HELP With bonding

[Nathan]

HI,

Both are male bunnies just about the age of 1 and both neutered.  i introduced them with a car ride.  seemed to ignore each other the whole ride.  i have them in separate cages in the same room.  i tried giving them face to face introductions a few times where they had to be separated by spraying with water a few times because of fighting.  i let them out in the yard for exercise each day and they just do there own thing with out bothering each other.  then when i put them in a neutral room now the one male bunny(ty) will chase the other male (benny) and bite his back pulling out clumps of fur.  Benny seems scared of Ty.  Is this a sign they will never bond?  or are there any other suggestions to bond them? any help is appreciated.  

thanks,

[Mikey]

Since one is scared of the other, youll need to keep them completely apart for about a month. Completely apart meaning different rooms for each bunny so they cannot see or smell one another for a full month.

After this month, youll have to do prebonding . Prebonding is when you have their cages next to eachother, but about 10 inches apart so they can see and smell one another, but cannot reach. Youll have them in this set up for another month. After this month (now two months in), youll start swapping them between cages. So every even night, bunny1 is in cage1 and bunny2 is in cage2; every odd night, bunny1 is in cage2 and bunny2 is in cage1. Youll do this swapping for a month or two.

After the prebonding stage (now three to four months in), you can begin bonding. Bonding has to be done in a room that neither bunny has been in before. Youll start with multiple short sessions per day and slowly increase their time together in this space so long as they are not aggressive. Youll continue bonding daily or almost daily until they can go up to 4+ hours together without any aggression in that neutral space.

After the neutral space bonding, youll start the same bonding tactics in their future shared space. Again, youll start with multiple short sessions and slowly escalate over time until they can now spend 8+ hours together without any aggression. At that point, you will want to do a 48 hour trial where you sleep outside of their shared cage and stay with them the full 48 hours. If there is absolutely no aggression during this time, you can likely consider them bonded.

[Bam]

All bondings are different and there are no rules set in stone. Different people have different approaches and all bunny constellations are different. Please have a look around in the bonding section for bonding stories. You have to adapt the method you use to the response of the rabbits, so it’s a highly dynamic process.

For now, I think you need to separate the buns and take a step back. Bonding is stressful, and stress build-up results in enhanced aggression (fight-and flight response). It has to do with cortisol (stress hormone). Let them calm down properly for a while now, then try pre-bonding.

[Author]

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