The Re-Bonding Diaries – Ben & Jerry post neuter

[Ben & Jerry's Clusterfluff]

I’ll try to quickly bring everyone up to speed on the sitution.  I have two male rabbits: Ben, a ND cross, and Jerry, a mini rex.  I’ve had them since March and believe they are about 11 months old.  They were neutered on December 6th and are now living in a c&c style cage that has been divided for the time being.  They were separated by a divider about 3 weeks prior to their neuters when I saw what looked to more agressive behvaior than normal – some lunging but mostly just honking and humping instigated by Jerry that was stressing Ben out.  Following their neuter, they returned to their divided cage where I have been swapping sides with them every day or so so that neither gets too possessive about his cage side.  They are also getting 2-3 supervised play dates daily since I’m home and not working till January.  

Starting day one after their neuter they seemed great together out of the cage.  Neither of them were leaving territorial droppings anymore and neither peed anywhere they weren’t supposed to (we’re in the process of really getting the hang of litterboxes since the surgery).  Day two Jerry was right back to honking and humping.  Now I know there are going to be residual hormones in their systems for the next month, but it seemed excessive so I kept the date short and put them away after about 20 minutes.  I didn’t want Ben to get too stressed out.   Day three there was some nose-to-nose time in addition to lots of chasing (Jerry chasing Ben) and more honking and humping.  The nose-to-nose times usually ended with a little lunge from Jerry.  Ben would take off and then the chase was on. 

Day four was a big day for the buns, I recently took a new job in a new city that starts in January and I’m moving back in with my folks for a little while, so the bunnies made the big move to their house.  The good: lots of new neutral space that no one has a claim over.  The bad: more stress on the buns.  They took it pretty well, though, and kept up the improved litterbox behaviors.  No out time in the new space for them on this day.  Starting day 5 it was back to 2-3 playdates a day, with mixed results.  Most of their out time was spent exploring their new space, but Jerry continued to honk and hump, Ben continued to run away.  He fought back twice, but both times it ended before I could even intervene.  A little box, a little grunt, and the tiniest thump in the world and they were both back to minding their own.  While back in their separated cage I saw Jerry present for grooming and recieve some little licks through the bars from Ben.  

Today, day 6, we made some progress.  During each of three playdates today I saw significantly less of the chase and hump behavior.  Today was also the first time I had seen them have nose to nose time outside the cage.  Most ended in stalemate, none ended in lunging.  Jerry also presented himself for grooming multiple times but Ben was unwilling to concede to his wish, except for one intace where he gave a few begrudging licks.  Ben has also learned how to protect his bum to force Jerry to interact with his face.  He puts himself in corners, litterboxes, and cardboard hidey boxes where Jerry can’t get behind him.  He definitely seems to be the less hormonal of the two, but the vet also told me he had one normal testical and one TINY testicle when they neutered him.  

I’m encouraged by the progress I’m seeing, especially in the lack of aggressive behaviors today!  Please keep checking back for updates on the boys’ progress; I’m looking to have their cage undivided in January.  And please comment if you have any suggestions!  Or just support!

[Ben & Jerry's Clusterfluff]

Today marks one week since the boys got cut. They’re doing do much better now, and I think getting into a routine again is really helping. The ratio of time spent grooming vs. mounting is definitely starting to swing in favor of grooming. I may have helped this along a bit by using the banana trick – smeared a little behind their ears and let them figure it out. Jerry still has his moments where he corners himself and will lunge at anything that approaches and then chase poor Ben around trying to mount. Ben is the groomer of the two of them, Jerry will present himself and Ben will go to town licking his face and behind his ears (banana or n banana) to the point that Jerry closes his eyes and seems to go into trance mode. I’ve seen Jerry groom Ben, but just barely. A few licks on the ears, but Ben shies away when it happens like he doesn’t approve of Jerry’s method of grooming. Ben has also really bonded with me today. Both buns have always been pretty aloof and cat-like in their ability to ignore people who just want to coddle them, but tonight Ben groomed my hand almost obsessively. He was nudging it around and turning it over to get everything just right. This was followed by hopping up on my back (I was laying on the floor) and sitting there for a few minutes. For a bun that usually wants nothing to do with humans, this was pretty exciting for me.

Check back for tomorrow’s update, things seem to be going really well. I’m hopeful they can go back to sharing their cage again soon, but I don’t want to rush things.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Hi, thanks for keeping notes on your bonding sessions. It’s great for members to do this as it’s often helpful for other members going through bonding to read.

Glad things seem to be going well. Especially so soon after the neuter. Buns often take several weeks for their hormones to calm down so it’s great that you are having progress at such an early stage.

How are things going now?

[Author]

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