NEED HELP WITH BONDING.

[bo&ro]

Hello everyone. So I am bonding my two bunnies, and just want to know if they are making progress, or none at all. I started bonding my two buns, both neutered and spayed, after 1 month of living close to each other and swapping their litter boxes and food bowls. Their first meeting went okay, lots of humping from the male bun, and female bun submitting, they proceeded to flop near each other and sometimes male bun would groom female buns face, but female never groomed male even after he bowed for grooming. It has been 2 weeks now since the first session, and it seems like the humping from the male bunny has gotten more aggressive (as in constant, and more often). I think he is frustrated because the female bun is submitting to him, but not grooming him at all (I think she has once, but then he freaked out and then humped her). I keep sessions for bonding at a min if 4 hours and max of 10 hrs. They eat together, drink water together, even play with the same toys together, as mentioned above, flop together and sleep. The male bun does sometime dig into the females buns back when she just sits still for too long, and I try to stop that when I see it. Male bun seems more interested in the female bun, and female bun seems like she has no interest in him whatsoever. I just feel like they are confused about their hierarchy, and feel like they are making no progress towards creating a bond. I know it’s only been 2 weeks, but things just seem stagnant, and I’m wondering if I should just quit the bonding process now? Or should I continue and see if the female bun starts showing more interest in creating the bond with the male?

Has anyone else experienced this?

[DanaNM]

It sounds like you have a lot of positive things to work with.

Can you describe the bonding space a little? is it very neutral? I gather you are using a very small space based off the picture?

If so, I recommend experimenting with the space, and try a larger area, and be sure it’s as neutral as possible. Larger spaces allow them to interact more naturally (which helps establish the hierarchy), and when one rabbit is acting timid, forcing them together in a small space doesn’t always work.

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[GlennTheLionhead]

Hey!

Just wanted to chime in to say what your experiencing is relatively normal. I’m not a bonding expert but I successfully bonded my bunnies a few weeks ago (with a lot of amazing help from this forum!) .

I had pretty much the same problem except my girl also nipped my boy a lot and everything was stagnant for a fair while. It took persistance till one day they just decided to be friends! I would encourage you to continue as its all normal and they likely just need time and persistance to accept eachother.

I agree with Dana in regards to changing up their space. When bonding my newly weds, we changed to a larger space and it helped a huge deal!

[bo&ro]

Hello, yes, so the space is in my living room where both buns have never been before the bonding process began. I follow a Facebook page about bonding and their method says to start small in a neutral space that is just big enough so they can flop next to each other, and slowly expand every 2-5 days if there are no bad behaviors until it gets to a 6x6ft enclosure.

this photo is from the first week I began the bonding process, but now I am 24inx24in enclosure. I feel like my male bun is bored which is why he ends up digging at my female bun, and yesterday I gave them toys, and they were perfectly sharing the toys and getting along. I think I might try the bigger space, as I’ve read some other forums and this has worked for their buns. I’m just nervous to give them that free range because he does try to hump her face and I do not want him to get nipped in his private areas.

[DanaNM]

There are really no hard and fast rules to bonding rabbits. There are some very prominent blogs and social media accounts that recommend small spaces, but most animal welfare groups are moving away from this approach, and personally small spaces have never worked for me (and I’ve bonded I think 6 of my own pairs now, along with advising lots of folks on the forum).

Really with bonding the only rule is that if something is working, keep doing it, and if not, try something else. 🙂

In any case, I don’t think things will get dramatically worse in a larger area, so it’s probably worth a shot. You need to end up with them in a larger area anyway, so starting there makes transitioning to their final home easier down the road. Especially in longer sessions, it’s OK that they aren’t interacting the whole time, and giving them space to rest helps them relax. Imagine being locked in a closet with a stranger, you would probably be pretty tense!

If he mounts her face, just spin him around so he’s in the “correct” position. If she then tries to move away, don’t let him chase her for more than a couple seconds. Giving them more space to move might actually help him get the picture that she does NOT want him to mount her, because he will realize she’s running away from him.

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[bo&ro]

Okay, I might try expanding today. Is there a certain size that may be too big? I have an X-pen that is 8 grids long 24in each or should I try to mimic the space they would be sharing as close as possible? I do have additional c&c grids I can also use to expand.

should I add items or leave it pretty basic. Like previously mentioned, I did add toys and they shared them nicely, but should I add a litter box or hidey boxes?

[Wick & Fable]

Litterboxes would be the next consideration instead of hidey holes (since that can be a place they may corner each other and you cannot intervene quickly). Any addition of litterboxes can facilitate territorial aggression, so I would not introduce them unless you feel things are going positively reliably.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[bo&ro]

I expanded the area, and Rosie is definitely more comfortable interacting and running away from Bo, when he starts to hump too much. It’s been two days since expanding and I do see that they are having more positive interactions, sharing food, water, toys and litter box, flopping and still sleeping next to each other peacefully.

They both bow to each other for grooming, so I don’t think they both don’t want to submit, but when this happens, sometimes Bo does thump and begin humping a lot then starts licking her eyes until she pulls away, then starts to do it again (is this normal)?

[DanaNM]

That sounds like a great step forward! They are communicating 🙂  That all sounds normal, they are deciding who will do the grooming and how much, lol!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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