Okay.. now what?!

[HulknEllie]

Hey guys! I don’t know if you’ll remember my posts from my bonding adventures with Hulk and Ellie, so small recap! I’ve been trying to bond my 2 Netherland dwarf rabbits for almost a year now. They have been an extremely difficult match that I have almost given up on several times.

Every time we tried to bond, Ellie seemed to be the issue. She would bite Hulk no matter what. We wouldn’t even have time to try to intervene because she would go from being completely neutral and ignoring him, to biting him in 0.5 seconds. Then Hulk would attack back, and there would be hair flying and blood and scabs, and ugh. It was so depressing and exhausting.

Flash forward to about a month ago! We created a bedroom for Hulk and Ellie. We placed each bunny in a half of the bedroom and divided the room down the middle with two fences, separated by blocks of wood so that the bunnies couldn’t attack each other. During this time, we had “smoosh” dates, as another user suggested we try, where I placed them both between my legs, “smooshed” them together and pet them side by side to get them comfortable with one another. After a while doing this, we were told to remove the second fence and observe what happened. At first, Ellie tried to nip Hulk multiple times through the fence. He seemed afraid of her. Slowly, her “bites” became tiny nips that didn’t seem to harm him.

Three days, I went downstairs to check on them and they were laying against the fence, side by side! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I wanted to cry I was so happy. The last few days, Ellie has been grooming Hulk non-stop through the fence. She licks his head, his body, his little nose, etc. Hulk grooms her back, but definitely not as much. Every time I go downstairs they are either eating side by side, laying side by side, or grooming each other.

So now to the purpose of this post… WHAT DO I DO NEXT?! I don’t want to screw this up. They have NEVER come this far and I don’t want to erase this new bond. I’m afraid to take them into a neutral area and have Ellie attack Hulk again, lose his trust, and start us over at square one. So any advice about where to take this next??

[Kiki]

No experience on my side but as long as you are confident they are not going to attack though the single cage leave them for a week or two before moving to the next step. Neutral area no cage.

[Vienna Blue in France]

They need to be swapped over each day, for the whole day… so neither one favorises a side of the fence and they both get used to each others smell, everywhere.
You can leave the litter trays in each if you like…. be prepared though for some marking pees and lots of poops (maybe, maybe not) when they are swapped over.

Report back in a week with any change in behaviour

[HulknEllie]

Alright guys here’s the update! Everyday we have been switching their cages and belongings back and forth on either side of the fence. We got brace about five days ago and decided to try a neutral area and place them together for ten minutes. We were extremely nervous because every time we have done this it has resulted in a major fight.
This time, no fight! They mostly ignored each other. At one point they were face to face and I could feel my palms get sweaty in anticipation of the fight, but they just sniffed eachother and walked away!
The next few days I increased their time together. On day three, I think I had a heart attack when Ellie started to groom Hulk! Every day now, Ellie has groomed Hulk and he has groomed her. Last night he groomed her for almost 15 minutes and then they laid down side by side on the blanket on the floor. About ten minutes later he decided to hump her (backwards) so I quickly stopped that. She gave him a good nip and it looked they were about to fight but they didn’t. We pet them side by side and put them back.
I have never been so relieved about their progress. My question is.. What is our next step? How do I know they are bonded? What do we do with them now?

[Mikey]

Thats awesome! Next step would be moving them to a bigger neutral area, and once they act like friends there (no aggression), you can move onto the final step of bonding in their shared territory(s)

[HulknEllie]

Thanks Mikey!
What exactly is a bigger neutral area? We have been using the area at the end of our bed covered with blankets (because they both hate hardwood). I would say it’s about 4 feet by 8 feet. I’m nervous to move them to another area lol. I just hope it stays the same!!

[Mikey]

Any bigger room/area theyve never been in, really. If there is no more bigger/neutral room, then go right to their shared area, but be prepared just in case

[vanessa]

That sounds great! I remember being ready to give up on Guin and Lancelot. The bonding took 8 months total. I was about to try a trio with her and my other pair, and keep Lancelot as a bachelor. But sometimes they just need to work it out on their own. I let my two live together after 4 months when they had stopped fighting. She still nipped and chased him, and he was miserable, but she wasn’t all out attacking him anymore. After 4 months of that, he gave in and started grooming her. So by 8 months, they were snuggly wuggly and he approached her , rather than stick to himself and hope she didn’t nip him. So that’s when I called them truly bonded. When they were both approaching eachother for grooming. I even believed for a while that Lancelot was “not a groomer”. That he would never groom her. But today they are kissy huggy bunnies. He sleeps draped over her back, they seek each other out. So at 4 months, they were “tentatively bonded”, and by 8 months, they were bonded. Yours sound like they are in the tentative stage. A bigger (NEUTRAL) area is a good idea. This is really the difficult part, because there may still be some scraps, but you will have to decide how much of a scrap is worth ignoring, or not. I would ignore a nip, but not an attack. Nipping is unfortunately part of their communication, and of cementing who is who in their relationship.
You could try enlarging their current area. One thing to remember – if something doesn’t work, take a step back to what was working before.
The patience required for this can be frustrating – but you are doing a great job.

[Author]

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