How long have you been bonding?

[Dalielah]

Just curious for those who are actively bonding their buns right now… How long have you been working on bonding? What are their genders?

[BarbaraC]

Male and female, neutered and spayed. We added Fifi to our family about a month ago and since they had such a good first introduction we began bonding right away. Everything went well until we moved them from a small neutral space to an x pen in the room they share. Then the fighting began. So we decided to back off the bonding for a few weeks and just have them housed next to each other. First we had their x pens next to each other with an inch in between. After a week of them flopping next to each other we went down to a shared fence between them. After another week of this they were grooming each other through the fencing so yesterday we put them back in the neutral territory and they spent 8 hours together with no mounting or fighting and tons of grooming from both parties! They have been together 6 hours so far today and they have been snuggling and grooming. Everything is going so smoothly. I am planning to move them into the x pen in the room they are housed in for the rest of the week and then next weekend join their x pens together. If that goes well we’ll try overnights.

Giving them extra time to let them get to know each other has been paying off. I am so glad I decided to back off active bonding for a little while.

[Ness]

2 altered males. After neutering I left them for 2 months just in cages next to each other and swapped toys and litter boxes every now and again. Once the 2 months were passed it probably took me another 4 months to get them bonded although they were separate for at least 6 weeks of that time as one broke his foot during the process. Once they had gotten past the fighting stage the process was pretty quick and I think within 2 weeks they were happily living together.
Read the bonding journals – they can be incredibly helpful.

[hiskatey93]

I’m bonding a male and female. He is neutered, and she was spayed about two week ago now. This is day 3 and I think I got insanely lucky. They have not had to be separated the past 3 days, only slight scuffles, which end with snuggling and grooming, and there is an overabundance of cuddles. No bites, no fights, no hurt feelings. They mesh perfectly together, and as I’m typing Speckles is covering Chom in her kisses.

[rayray]

Male & female. Both fixed. They are bonded now but I didn’t really have to do anything with them. They got on right away. Ziggy was cleaning Lily as soon as I put her in the same room. He still chins her ears. lol!

[vanessa]

Current (3rd) pair – I’m going on 2 months. Week 1 – let the new bunny get use to his space. Week 2 – small introductions, and a few huge fights. 2 weeks of get-to-know through the fence. 2 weeks of small introductions working up to a 4 or 5 days living with eachother in the bonding space. Needed a break – so 1 week off. Back to it for another week, and it looks like we are over the hump. Still more work to do. With the speed they have been going at, I anticipate another month. We’ll see… (Male/female, both fixed).

Previous (2nd) pair – She is his mother. They are both fixed. I separated them for 3 months – which is plenty of time for a bunny to unbond. (It was either between 3-6 months, I can’t quite remember how long it was). When I put them back together, all I did was put her in his enclosure. He tried to mount her for a few days, she ignored him for about 2 weeks (She is the most aloof of my buns). By their 4-week mark they were bonded. I didn’t do slow introductions – I just put them together. No scuffles. It was super smooth.

Previous (1st) pair – Male and current female. Both fixed. They had met before – she had 2 litters with him. They lived separately, within sight of each other, and I let him roam free most of his life, so he chose to hang out next to her enclosure. So they knew each other in that sense. After they were fixed – I put her in his enclosure. He tried to mount her for a few days, and she tried to run away from him. No scuffles or nips. After 4 days they had settled down and were snuggling. By 2 weeks they were the snuggliest pair I had ever seen. He would periodically mount her after that, and she sat for him every time. They were incredibly close. He passed away – which brings her to my current (3rd) pair, and most difficult bonding.

[deadneonflies]

Zee and Ripley are on day 4 of bonding.  Both female, spayed.  We have only been doing small dates through a neutral space for them so far.  Outside of dating, they share a cage, but with a divider, that way we can remove the divider when ready to share home when bonded.  Early this morning, Zee broke into Ripleys side of the cage and they had a huge fight.  No one was hurt, but they definitely got into a scuffle, kinda set back our bonding process.  Hopefully this won’t take too long.  But glad to know others have had to do this for a long time before success.

[Masaka]

6 months! They’ve had periods of significant progress, but then we’ve had to separate them and start over. Finally, this week, they were done fighting. In fact, they were cuddling together, grroming each other and binkying around together and we considered them fully bonded. But, now it looks like we’ll have to separate them for a week or so, because he has some wounds that need to heal and she’s obsessed with picking at them. Hopefully they’ll remember their happy week together when it’s time to try again, and we’ll have an easier time of it.

This is probably the epic nightmare bond of all times.

[deadneonflies]

This actually gives me hope in a weird way.  I’ve been having a terrible time bonding and have even considered the possibility of them never bonding and having to give back Ripley, but to see yours making such good progress in all their set backs, gives me hope with mine.  Its been 1 month now exactly and they still nip and sometimes fight, but they have their good moments on occasion too.

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