Help! Is this living situation OK?

[jmdb]

Spay/Neuter

Bunny 1: Monkey, female, 8 months old. Spayed 3.5 weeks ago.

Bunny 2: Tokki, male, 3 months old. Getting neutered in a few weeks.

 

Housing

Monkey is free roam. She is allowed in all rooms except for the bathrooms and master bedroom when supervised. When we are out, she has free roam of the spare bedroom, where her bed, litter, food etc is.

I brought Tokki home 5 days ago. At first, I set him up a room in our guest bathroom. Monkey has never been in there, but it is connected to the hallway, which she has free roam of.

I set up a double barrier wall – one part c&c wall and one part wooden panel so they couldn’t see each other.

By the second day, the pooping was getting out of control and Monkey bit us a couple times. So, on the advice of a forum member, we decided to move Tokki into the master bedroom at least until he’s neutered.

Monkey has improved but is still pooping outside our bedroom door. I’m sure she knows he’s in there, even though she’s never seen him.

 

Bonding background
Not yet started.

 

Hi everyone,

I’m prepping for my first bond and already getting nervous. I’m describing the situation using the template (above) but my question is: is it okay to have this setup for now? And will Monkey stop acting hormonally once Tokki is neutered?

I just read on another thread that bringing an unneutered bunny into the house can make a neutered bunny start acting hormonally. We thought moving Tokki to a room Monkey has never been into and completely out of sight would fix it, but she’s still being very territorial (circling our feet, grunting and lunging a little – I’m living in fear of being bitten!).

Is it okay to continue with Tokki in the bedroom? Or are they too close? I don’t want to restrict Monkey to her bedroom and the balcony only, but I’m also wondering if this might help. Should I wait it out and see if her hormones subside once she gets used to him or is this going to hurt future bonding efforts?

The other thought we had is whether it would be better to have Tokki live at our office (we own a business that has a living area downstairs) until he’s neutered. He would have company all day but have to be alone all night, so it seems like it would be cruel to me. However, I don’t know if this current setup is stressing out Monkey.

This is my first time bonding bunnies so I really don’t want to get it wrong. I know we’re at least 2 months from bonding given that he won’t be neutered for another 3-4 weeks, so I want to figure out how to handle it best until then.

 

 

[Wick & Fable]

Rabbits have incredible senses compared to us, so at this point it’s probably impossible to hide the rabbits’ presence from each other. Unfortunately, the behavior she is displaying will likely stay as long as that perception of him is here, so if you’re brainstorming actions to try and prevent it, it might be a futile effort. Something you can try is swapping clothes whenever you interact with him, so the scent isn’t on you as much, if she is biting you as a result.

What you can try in the meantime to maybe help them get acquainted with each other’s scents is swapping litter boxes and toys. It might help her get used to the other scent and maybe she’ll be less reactive towards it, but that’s not guaranteed.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[jmdb]

Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it.

 

We’ve been swapping our clothes and showering when going between the rooms but I’m sure she still picks up his scent.

I wasn’t sure whether it’s better to let them get used to each other’s scent, as you suggest, or to temporarily move Tokki out of the house until it’s time to start bonding.

Monkey does seem to be less and less interested/bothered if the decreasing number of poops is anything to go by!

[Wick & Fable]

Regarding whether to move him out of the house I think more so depends on what you think will be less stressful for both of them, and also you! A rabbit pooping around a lot doesn’t necessarily mean they’re stressed. To an extent, there might be chronic, low stress, but if it’s tolerable until bonding can start, that is something to accept. Prebonding by swapping stuff now might help, as mentioned. It’s good to hear the pooping is decreasing.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[DanaNM]

I think the set-up sounds fine, and with more time she will probably settle down a bit. The pooping might not get better until they are bonded though.

I think it can also be helpful to think about “good stress” vs. “bad stress”. Another rabbit in your territory might be slightly stressful, but in my mind it constitutes a form of ‘good stress’ which can be somewhat enriching. Bad stress would be something like a dog or predator harassing a rabbit, or super loud construction noise, something that makes it fear for its life. If she was upset to the point of not eating or being very aggressive, I would think about modifying things, but it sounds like normal female bunny behavior when a new rabbit shows up.

Hopefully pre-bonding will go smoothly once he’s neutered!

You should start to think about what you will use as neutral territory for bonding. For set-up during bonding, you might find it helps to set up side by side pens where the rabbits live, and swap sides every day. This will help Monkey start to lose track of her territory and even the playing field a bit.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[jmdb]

Thank you Dana, that’s really helpful. Monkey has calmed down a little over the last week – only peeing once a day at most and doing fewer poops around the bedroom door (but still quite a few!). She’s also easier to calm down and distract when she does start getting territorial, so hopefully this is a good sign! The only place she doesn’t poop is in her bedroom, but she will attack us if we go in there with any of Tokki’s scent on us. In the living room, she gets riled up but doesn’t actually attack.

Your advice is really helpful because we do need to think about how the living arrangement will work when we’re reading to begin prebonding and bonding. Since Monkey is so territorial over her bedroom, I wonder if they both will need to live elsewhere until bonded. I can’t imagine Monkey would accept her room being divided in two!

Unfortunately, that will likely mean that she will have to move into some kind of enclosure/pen while bonding, and perhaps even live in the living room or at a friend’s house. I’m already feeling guilty at the thought of restricting her space, but I guess that is just part of the process. There’s no way we could bring Tokki anywhere near her room without a fight.

[DanaNM]

It can be really hard restricting a free-roam bun’s space, but they will adjust, and it’s only temporary!

My go-to arrangement is usually to build temporary NIC cube condos, and then I found these “nose guards” recently that are really helpful for making nip-proof barriers. https://binkybunny.com/forums/topic/nose-guards/

It can also be really helpful to block visual access between buns that are being aggressive towards each other, so that they get used to their scent first. Then you can slowly remove the barrier and it usually goes more smoothly. Once Toki is a couple weeks past neutered you could start litter box swaps and see how that goes. You might even try to use a surrogate stuffy with Toki’s scent on it. You can give Monkey the stuffy and let her attack/sniff/mount it, or whatever she wants to do. Some members have had a lot of success with that, as it lets the more aggressive bun get their frustrations out safely!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[pinkiemarie]

I think unless behavior gets worse you’re probably ok to leave them how they are. I have 3 rabbits and 1 of them has to be  separated and they were all really aggressive at first but it got much better with time. It will be worse for both rabbits until he’s neutered but it isn’t necessarily the end of the world! If Monkey starts chilling out some you can start with various prebonding activities, and if she stays a little on edge for now that’s ok too since he’ll be neutered soon, as long as neither one seems to be on the high stress setting all the time.

[Author]

Messages