Petunia wants to be chased….

[Manda]

Hi everyone! So  I know I’m not technically supposed to bond my buns until everyone is spayed and neutered- Petunia is 10 weeks and Mr Buns neutered 5 years old) but they seem to have already bonded and have love at first site… Mr Buns lost his wife recently so I ended up adopting Ms Petunia and it’s been two weeks of being in their bunny kingdom as shown in my display photo(separated by double fencing). I feel like I have done everything backwards. Somehow I have managed to bond them in their future mutual living space. Mr Buns is smitten. There have been no fights what so ever. At first their was the “I am the boss nipping” but then there was grooming and using each others litter boxes and eating and grooming and mirroring and all that stuff. I feel like Mr Buns wants to pickup where he left off with Cinni but Petunia appears to want Mr Buns to chase her. She will go up to him and then scurry away for her life and I can sense her excitement with this game when he tries to follow her. He looks confused when she scurries away like a bat out of heck though! I am torn because Mr Buns is desperate to get close to Petunia but I’m not sure if I should go full force with the bonding because what if her hormones do kick in and it ruins everything, at this point I know after a few more neutral dates I could probably have them fully bonded. I have not seen any attempt to hump and I want to prevent that at all cause because I will be damned if she has a false pregnancy- it is NOT HAPPENING, not on my watch! I feel like once she is spayed this is going to be a piece of cake having them live together. Should I just keep having supervised interactions and play time together for now before going full force or should i prevent all interaction? Also when the day to spay does come should Mr Buns go with her as support? I’m so confused but at least I know that they have 100% potential of being a bonded pair. Darn hormones are the only thing in the way right now!Thanks everyone for your advice!

[Harley&Thumper]

I would like to point out that the behavior you are seeing right now is not a bonded pair. Baby bunnies are playful and get along with everyone. If you are worried about false pregnancies I would stop the play dates and resume them once Petunia is spayed.

[Deleted User]

I think you really should stop doing dates, you may end up ruining everything if you continue and even ONE fight happens. One fight can make your bonding significantly more difficult.

Baby bunnies get along well until their hormones kick in, which you seem to already know. I guess I am confused why you are letting them together if you know that you’re playing with fire? Unexpected fights, false pregnancy… you know of these possibilities so why are you pushing them to interact? I fear that you may just make things harder for yourself if you continue letting them be together.

Living across from each other will still allow them to get familiar with each other, and that prebonding will help you ease into the actual bonding process. She is still very, very young, which means that you will have several months before you can begin bonding (including waiting until she is old enough to spay and recovery time of course).

Honestly, my recommendation is to just let them live across from each other, but don’t let them interact. How she acts at 10 weeks is really not any indication of how she will bond with your male. Hormones are a total game changer, and you never know. She could be difficult to bond, she could be easy. There’s just no way to tell. Though it will FOR SURE be tough to bond them if they get into any fights at all… I personally would not risk it.

[Sirius&Luna]

I’m also not sure how you can know she wants to be chased and is playing – she could well be scared of the much bigger bunny making sudden movements or something, and be running away out of fear.

You couldn’t have them bonded after a few more neutral dates, because baby bunnies can’t bond.

[Manda]

I have had rabbits for my whole life and have bonded 4 times now over 14 years- I have never bonded this young before so I am seeing behavior I recognize in bonded rabbits. And yes- I am seeing bonded bunny behaviour, eating together, grooming in front of each other, eating and laying stretched out in front of one of another- that is positive bunny behaviour. I never said they are BONDED- going in the right direction though.

Thanks for everyone’s input. I will continue to monitor the situation-I will wait for full time bunny dating until she is spayed.

[Deleted User]

she’s being friendly because she’s young. When she’s spayed she could very well turn out differently. Not to mention she hasn’t been in your environment that long, so she probably is still adjusting and could potentially act differently when she’s more settled. I don’t think supervised time is even a good idea, as her hormones could kick in at anytime and a scuffle could occur. I also don’t think running away is positive, even if you think it is excited. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

[Manda]

Thanks I will make sure they don’t interact until healed from spaying- she seemed to settle in very quickly so I just assumed she had grown to like him- I want to avoid any scuffles so i will keep them separate for now- I just feel bad for Mr Buns but I don’t want to rush and be sorry.

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