of them I am hoping to expand it a bit more – I can probably expand it by about another 4 feet while still being able to fit the couch in lol. 

My plan is to replace the carpet and do all of those changes once they are going to be able to share it so that its more “neutral” territory. 

[sarahthegemini]

Yep, that’s the picture I remembered!

Your plan sounds awesome, lucky buns!

[Nutmeg]

hahah thanks Sarah!

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