How “hands on” (literally) should I be while bonding?

[godzlini]

My main question is how much should I be involved with petting the rabbits while trying to bond them to each other? Does my interference help or hinder them getting to know each other?

The short of the long of it is since we started trying to bond our first ~5yo male rabbit Fluff with a new 2yo female Baby Girl (yes, they’re both fixed), they have had a number of bad biting encounters (one time Fluff escaped his cage during the night and they fought through the pen; another time when they had a tussle, he ripped out some of her fur with skin attached), so we took a long break from bonding them, only switched their cages every day but did no face-to-face dates, and are now trying to go back to it.

Baby Girl still initiates nipping whenever we put them together and try a “hands off” approach to let them figure each other out, I think because she has some antagonistic associations with Fluff. Fluff does not initiate but once she starts biting him, he retaliates and the nipping will escalate if we don’t step in. Some people had suggested putting food or treats nearby, but they ignore those when we put them together. So, instead, for the last several days, my husband and I have put them together and then immediately initiated petting both rabbits, side by side. They both settle in because they both love being pet, and we can smoosh them together while we pet them for fifteen minutes.

I am hoping that this overrides any remaining negative associations they have with each other before we let them have more hands-off dates, but wanted to check with other, more experienced bonders: Is this a good way to get them to a more friendly association with each other? Or is it more of a “crutch” that will backfire later? Then, how do we move on from this step?

Thank you for help!

[Sirius&Luna]

This is exactly what I did. I have one very territorial and aggressive female, and two boys. For the first bonding sessions, I literally didn’t take my hand off her head. I kept petting her, and let the boys hop around her. If she tried to lunge, my hand was there. After a few sessions like that, I moved on to just petting her if she tried to lunge, then keeping my hand between their faces when they got close to each other. Eventually, I trusted her enough to step back a bit. They are now a happily bonded trio! So in my experience, it’s a good way of getting a tricky rabbit to trust the rabbits around them, and teaching the ‘bullied’ rabbit that the other one isn’t a threat to them anymore.

If I was you, I would start to back off the petting next to each other method, now you’ve done it for a few days, and let them hop around each other, but keep your hand between their faces at all times so there’s no nipping. Once you’ve done that for a few days, hopefully you’ll see a reduction in attempts to nip and you’ll feel secure in moving your hand a bit further away, etc.

Some people do believe in a more hands off approach, and think interfering too much will stop the rabbits bonding, but in my experience, with a tricky rabbit, managing the experience makes it easier for everyone involved. It might make the process slower, but I also think lots of rabbits don’t bond when the process is rushed.

[godzlini]

Thank you for your reply! This makes me feel better, because I do think these two needed some assistance getting comfortable with each other. We will start easing away and letting them interact again this weekend

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