Merry and Banner are officially broken up :(

[cainan]

Soooooo glad the forum is back online!  Figures that my bunnies would decide to a. fight so badly that they both had bad injuries (ripped eyelid and chunk out of a cheek) and then b. despite all my efforts, break their bond.

 I think that this all happened like right when the forum went down – I think I had posted that Merry had just randomly freaked on Banner and they had started fighting – then there was some white goo in her eye… went to the vet – Banner had torn her third eyelid (no damage to tear ducts) and she had taken a chunk out of his cheek (fixed fine with antibiotics).  Since then I’ve been trying to rebond them, and nothing has worked! 

Both are obviously unhappy (particularly Banner; I don’t think he gets what’s going on) – not only are they either stuck in their individual pens more, but I have to split my play time with them, so they’re not with me full time during playtime.

It’s definitely all Merry’s doing – she’s aggressive (she’s fixed but I swear that I smell territorial marking or something!) – sometimes she even lunges at me in a territorial way, which she never did.

Oh, and they had both been checked by the vet with no problems.

Oh, and I lost my job, which is boo but you think would be yay for bunny bonding, but it’s just soooo much stress.  They fight almost as badly as when I first started their bonding, which was a nightmare.

So is this permanently broken?  Do I call in the big guns (foster mom) and pay her to rebond them?

*sniffle* So glad the forum is back… sorry for the rambling, but its been a hellish few months!

[Stickerbunny]

My two broke up when Stickers randomly flipped on Powder, I was able to stop her before any injury, since I was right there when it started. But no amount of rebonding helped them until they were ready. So what I did was just stop trying to rebond them and left a baby gate up between them so they could sniff each other if they wanted to. After two months, she stopped trying to eat him through the gate and they started being friendly again. Then Powder started digging at the gate and pushing it trying to get to her, one day he succeeded in breaking in and I watched her reaction and… she asked for grooms. He groomed her and they snuggled and he refused to leave and they have been back together since and closer than ever. So I would suggest just giving them some time to cool off, then try rebonding again after a little break.

[Monkeybun]

With a big fight with injuries liek that, give them a month or 2 apart, so the fear will go away. Then try rebonding, from the beginning. neutral territory and all.

[cainan]

Thanks guys. So are we talking two pens right next to each other separated, or whole other room separated? I’ve been keeping them right next to each other, like when we were waiting for Banner to be neutered.

Now where can I find neutral territory when they’ve both run around in every room in the house?

[Stickerbunny]

I would give them two pens next to each other, but with some room in between (about a 2×4 or so) so they can have their space. Eventually they’ll get over the fight. For neutral area once they go back to bonding, try the bathtub, they aren’t likely to be in there on their own

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