Question on Bonding

[LuvOurStewart]

Hello All, well it has been 3 months since our precious Stewart hopped over the Rainbow Bridge (bless his little sweet soul), we have made the decision to become bunny parents once again.  Although still a bit hesitant.  We may be bringing home 2 Holland Lop bunnies.  Here is the scenario:  Godiva will be 3 years old next month.  Has had a liter and told that she was an excellent mommy and a very protective one.  Gilbert is a 8 week old Holland Lop.  We are thinking of getting both. Gilbert will get neutered first.  My question is, would there be a good chance that since Godiva was such an attentive mommy will she happily accept Gilbert since he is still a baby?  We are very hesitant about this bonding process…but just love both of them.  Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you all in advance.

[DarthVadar]

Introduce them and see how it goes. Rabbit behavior can be highly unpredictable. Just because she was a good mom does not mean she will love other young rabbits. Actually, the opposite is more likely; good dams are highly protective and territorial. I have a bunny who made an awesome mom but hates other rabbits, because she is so protective and territorial. Every rabbit is different.

[Doodler]

Hi LuvOurStewart. I am sorry to hear about Stewart.

I am not sure if Godiva having a litter before and being an excellent mom will have any impact on a bonding. Although it has given her experience interacting with other bunnies, bonding is different. Typically it is recommended that both are fixed, healed and hormones leveled before you attempt bonding so you would be looking at some time before you can bond her with Gilbert. You would have to keep them separate until then so you wouldn’t be looking at introducing a baby to her at that point anymore. Does can even fight with their own offspring once hormones become involved.

I would recommend to evaluate if you have the time and space for both in case they don’t end up bonding. Another thing to consider is patience. You would want to make sure you can be patient enough to just wait the time out before you can safely bond them. Most bonding experts (I am far from an expert) agree that most bunnies will eventually bond but some take a lot longer than others. You just want to keep in mind that an 8 week old won’t even have it’s personality developed.

The safest route is to get one, have it fixed, and then maybe do speed dating at a shelter to have them pick their own friend. The other benefit is this will give you more time to just devote to one and get to know each other better. I got a 5 month old and am just now finishing up a bond (hopefully) and he is now a year and a half old. I actually like that I didn’t get two at the same time because we have a great bond with each other that I am not sure would have happened if I started with two. I actually went a different route because I just was not able to find what I was looking for at shelters near me so I decided to get a second bunny that was close to being a senior that was looking for a home for a while. She was actually just under 6 months old actually. It made me feel slightly better that I was at least helping a bun that needed a home more (as opposed to the more ‘desirable’ babies) and I also didn’t have to wait that long to get them fixed. I knew it was risky that it wouldn’t work but I was prepared to have two separate buns if needed.

Trust me I know it’s a hard decision! Good luck with whatever you choose!!

[Sirius&Luna]

I agree with Doodles. It’s dangerous to introduce to un-neutered bunnies. How she behaved with her own offspring is likely to have no reflection on how she will feel about a strange 8 week old rabbit. Beside that, Gilbert is likely to only really be a ‘baby’ for another two weeks or so anyway – rabbits start becoming hormonal teenagers at any point from around 10 weeks – sometimes even earlier.

If you do get them both, I would recommend keeping them in separate rooms until they are both neutered, then giving them a month to recover and lose any remaining hormones. After that, you can move them into the same room and start getting them used to the scent of each other, before finally introducing them in a neutral space.

Bonding is a slow process, and like Doodle said, you need to be prepared and have plans for if it does not work.

[Author]

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