First time bonding… Nervous!

[QueenTwitch]

Hi everyone!

I’ve never bonded bunnies before so need some reassurance! Have read all the bonding info from BB 

I’ve now got two part-giant bunnies, both girls, and want to bond them. Twitch is 1, spayed and 3.6kg – Lugsy is 14 weeks, obvs not spayed yet but will be, and is 1.4kg. Their cages/playpens have been three inches apart for 10 days now, and they’ve had a good long time spent near each other, by their choice. Twitch is allowed outside her playpen into the room, so Lugsy’s pen has a double layer of panels so Twitch can’t reach her at any point. Both are allowed in their playpens all day and night – neither are shut in their cages at night.

When she’s out of her playpen, Twitch generally chooses to sit near Lugsy and watch her, which seems to be a good sign – when one binkies around, the other one usually does too, so I’m taking that as a good sign. Their cages and pens are in Twitch’s original room, which they will be sharing when bonded.

So my main question is will their relative sizes make a big difference when we bond them together? We plan to start in the bathtub, and we’ve got a big sieve to help separate them when needed! Lugsy will be the same size as Twitch when she’s bigger, but obviously at the moment is less than half Twitch’s weight!

UPDATE: put them together in the bathtub for 5 minutes, they were indifferent at first, then Lugsy started humping Twitch, she wasn’t keen after a while and started going for Lugsy, so I pulled her off, and it turns out… Lugsy is definitely a boy! So 3 vet checks didn’t spot it, better call them tomorrow…!

Here they are 

[NuggetBuns]

Twitch!!! Omg, she’s gotten quite heavy, that’s like almost 8lbs! Nugget is about 7lbs or so. Your new bun looks so similar to Twitch in the photo, so cute! It sounds like you’re doing all the right things as far as pre-bonding goes. The more they interact with each other by the fence, the easier it will be when you start bonding sessions, usually anyway. I don’t think size really matters, but I guess I’d be careful if Twitch starts asserting her dominance over the little one. Nugget hardly ever mounts Emilee, who is half his size, and sometimes I think it’s because he knows he would be too heavy for her lol. The only thing that concerns me is after your new bun gets spayed, she might smell different to Twitch, but perhaps it won’t matter since you would still be in the pre-bonding stages.

Looking forward to seeing more pics of Twitch and Lugsy!

[QueenTwitch]

Hi NB! Twitch is massive now, and still growing too… Surely she should have stopped by 1 year 3 months! Lugsy is more than likely her sister, as they came from the same place and are identical except for colour. Lugsy is much more brown to Twitch’s grey.

Thank you for the advice – do you think if they’re bonded by the spay that Twitch might reject Lugsy and they’d need rebonding?

Will find more pics!

[QueenTwitch]

Lugsy “I collapse where I am”:

Twitch – “I’m sorry, Mummy – whose bed??”:

[NuggetBuns]

Both your girls are gorgeous! I especially love Twitch’s fur color, so beautiful. Every rabbit is different so no one can be sure if Twitch and Lugsy’s relationship will change or not after the spay.

If I were in your position, I would wait a few weeks after Lugsy’s spay for any remaining hormones to die down before letting them meet for a real bonding session. I guess I’ve read too many bonding stories where a bond was broken after being fixed or a bunny was still hormone crazy and they would start fights all the time. Personally, I wouldn’t risk getting into either situation and waiting could increase the chances of a better bond. I would keep the setup you have right now, that’s actually how my pair lived for about 3 weeks before they were officially bonded.

It is up to you though, I can tell you really want to start bonding (I was impatient too so I understand).

[QueenTwitch]

Thank you 🙂 think we will definitely wait now – we’ve discovered Lugsy is actually a boy… Despite vets saying otherwise, but then rabbits are hard to determine. 

Does male-female bonding differ from female-female? 

How is your fluff bun?

[NuggetBuns]

Lugsy grew some balls eh? That happened to us with Nugget when he was 5-6 months old and he looked so embarrassed as we kept poking at his manhood. At least you don’t have to change his name, Lugsy sounds more like a male name to me.

I think after they’re fixed and you take hormones out of the equation, all bonding is the same. They always say opposite gender bonding is easier but I think it has a lot more to do with their personalities, whether they’re compatible or not.

Nugget is doing great and has a wife bun now. They have opposite personalities, Nugget is more social, affectionate, laid back, and intelligent than Emilee, but they get along very well. More recently Emilee has been mounting him a lot (maybe to put him in his place since she is 2 years older than him), but she always goes for his face! Like an idiot, he just bows down and lets her but we push her off or move her to his butt when it happens. After reading others’ accounts on this forum, it seems to be a common thing among bonded pairs. I’m sure you’ll start seeing it once you start bonding. Someone always wants to be the boss.

[QueenTwitch]

He did – funnily enough, it is a male name by origin – we were first told he was a boy when we got him and so named him as such, but then the vet said girl and we’ve discovered now he’s a boy again! So the name fits properly after all, and I wanted a boy to go with Twitch so that works out.

Aww Emilee sounds as gorgeous as Nugget is! Have you got some pics of her? Will go hunting  We gave Twitch a stuffed toy for a while and she did that to it, mounted its head. I’ve got a feeling Lugsy will be the boss, though, as he’s exactly like Twitch was when she was little, she’s more docile now.

[NuggetBuns]

Oh that makes sense now haha. It must have been crazy switching genders so many times, but happy everything worked out in the end. We also gave Nugget a big strawberry plush toy to hump. He always tried to hump my leg and it got pretty annoying. He hardly ever does it now and even though Emilee has been spayed longer than Nugget’s whole life, she is actually more active and humps all the time.

I have too many photos of her actually  I made a blog for Nugget when he was little and have been posting pics ever since. Here’s the archive (easy to browse and click to enlarge photo): http://nuggetbuns.tumblr.com/archive 

[QueenTwitch]

They are such a gorgeous pair! I particularly love the pics from last hallowe’en! Not sure why but the big fluffy feet are the cutest things for me, and yours have gorgeous paws. Squee ^_^

Lugsy is already a mummy’s boy – I go in and he wants to be cuddled, my fiancé goes in and he runs away. Which is good because Twitch prefers my fiancé anyway! We’ve got a soft toy for Lugsy, first one Twitch had and hated and so far he’s not keen on it either…

Awkward pair 😀

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