Help bonding rabbits?

[keeekline]

 

I have two rabbits, Mopsy (one and a half – two year year old male of unknown mix) and Alba (approx. one year old and thought to be an English Spot).

Mopsy is still intact (although he will be neutered by tomorrow evening), but Alba is desexed.

As I am aware Mopsy’s sexual behaviour would be irritating to Alba, I have only allowed them to meet through a pen with Alba on the inside. Despite this, Alba boxes and bites at Mopsy’s face when he comes close. When they are seperated with a small distance between their enclosures, however, she is either curious about him or completley ignores him.

She is clearly dominant and he is so submissive that I hope this will prove an aid to the relationships with their positions known.

Once, while seperated, I pet them both and they ended up snuggling each other’s heads through the bars. Is this a good sign? She has also allowed him to groom her without attack.

I am concerned though, because she was able to escape the pen and there was a fight.

Mopsy currently lives outside and will until tomorrow while Alba lives inside.

 

I would very much appreciate tips on how to bond them and whether or not this behaviour is common or they are simply not a match.

Thank you. (:

[RabbitPam]

Hi, Keekline,

It sounds OK actually. Glad you’re having Mopsy neutered today – best of luck on a quick recovery. Give him at least a week or more to heal and recover from the surgery before taking more steps in the bonding process. The hormones take a month to die down, and the discomfort will make him cranky at first. You won’t need to wait a month to start bonding, though.

At the top of the page there’s a green banner. Mouse over the words Bunny Info and a drop down menu will pop up. Towards the bottom there is a sectiion about Bonding. I would read that first to get a solid idea on how to start. One bunny is going to be dominant, so it just sounds like Alba is establishing that, but it seems ok so far.

[Beka27]

Very good you’re having your boy neutered and moving him indoors! It will take time for those hormones to decrease, like Pam said. After a week or two of healing, you can maybe begin to switch their pens each day, to get them used to one another’s smell. I would probably suggest waiting the full month tho, to actually do a session.

[Karla]

This sounds just like my Molly and Freddy. Freddy was neutered only 4 days before I brought him home to Molly, who has been spayed for 1 year. I tried to keep Freddy in a seperate room, but Molly managed to open the door and run into him. Of course, Freddy was obsessed about Molly, because he could smell she was a female. He was chasing her around, and it looked as if it was really stressful for her. However, I noticed that once he stopped, she would actually run straight back to him and lift her tail and turn her back to him, so the scent of her was really strong and right up his nose. And then the chase started all over…and it went on and on. So although she clearly did not want him humping her (although if she was eating something nice, no humping crazy bunny could get her to move), she still enjoyed the attention. She would keep wanting to come back into his room.

I actually find that if the hormones are running a bit high, then it is very easy to do bonding between two sexes. So hopefully, your bonding will go smoothly and the fighting was just her way of telling him to stop humping her all the time. Of course, it is irritating to have a guy jump on you constantly. But the grooming is an excellent sign. So, don’t worry, it sounds like a really good starting point.

But yeah, don’t let Mopsy hump Alba as long as he is not properly healed, although I guess he won’t feel the need to anyhow, but depends on how sex-obsessed he is

 

[keeekline]

Thanks guys (:
At the moment, I’ve set up the pen in my bedroom so I can watch them all the time. It’s folded so she has a section and he has a section, but they can’t get to each other.
The first time I put her in there, she went craaaazy and tore up everything. But today she’s been pretty relaxed and I’ve even caught her running over and flopping next to him from time to time.
So, I guess I’ll keep this arrangement going until he’s all healed up and there’re no more hormones (:

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