Moving homes and bonding

[Willowambs]

Now that Willow is going to be fully recovered from her spay, I am lookimg into bonding her with a rabbit I will adopt. The question I have is that in less then a month, my boyfriend and I will be moving into our new home. I will be bring Willow on meet and greats with possible canidates but I am not sure how to intrduce them home. Should I let Willow get used to her new home before moving in another rabbit, or should they both be intorduced in the completly neutral space? Willow threw a fit today, stomping and running away, when I brought my friend over. I am not sure why she acted that way, maybe she smelled her dogs on her or I wasn’t giving her attention, but it raised concerns of her not allowing another rabbit into what she perceives as her space. What would you recommend as the best course of action?

[Dface]

My rabbits are like that when strangers come over, grunting, stamping and running away, weirder still they tend to be better or worse towards different people. This wont reflect on their ability to form bonds with other rabbits.Rabbits instincts tll them to be afraid of humans who are predators, which earns them the label of being shy pets.
Honestly I would think a totally neutral environment would be helpful in bonding. It’s easier to introduce them into a neutral area than have one feel like a rabbit is impinging on its territory

[sarahthegemini]

A rabbit stomping because she smelled dog doesn’t mean she’s not going to want a bunny friend lol. If you wait til you move home, you could always keep one of the rooms off limits so that you have a neutral space when the time comes.

[Mikey]

Youre best getting a rabbit before you move, and having them start prebonding as soon as you move. Your new home will be totally neutral, so if both are spayed/neutered you can jump right into prebonding as soon as the move is complete.

Youll keep their cages+pens next to one another, about 10 inches apart, so they can see and smell one another but cannot reach one another. After a few days so they can scent up their spaces, start swapping the bunnies. BunnyA stays in cageA and BunnyB stays in cageB on even days; BunnyA goes to cageB and BunnyB goes to cageA on odd days. Youll do this for about a month. After this month, you can start bonding sessions somewhere else in the home Remember for bonding, a ton of short sessions first, then slowly increase. And remember, everywhere you want them bonded, they will have to have bonding sessions. If you plan to have a bunny room for them to share, set their pens+cages elsewhere, and do bonding sessions in that future shared room. They can be considered bonded when they can go a full 48 hours without any signs of aggression in their final living zones.

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