Is this normal behaviour?

[Dusty's Momma]

I have just recently started to try bond my two buns. They are both 7 months old and neutered, male and female. I have had Dusty for 4 months and we have Ella 2 weeks now. She has fully settled in by staying in a separate room from Dusty with her own cage. We just moved them into the same room 3 days ago. This room has always been Dusty’s living space. Ella has her cage and a pen around it with another pen around that to make sure dusty cannot get too close. Dusty then has his cage and access to the rest of the living space (they are currently in my living/dining room).

Ella doesn’t seem to be too fussed by him. Sometimes she runs up to the side of the pen and scratches at it when he is sniffing around that area but most times she doesn’t appear that bothered by him and will just lie down or flop by the side of the pen. In fact many times she will lie down right in front of him. Dusty on the other hand can’t sit still and can’t focus on anything else but her. He is obsessed! If she moves then he moves, following her everywhere. He desperately wants to get in at her and I’m struggling to tell if he’s just excited or if there is aggression there.he won’t lie near her or relax he just runs around the pen constantly trying to get to her.

Sometimes when I notice he is getting too excited (usually after they eat their veg side by side) he tries to dig at the pen to get in he will grunt at me if I try to stop him by gently nudging him away. He can grunt at me sometimes when he really wants something like to get into my bedroom or dig the sofa and I gently nudge him out of the way so it’s not a behaviour I haven’t seen before it just seems to be his stubborn personality.

I have given him a towel she has been lying on. He rubbed his chin all over it and dug it up but no mounting or over aggressive behaviour that I can tell anyway.

My concerns lie around Dusty and if sharing the same living space despite the pens is too much stress on him? Is his behaviour normal? Is a good or bad sign? Will he calm down over the next couple of days/weeks? Is there anything I am doing wrong or something I can do to make this process easier for both of them?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Nutmeg]

Hi!
I’m not a huge expert (in the middle of bonding my guys myself) but a lot of that sounds pretty normal. He is most likely slightly territorial (chinning and digging at the towel that smells like her) as its always been his space. But it doesn’t sound overly aggressive. Sometimes you wont know until you try your first face to face “bunny date” – but you aren’t there yet.

So what you need to do now – to try and knock some of that territorial behavour out – is pre-bonding. (You can skip the bellow if you already know what that is lol)

Spend the next week swapping items (toys / litter boxes) between their cages… watch for reactions. If there is any, keep doing this until there isn’t. If no reaction, or the reactions have stopped, after that week you need to start fully swapping their cage/living space daily.
This will cause two things to happen:

1) They are used to the other rabbits smell everywhere
2) They start to lose track of what is theirs alone, as nothing smells like just them anymore.

Do that for about 3 weeks (so a month of pre-bonding total)

Then, depending on how they are reacting to swapping spaces, you should be ready to try face-to-face dates in 100% neutral territory.

** Biggest thing that helped for me was making sure it was somewhere where they couldn’t even SMELL their home turf anymore. When I first had them out together it wasn’t far enough away – so it was still “Semi-Neutral” instead of fully neutral.

[Dusty's Momma]

Thank you Nutmeg. Sorry it has taken me a while to reply. I really appreciated your message. It actually gave me the reassurance I needed this week. I was really worried we had made a bad decision trying to bond Dusty but he has really settled down over the last couple of days. The buns will now on occasion lie side by side (with the 2 pens in between). I’m hoping that’s a good sign. Dusty was also being extra destructive and that has now stopped. When I let him out in the morning he will go over and stomp at her cage but I am assuming that is him showing his dominance. The rest of the day he acts normal. 

Next week I will slowly start the process of swapping their items like you suggested.

I hope you’re bonding is going well! 

[Nutmeg]

Awww that’s great news!! No aggression through cages – even so early on – is still a really good sign!

Things are going a bit better over here! 3 hours in and only 2 face-hump attempts!! ( not something I thought I would ever actually say LOL)
Going to try a full 8 hours tmrw!

Good luck to us both! Lol and keep us posted!!

[Author]

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