How soon to bond after spay?

[Buneary]

Hi all!! I posted a while back asking for advice on bonding my baby bun Chibi, and my 6 month spayed bun Buneary. A lot of the advice I got was to separate them until Chibi was spayed for many reasons, so I followed that advice. Chibi and Buneary have been living in separate cages near each other and they share a play pen connected to both their cages, coming out at different times of course. At first Buneary would try to bite her through the cage bars, but that behavior for the most part has diminished and they’ve gone so far as to booping each other’s noses through the bars and sniffing each other like crazy. Although there is still the occasional nip when Chibi gets too close for too long. Buneary has also stopped marking her territory everywhere for the most part, it’s just Chibi now still learning to be litter trained. I have a feeling she is getting used to the idea of sharing her space with another bun, I just don’t know if she’s okay with the idea of REALLY sharing it. I see potential in their relationship, Chibi absolutely loves her, it’s just getting Buneary to like her back.. anyways, Chibi is turning 4 months on the 30th of this month. We have already set up her spay appointment with our local shelter (our shelter offers low spay costs at $90, unlike the $275 bun vet here.) I asked them the earliest they will spay and they said 4 months, but the day of the appointment of course they will check if she’s developed enough. Her surgery date is the on the 31st. My question is how soon after she is spayed can I start the bonding process? Would it be helpful to switch their cages from time to time after she’s spayed before I start bonding? They have been living together for a month now. I know I need to be patient, but my goal is to bond them as soon as they can, because i hate seeing one of them playing out of their cage and the other wishing they were out too. Thanks for reading and please leave any advice, tips, and tricks you have for my situation!

[Hazelbunny]

I would introduce them after a little bit more than a month after surgery, you have to wait until her belly heals and for her hormones to chill out a bit. After she heals you can switch the cages and let them get used to each others smell. A little after a month yountil can introduce them and if fighting happens stop it right away, and if you see humping in the bonding process just know it’s normal and leave them to do what they gotta do.(the humping is a dominance thing)

[Buneary]

Thank you!! Yes, I will definitely wait until she’s healed. Could you define what ‘fighting’ looks like? Sometimes my older one will nip the other one but stop after she gets a few nips in. Should I stop her when she nips? Is chasing allowed?

[Harley&Thumper]

This presentation has a lot of good information on bonding
http://rabbit.org/articles/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Bonding-Bunnies-PPforrabbit.org_.pdf

If they are circling each other as fast as they can you need to break that up immediately.

[Harley&Thumper]

Sorry double post

[sarahthegemini]

It can be tricky knowing when to intervene but as a general rule – nipping is okay and mild chasing (mine chase each other occasionally, it’s pretty uneventful) but if it escalates, it must be stopped. By escalate I mean chasing eachother at full speed, chasing each other in a tight circle trying to bite the other’s bum, lunging, growling etc.

[Buneary]

Thank you both Also- is one month the minimum? Is that to give time for her to heal or to let the hormones die down, or both? When my other bun was spayed she was back to normal at 2 weeks, and the stitches had disappeared by the third week. And would switching cages right after spay be pointless since she still has hormones in her? I’ve been told they have a totally different smell when they have hormones, so switching cages wouldn’t help. Is this true?

[sarahthegemini]

One month minimum yeah. It can take quite a few months – up to 6 for a female’s hormones to disipate although I think that’s the most extreme. I had my female spayed December 2nd 2016, and my boy 13th December 2016. I waited a month after that but neither of mine had a post spay/neuter hormonal craze.

I actually swapped my buns around from the moment I seperated them, whilst they were waiting for surgery, whilst healing etc etc. I don’t think it’d hurt to start swapping things right away. They’ll smell different after the hormones have disipated but it’ll be gradual, not an instant change

[Author]

Messages