How do I know when to put them in the same cage?

[KodaBear]

Hi, I recently adopted a female bunny to bond with my two year old male & I’m not sure when or how to know if they’re officially ‘bonded’. They’ve met lots over the past week and a half on neutral territory where they just kind of ignored each other and occasionally the female would stomp her feet.

Right now the male tries to hump her every now and then, but they’ve never bit or fought at all. She went in his cage a couple times now and they just kind of rub heads then go on their own ways.

[tobyluv]

I assume that your bunnies are spayed and neutered. You should keep working with them until there is no more foot stomping and hopefully no more humping, although humping can be an occasional thing even with bonded bunnies. You should wait until they have been eating together, snuggling and grooming each other for a while, before caging them together. When you do cage them for the first time, it should be a time when you are home and awake so that you can keep an eye on them. There is no particular time frame when you can put them together in a cage. Each case will be different, and hopefully there will be clear signs that they are bonded and want to be together.

[flemishwhite]

It reads like your bunnies are on the way to getting along with each other. 

 Two comments about our two Flemish sisters.

(1) At the age of about 3 months or so, we kept the sisters in a pen at night. One night there was a fight and there was tuffs of bunny hair in the pen. We awoke from the scuffling. From that night on, we never kept them penned up, we kept the door open. From that time on, they have been free to run the house 24 hours/7 days.. Amazingly, free to leave their pen, they have..even now at 10 months like to spend time in the pen now that the door is always open.  

(2) Humping. Although one sister is dominant, amazingly the submissive sister will occasionally hump her dominant sister! I’ve never seen this, but my wife has. The dominant sister quickly jumps to get rid of the other sister.  This is even though they are neutered.

I’ve read posts where people express their opinion that humping is a sign of dominance among rabbits.  Actually, I wonder if it’s really just a sign of friendliness.  I have read that when rabbits meet, they will take turns humping each other.  Of course, when the boy rabbit humps the girl…it’s payday!  

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