Stuck in frustration *(Update! with pics.)*

[ScampersMom]

 Ok, I am a bit stumped, as wellas frustrated, with what I am seeing.  This is the first pair I have ever tried to bond.   Eddie came to live with us about 4 months ago from a shelter.  He was only about 7 months old.   At the time we had a 12 year old dog.  He and the dog would play togehter and even share a piece of kale together.  They were gettign close very quickly.  We didn’t know but our pup would not be with us much longer.  He had undiagnosed liver cancer.  About a month after Eddie came to live with us our dog died.  I swear Eddie was looking for him for a while.  After about a month we decided that Eddie needed to have a friend.  So, we decided to get another rabbit.  We did have him go on a date with the rabbit we liked.  It went very well.  They even groomed each other a bit.  Because of this, we decided to go ahead and bring her home.  We had the cages set up side by side.  we also did some stress bonding on care rides.  Things were going well but, one night, it all went sour.  

We had the house sectioned off so that each rabbit got their own space to hop around in and play.  Eddie is a much better jumper than we imagined.  He jumped a threeand a half  foot high two foot wide barrier.  Cleared it in one jump (yes, I will be enrolling him in agility).  They got into a HUGE fight that ended with our girl in the ER vet with nine staples.  

Jump to last week.  We decided to give it another go.  This time we put them together on our kitchen table for about 5 min. at a time.  This went very well.  More gooming from Eddie to Emma.  This week we have put them on the floor in the kitchen.  Eddie gooms Emma then tries to mount her.  She runs off, turns around and if he comes close tries to box him.  They seperate for a bit then it starts all over again.  Eddie seems to want to be friends.  He tries but she just seems to not want anything to do with him unless he grooms her.  

We take both to Hoppy Hour where they can socialize with other rabbits.  Eddie goes from bunny to bunny grooming all the way.  Emma goes from bunny to bunny demanding to be groomed.  I just don’t know what to do.  I am sorry this is so long but I figured that you needed to know their history in order to help out.  I could really use the help.  I feel so discouraged.

 

 

Update:

Eddie and Emma are now the best of friends.  They are doing so very well!  We have been able to leave them both out of their cages running around for a couple of days now.    This process has been MONTHS.  I knew it would take a while but never expected the amout of stess i would be under.  But, looking over at the hearth stones, their fovorite place to cuddle, it makes it all worth it.  

 

I wanted to fill in a few of the blanks in their story.  After the fight we baught Emma her own larger cage.  She was in a small one but since she would have to be in a cage longer than we anticipated I went on line and found a used large cage.  She was much happier.  It has the bonus of having its own legs and wheels.  It is also very low to the ground.  This enabled Eddie to come and say hi but Emma could always get away and hide from him if she needed to.  We had this set up for about three months.  We also continued to take them to the bunny social hour.  My thought was that this way they could interact with each other if they wanted to.  At least they could see each other in a compleatly neutral area with other bunnies around to provide distraction.  Gradually they began to say hi durring the social time.  

I think what set things over the edge for them was my taking the advice of trying the stress bonding again.  I put them both in a carrier one afternoon so I could go pick up my son from his summer fun class.  We got to the school a bit early and it was a VERY hot day.  I was not going to keep them in the car.  I took the carrier to the pickup zone and was an instant hit.  One kid spotted I had bunnies and then before I knew it, I had about 10-15 kids grouped around trying to stick their fingers in.  I quickly put a stop to that.  However, I saw that Eddie was very curious and Emma terified.  She was cowering behind him and he was happilly protecting her from probing fingers.  

 

When we got home I opened up the carrier in the kitchen and from that point on they have been almost inseperable.  Looking back at it, Emma needed to lear to trust Eddie.  I believe being able to hide behind him allowed her to do just that.  Whatever the reason, here are the first ever pics of my officially bonded pair!  

[Troller]

I’m a first time bonder myself so I can’t add much other then to be patient. A fight is a hard thing to get over and even if they were friendly before and seem so now the feelings might still linger and some contention might set it off again. Brave man trying again so quickly, most would counsel a minimum of two weeks before you put them back together after a fight. Luckily they still seem at least cordial.

I’ve been bonding mine for at least 3 months. Some bondings happen quick while I’ve read about some taking a year. I understand your frustration, especially after it beginning so well but the process is often 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Keep at it, use the bonding tricks outlined on this site and others, and stay positive. I hope others chime in with something more helpful since I’m just like you and new to this.

[MoveDiagonally]

I wanted to start off by saying I think you can still make this work for them! The fight happened because they were in a territorial area before they were ready not because they won’t make a good match for each other. I would make sure to secure their habitats so that escape is impossible to avoid something like this from happening again.

Because of the fight and time apart it’s likely that bonding was set back a bit. Rabbits are also notorious grudge holders so there might be more tension between them than there was before. My advice would be to return to stress bonding as a way to try to build up a new trust between them and I would stick to neutral areas for now. Remember to avoid separating them when they fight as it can encourage aggression. If a fight breaks out I would stress bond them and continue the session until they’re not being aggressive before ending the session. The exception to ending on a bad note would be if you became concerned that serious harm would come to one or both, safety is key! I would also suggest avoiding Hoppy Time during their bonding as they need to focus on each other and not other rabbits.

Don’t get too discouraged and keep us posted!

[ScampersMom]

Thank you for the advice. To make things a bit more clear, we did not try putting them together for over a month. Each rabbit has there own cage and they are let out at different times of the day for excersize and play. The fight has made me very nervous about them being together but I meditate a bit before we try bonding so they are not bombarded by my nerves. I will keep you posted how things are going.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Are you doing the bonding sessions in a 100% neutral area?

[ScampersMom]

Just wanted to make sure the Subject Line was bolded so people could see my new pics.

[tanlover14]

I’m so happy for you and your buns!

And I’m happy you didn’t give up on having them bonded either. Stress bonding can work wonders!

[NuggetBuns]

Congrats on your newly bonded couple! They look so happy together and hope for more precious moments to come!

[Bam]

I’m so happy for you! Congrats a million times! This must be such a huge relief for you and really a great victory.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Big congrats on your beautiful, bonded couple!

[Author]

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