I seem to have two alphas. Any hints for helping them along?

[KimWho?]

I adopted a male a few months ago, who’s my strong-willed, very smart but super sweet boy. Two weeks ago he had a blind date with a fairly relaxed girl, which included a little bit of her boxing him and a whole lot of her ignoring him while he stuck his head out demanding grooming. I brought them home, and as frequently happens, he was a holy terror, lunging and grabbing fur. These sessions only lasted a few minutes because I didn’t want to create a negative cycle or have her become fearful. We gave it a break for about a week and then tried it again. Their first session back together they calmly sat near each other in the tub. A little banana baby food on both heads resulted in some grooming for her but not him. They’ve been having daily bathtub sessions where she lays rather relaxed and he lays a tiny bit tense and they’re nose to nose with heads extended. They’re calm as I pet them both occasionally, but eventually she usually gets annoyed and boxes him. If I place them side by side and pet, they’ll stay relaxed there until I stop pettitng and someone, generally her, moves away. One time, she delivered some rather rough grooming to his head with the sticky remains of baby food, pulling out some fur, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. 

I know it’s still very early and their willingness to be near each other and be relaxed is a good thing. I’m just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience where two buns seem to be waiting for each other to give in and accept the lower position, and if there’s anything I should be doing differently to encourage them.

[Monkeybun]

My buns can’t seem to make up their minds who is the alpha either. I’ve been using NIC grids made into a cube as a bonding area, just 6 grids put together to make one sturdy little box. There isn’t enough room in it to lunge or box, so it’s been working nicely. Lots of grooming has been going on in it

The smaller space may work well for your 2, as it makes them stay close to each other, and gives no room for running. I’ll see if I can dig up a pic of my 2 in it to give you an idea.

[Monkeybun]

Here’s one of them in the cube.

For sizes, my dutch is 4lbs, my nethie is 1.5lbs, larger bunnies take up more room in the cube

[kralspace]

Hi KimWho and welcome!

Monkeybun, that’s a whole lot of ignoring going on there 😉

[Monkeybun]

lol yeah. That was from months ago, during the first set of cube sessions before Moosie’s stasis. Now there’s lots of loafing and flopping and grooming going on

Oh,a nd they both always perk up and listen and watch when the TV is on We have surround sound, so they hear everything from both sides lol. Monkey gets excited when hubby is playing his racing games :p

[jerseygirl]

MB, love that pic!

KimWho, all I can suggest is just more and more sessions together until they can establish a pattern between them. It’s really going to be them that needs to develop and sort their relationship. The only thing we can really do is provide opportunities for them to do that. Meaning time together in neutral space. It can seem like nothing is happening and then all of a sudden there is a significant change.

[KimWho?]

Just an update. I went with nightly 30 to 45 minute bathtub sessions, where things became harmonious quite quickly, and we’re now at the point where they can spend two or three hours on the bathroom floor together with me within earshot but not exactly supervising. There are no scuffles at all.. they mostly just flop on opposite sides of the small room. After a few hours, my original bunny usually somehow escapes(he’s always been quite the escape artist.. he mastered unlatching his pen on his second day in my home) to come be where I am/run around. The only real aggression between them occurred during the first few days. After that, there was a little bit of boxing and gentle nipping, but they’ve never had a serious fight(in the beginning I broke it up before it happened, and now they don’t even try) and seem very relaxed around each other.

Should I move to semi-neutral space now, or would it be better to continue extending the amount of time they spend together? They’ve been peacefully ignoring each other for about two weeks now, so I’m assuming moving forward is probably best at this point. Am I correct?

[Deleted User]

I would move up to another space, but neutral is always better than semi-neutral. If you don’t have neutral, try the space you are thinking of using, and observe.

[Author]

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