Radar and Lola

[carrievision]

 We have had Radar for about a year.  He is an extremely calm, personable, and loving bunny.  I am trying bonding with him with a girl Lola that we got through the local rescue (they are both fixed and 1-2 years old).  

It has been about 6 days so far.  We have been doing some stress activities (mostly car rides) which they are fine, no fighting at all.  She basically huddles in fear and he does his normal hop around/investigate on top of her in the carrier. 

In their “neutral area” they can go for 10-20 minutes ignoring each other.  Radar still comes to me for petting and will go flop in a corner at times.  Lola spends most of her time in the litter box or grooming herself.  she will let me approach and pet her but she does not come to me to be petted.  Sometimes when I approach her she grunts at me and runs away.  I have seen her flop a few times, and a few binkies from them both as well.  So I think she is done being scared and they are both comfortable in the environment they are in.

All is fine until Radar tries to approach Lola.  He does it in the sweetest, most non-threatening way (kind of stretching his whole body, tail down cautious sniffing) and when he gets within a foot of her she freaks out and nips him on around 75% of the encounters (the other 25% Radar will chicken out and turn around).     At that point I will usually spray her with a water bottle, and him if he retaliated.  She took a huge chunk of hair out once (about the size of his tail, pretty large because he is a big bunny), but I didn’t see any bleeding.  After I spray them they will ignore each other again for a few to several minutes.  Usually during these fights one or both of them emits a “smell” (not sure what it is, lol… let’s just say it’s not rosy! haha). 

I have noticed that  he is marking (with pebbles) pretty much everywhere, while she does it in one spot right in front of their house ( I have it divided up so they can’t get at each other when they are inside and unattended).    I have switched their spots in the house and their litter pans several times since I read that is supposed to help.

So, it seems like she hates him   I have the opportunity to try him with other girls at the rescue, so I hate to spend months forcing something if I have the opportunity for an easier bond.  How much longer should I give this??? 

[Juli]

well, bonding is not always very easy. it takes a lot of patience. Keep it up for a while and if you really think that they will not bond, then you can always try it wih another girl from the shelter.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree. Keep it at it. My two boys took a very long time to become non-aggressive towards each other. 6 sessions is still very early in your bonding.

It sounds like Lola doesn’t trust Radar and is trying to defend herself. She may need more time to learn to trust him. 10 – 20 minutes ignoring each other after only 6 sessions really isn’t that bad at all.

If things aren’t working, you can try changing things up a bit like using a smaller bonding area, giving them each time in each others cages or give them a break for a couple of days if things are particularly bad to let them de-stress.

[Author]

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