Impossible to bond?

[Sophie92x]

I have two buns, Pancakes and Noctis and i have had them since October. Both were neutered in November.
They were fine for a couple of months before the fighting started, Pancakes actually bit through Noctis’s ear and obviously ended up getting so stressed out so we decided to separate them.
They now live in hutches/runs which are side by side so they can still smell/see eachother.
We have tried twice to bond them in neutral area, Noctis is still very scared of Pancakes, he will try and sniff at Pancakes but runs away as soon as Pancakes notices him. Pancakes will then try to get behind Noctis and start biting his backside.
I’m assuming that these two cannot be bonded?

[sarahthegemini]

I wouldn’t assume they can’t be bonded just yet, but I do think it would be helpful to separate them completely so that they cannot see or smell each other. Really what you want is for them to forget each other. So put them in different rooms for a month or two and then begin pre bonding. Hopefully the time spent completely apart will allow them to forget that they have fought.

[Mikey]

Sarah is right. When a rabbit is attacked like that, they will not bond to their attacker. You need them to forget about one another if you want them to bond.

They need to be in different rooms so they cannot see one another. Wash your hands after being with one bun, so you dont carry the smell over to the second bun so they cannot smell one another. Dont swap items. Youll need to keep them like this for 2+ (up to six months; if after six months the grudge and fear is still there, they will not be able to bond) months. After those 2+ months, put their cages and runs next to one another again, about 10 inches apart. Start swapping their items. Youll do this prebonding for another month or two. After the prebonding, you can try bonding in a neutral space again.

[Author]

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