Looking for Reassurance

[Ella Bean]

Hi – 

I recently (5 days ago – Monday) got a second bunny from a nearby rescue hoping to pair him up with my girl Ella.  Ella has been long spayed and Henry, the new male was neutered about 2 weeks before I got him.  They are staying in pens that are about a foot apart and I’ve been switching which pen they are in each day.  They’ve had 3 “dates” in a neutral location.  

Date 1:  Was Tuesday night, the day after Henry came to live with us.  It went okay.  Ella was mostly passive and Henry was hot to trot.  He was really into the humping and very interested in Ella to a degree that I thought (along with some other signs) that he might still have some hormones raging.  This lasted about 15 minutes and both I and the bunnies were exhausted and breathing hard at the end.  

– Because of the suspicion of raging hormones and because I wanted to just give them a little more time in their side-by-side pens to get used to each other, we took Wednesday off.

Date 2:  Was Thursday night and kind of a disaster – mostly my fault.  Long story short by the time Henry got in the neutral spot he was pretty stressed and so was kind of frozen.  Ella on the hand had gotten her feistiness back and was lunging at his face and trying to bite and every time she did that or even looked like she was going to do this I would shove a dustpan in between them which would understandably piss Ella off and she’d box it and hop away.  I only let this one go about 5-10 minutes.

Date 3: Was tonight, Friday.  I decided that I was being too jumpy and nervous and I resolved to try not to step in unless things really looked like they were escalating.  Again, Ella came out rarin’ to go. Every time they would come nose to nose she would sniff for a couple seconds than go in for bite.  Henry fought back a little this time.  I intervened a little less and only when things looked like they were going to escalate.  At time it looked pretty violent to me but there was no skin broken or blood just some fur pulled out.  After a pretty short while they mostly just sat across the pen from each other.  They weren’t exactly ignoring each other but they weren’t facing off and approaching.  Henry tried approaching a time or two but each time Ella lashed out.  In the end he looked like he was scared to go near her.  I gave them both lots of pets to try and bring the stress level down. The whole session was about 20-30 minutes.  

Sorry for the book! So does this sounds pretty typical?  Anything I can or should do, to encourage Ella not to be so beotchy?  Since I got her I’ve thought she had a pretty feisty personality and she’s definitely and unfortunately a biter.  I was hoping that was just with me because I’m so bad at being a bunny.  I especially want her to chill because she’s a giant French Lop (13 lbs) and Henry is ~8 lbs.    Photos of the two of them because they’re cute.  Ella first then Henry.

 

[Mikey]

You gotta slow down. Youre moving very fast and its only going to cause more problems. Henry needs atleast 2 full weeks to settle into his home (1 month recommended, though). After that 2 to 4 weeks of them in separate homes so Henry can settle in, you have to do 1 to 2 months of prebonding. Prebonding is keeping their cages/pens close to one another and swapping their litter boxes, toys, and bowls every night or every morning. You can only attempt bonding after youve taken these steps, or else you risk a lot of problems which can eventually lead to them never bonding. Bonding takes patience

When it is time to start bonding, you need to start in a neutral area. You also need to stop ALL aggression (biting, lunging, “bunny tornado”, etc). If you dont, youll only be teaching them to fight one another.

[Ella Bean]

Thanks Mikey!  I’ll slow down and not do any more dates for a while.  Patience is hard but it makes sense.

[Sirius&Luna]

I agree with Mikey, but just wanted to add, if he was only neutered two weeks ago, he definitely WILL still be hormonal. It can take over a month (it took about 6 weeks for my male) for hormones to leave after a neuter.

Spend a few weeks getting to know him individually, and getting him to trust you. It will really help when you’re bonding them for you to have a bond with both bunnies.

[Ella Bean]

Thanks S&L, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing! I couldn’t move his pen into separate room from the one Ella’s is in so I improvised and I covered the half of it that faced her pen with a blanket for the last week. Not sure it was ideal or even at all helpful, because they could still hear and smell each other but just couldn’t see one another but they both seemed relaxed. I just removed that covering yesterday and have been monitoring and there seemed to be a little bustle of interest and activity but they’ve settled pretty quickly and there has been no aggressive behavior. I’ll continue to monitor though and if things change or don’t settle down completely I’ll back up again for a while longer. I also got them each a stuffed toy that I just started switching out and will do so every few days or so. Other than that we’ll stay in this holding pattern for another couple of weeks or more and Henry and I will continue to get to know one another. Hope this all sounds okay? Concerns?

One of my worries for the process being long is that Ella had gone from having most of 2 rooms as her domain to having a 4X4 ft X pen which I don’t love for either rabbit but especially her because she’s a giant. I did some re-arranging though and have a system that’s working to give her more roaming space at least while I’m in the house. Once Henry gets a little more comfortable/bold he can have a little more space as well but all still separate. It was a fun logistics challenge! My one worry is that Ella has started exhibiting more aggressive territoriality since she’s had to spend more time in the smaller pen (+ Henry being around probably though when she’s roaming in the larger area she does not exhibit this). She’s always been inclined to be pretty territorial and when she had (and currently is in) the bigger space, every time I walked into the rooms, the first thing she’d do is circle my feet. Now when I go to open up her pen, most times she lunges and growls and bites the cage while I am undoing the bottom latch. Once things are open she’s fine and may hop around my feet but stops the more aggressive behavior. Any advice on how to calm this down a bit? It’s only started happening in the last 4 days or so, so I’m hoping this isn’t a permanent behavior change. Does this potentially signal some future problems I should be prepared for with trying to bond her?

Thanks again!

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