Nipping and sharing the same abode issues

[hummerbee]

About a month ago I started bonding my two lop ear buns, for the most part they seem bonded…I think. They groom each other frequently, lay next to each other, and sometimes hang out in one of their cages together (something else they need to work on is staying in the same abode together). An issue I occasionally see is that the male will sometimes starting nipping at the female, which proceeds to chasing and nipping. Fur flies, typically.

 Is this at all normal?

 

Then…the past few times I have tried to put them in the same cage overnight they eventually get into a spat. He’ll try to mount her head but she tries to get away and makes quite a racket, and repeats until I give up for lack of sleep and split them up into their separate cages.   We are planning on converting a piece of furniture into a DIY indoor hutch which will double their space to live in compared to the cage I’ve been putting them into for the night. Where do I go from here? Attempt to put them into the new hutch assuming the small space is the issue? Or try to hold out for an entire night and let them work it out themselves without my interference?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, I’d love for them to get along completely but if this is how it’ll always be we’ll need to make a couple of adjustments for sure.

Thank you!

[Sindri]

When my 2 were first together I had some nipping issues. Those occurred mainly at the tail end of bonding. One thing I did was turn on a vacuum to stop the behavior. The sound scared them and I didn’t have to personally interfere. I think a bigger cage set up is in order. Your female would probably like to get away when she is being bothered but it sounds like she doesn’t have the space to do that.Your male is probably like my boy and being bossy. So yea doubling their space will help. Perhaps you can try the vacuum thing and keep them separate at night but keep the cages near each other so they don’t loose the current bond they have now. Once you get the bigger cage set up and ready and you have tried the vacuum technique it may improve the situation.

This is a suggestion you don’t have to take but stress bonding is what really brought my 2 together you could also try a couple of those type of sessions it also could make their bond much stronger.

I wish you the best of luck I think with some tweeking you will have a good solid bond. It sounds like you are doing good so far with them. Let me know how it goes!

[hummerbee]

Just an update:

Their nipping issues have stopped! And I noticed that my little lady had been hanging out in his cage with my male alllll day and thought I’d give a sleepover another try. They spent the first night together without any issues, the first success. I did another two nights with them together in his cage and it went great.

I’m quite comfortable with letting them be together without supervision Now just to make their indoor hutch and hope it doesn’t disrupt the bond and their habits. She does still require some box training but it’s gotten better now that she’s in his cage and he’s kind of taught her how to do that a tad better. I plan on investing in a hay feeder with the litter box built into it…he’s chewed up half of the siding on his corner box anyway.

But everything’s great!

[Author]

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