Ignoring Each Other – Any Tips?

[Fudge and Willow]

Hi everyone

I have started to re-bond my two girls, and things are going well, just slow.  Yesterday, they managed an hour without fighting, but they didn’t do much else!  There were 2 nips to the butt, and a few stand offs.  The set up is a blanket on the floor (kitchen floor is slippery) with some pellets on it to encourage eating together, their two litter boxes, two bowls of water and a hidey hole.  

They are both stubborn little madams and both want to be in charge!  They both bow their heads to be groomed and they just stay there for about 30 seconds, neither gives in and then they go there separate ways.  About 15 mins later they find each other again, stand off for 30 secs and then separate again.  They go to eat from their litter box, and go to flop out, next to each other which is a good thing I guess.

I know that nothing will progress until they establish a dominant bun, but do you think I should intervene, perhaps make the space smaller?  The stressful car trip/in the bath thing thing DID NOT work, and made both the buns stressed and agitated, so they went for each other.  Perhaps I should take out one of the litter trays to force them together to eat hay from just one?  Or forget the litter trays and just have one hay rack which they both have to eat out of?

Any tips?

TIA

[Maddie Rae]

My buns are doing just about exactly the same thing right now. What I’ve read is definitely time, more time together and continuous sessions, will do the trick. The bathtub thing was more successful with my bunnies, they didn’t fight at all in there. I think smaller spaces, at least in my experience, prove to be more effective in this type of situation. And as for the litter tray I personally will only give them one. Good luck!

[vanessa]

Sounds similar to what I’m going thru. Lancelot ignores Guinevere because she attacked him in their first few sessions. Today she tried to nip him, and he hopped away and turned his back to her. Active ignoring… I think definitely time time time. Whether I see small improvements, or just her content and him not afraid, it’s one more session to convince him that she won’t attack. Hopefully he will eventually stop ignoring her and respond to her grooming requests. He did once put his head under her chin. So one step in the right direction. That was only possible with time, and positive bonding sessions. But the ignoring is definitely frustrating for me. I have to keep reminding myself… time, time, time, and positive bonding sessions. Good luck. Please keep us posted. I’d love to hear how your experience works out 🙂

[LBJ10]

Ignoring isn’t a bad thing where bonding is concerned.

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