Romeo and Tigerlily’s Bonding Tips (video)

[lynnbunn]

Hi guys!

Romeo and Tigerlily are my two bunnies, both about 1 year old. Their bond was broken about two months ago while we were on vacation. They were boarded at the Richmond HRS and, probably due to the unfixed rabbits around them, they had a fight and one jumped out. Afterwards they hated each others guts. I posted about this before with a lonnggg story here: https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/116194/Default.aspx

Anyways, after a month of bonding, I gave up on them. They hated each other so much that they would just try to kill each other on sight. Even stress sessions did nothing for the better. Eventually I just separated the NIC grid condo permanently and just left them a few inches apart so they could see each other.

My dad decided, after reading some bonding articles, to try a different approach. It felt odd to me but at least they wouldn’t fight.

They were first separated so that they couldn’t even see each other.

Here’s a daily process that bonded them in two weeks:

1. have them eat pellets together but keep an extremely tight eye on them. [romeo and tigerlily love their pellets. they can’t get distracted with pellets around.]

2. put them in a small container (we used a good sized bucket) where they can sit but can’t really move. stick them in and put something over them so they don’t jump out. this makes them stay together and have a good chat. keep an eye on them at first but you can probably leave them there for 15 minutes a time.

3. put them into a large cardboard box (2 ft x 3 ft or bigger), bring a broom or spray bottle in case a fight starts, and bring them somewhere they’ve never been before (we brought them outside to the patio, side yard, etc.) and let them be scared. If they start fighting like r&t did, then do a stress session and close + shake the box. eventually they will get used to the place so switch it up each day.

4. eventually fighting may decrease. you might want to try an area like a bathtub. give them something to do there!! for r&t, if there wasn’t new distracting stuff, they would become angry and violent (haha). my dad put a long bamboo stick inside and used it to annoy them. they couldn’t find time to fight and instead teamed up to defeat the evil stick. you can try giving them dinner together but if they’re really stressed they may not eat. it’s different for every rabbit. try different toys to keep them constantly preoccupied.

5. that was the miracle step. after they found out they could play together, they calmed down. at this point, my dad put them together and rubbed their heads together. it may take a long time but with persistance, they may begin to groom each other.

6. after grooming you’re pretty much on the right path. make sure you continue the routine, move on to semi-neutral space (or put them into one rabbits cage after lots of thorough cleaning). it may differ with rabbits but tigerlily immediately stepped up as alpha and romeo submitted. submission will take lots of work. when one rabbit doesn’t attack when the other rabbit nips, you have a good system going on here (as long as the nips don’t get a lot of fur). it took that entire month for romeo to give up and submit to tigerlily’s dominance.

7. once you see that they’re doing okay and you feel that it’s fine to leave by themselves, then you can try a night with them together. for my rabbits, tigerlily constantly showed off her newly gained dominance by nudging (there was no nipping or fur loss) romeo’s butt so that she could steal his spot. she chased him a bunch but there was no nipping. This is normal and romeo continued to be super happy (you can tell if they eat readily or are active and happy looking. if not, you probably want to pause bonding. the recessive rabbit may be getting depressed). tigerlily stopped doing this regularly after the first night.

So there you go!  Romeo and Tigerlily are happily rebonded!! I will be happy to answer any questions you have. I think it really was amazing that the two could go from total enemies to snuggling with each other so soon. All thanks to my dad. :’D

Here is a video I took time to compile. It was taken with my dad’s cell. So basically, Tigerlily’s boss. Romeo can do whatever he wants as long as it goes by Tigerlily first! It looks like she’s nipping but she’s just chasing. Romeo didn’t lose any fur.

By the way, vimeo (the site I used to upload this) is much faster than youtube, if you ever need to upload something. This vid only took 20 minutes.

Romeo and Tigerlily’s Rebonding Session from Lynn on Vimeo.

 

[Tate]

Attempted and failed. I’ve tried everything. Boo hiss. They are very lovey between the cage bars, but when they are out together… not so much.

[lynnbunn]

Ugh. I know what you mean except Romeo and Tigerlily fought through the cage bars, so no love there. I guess some rabbits are not meant to be. D:

[Tate]

I think it will take them a while longer. I feel like they are very insecure so they are more willing to fight for my attention. :\

[Author]

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