Weird bonding behavior – dominance?

[BeatrixMom]

So my roommate and I are about one week into trying to bond our rabbits. Caspian is a male, fixed in July. Beatrix is my girl, fixed about one month ago. So far they haven’t been making huge progress but I’m trying to be patient. Beatrix is very nervous (she’s a rescue and was feral for a while, then had a litter of stillborns before I got her) and territorial. She’ll often grunt when I reach in her cage, even though she knows me and loves being pet by me. Caspian, on the other hand, is pretty relaxed, very outgoing and very friendly. It took about three weeks of having Beatrix before I could pet her when she was out of her cage. She’s slow to warm up so I didn’t expect bonding to go fast.

Anyways, to get to the point, Caspian has been doing something strange lately. He’ll basically shove his face or head under her butt and just leave it there. He doesn’t bite – I don’t know if it’s a sexual thing or a dominance thing? He hasn’t mounted her, although she does tend to run away when he does the butt sniffing thing. When he gets his head under her he’ll often lift it up to kind of buck her body up. Sometimes she tolerates it and sometimes she grunts and runs away. My main question is if this is something we should break up or just let him do it if she’s tolerating it? And is he showing dominance or submissiveness by doing this?

 

[MoveDiagonally]

Welcome to BB!

The first thing I want to ask is whether or not both bunnies belong to a single person? Once bonded they cannot be separated at all so if they belong to different people that could cause complications when someone moves. Even with the best of roommates a decade is a long time to commit to a living situation. Have you two discussed who will get both rabbits if this happens?

On bonding, rabbits are still hormonal for about 4-6 weeks after their surgery. Depending on when your female was spayed this might be a factor. I’m not sure about what the behavior you’re describing means but I generally only intervene in aggression situations. For the most part I let them sort out and establish boundaries for everything else on their own.

[BeatrixMom]

Beatrix is mine and Caspian is hers. To be honest I didn’t think about that – we’ve signed the lease for another year but you’re right about the time commitment. I guess my question then is how can they live in the same house and not be bonded? Whenever one is out if it approaches the other cage there’s grunting and sometimes fighting, so neither of them are getting much exercise time which is not good. Beatrix used to spend at least three hours a day out of her cage and now she’s lucky if she gets an hour. To further complicate it, my roommate has another bunny that she’s keeping in her bedroom for now.

[MoveDiagonally]

For a while only two of my five rabbits were bonded. It can be a challenge but I think it’s doable if you coordinate with each other.

A couple ideas:
1. A rotating schedule. Maybe certain times of day or every other day one of the bunnies is “prioritized” for exercise time. One bunny could get mornings and the other could get evenings. Or one bunny gets first choice of times one day and the other the next. This doesn’t mean you guys couldn’t bring them out when the other person isn’t home or the other bunny is not out for whatever reason. Just that one gets first pick on that day or time period. Does that make sense at all? O.o

2. Can you bunny proof your room for exercise time? This could be a way to give her more time out on days/times she can’t be in the common areas.

3. Depending on the size of your place could you split the common area in half with a barrier of some kind, maybe NIC or X Pen, and give each bunny half for exercise? Something you can portable that you can easily take down and put up when needed. You can place cardboard, a blanket, or some kind of cover over the barrier to keep them from seeing each other/fighting. This is actually my advice for the cage issues as well. Covering the cage or placing cardboard around the bottom part of a cage while the other is out.

I know it probably sounds like a troublesome amount of stuff to do or figure out but I think if you can work out something it will become easier with time. I hope others pop in with more advice/ideas. I hope everything works out and please do keep us posted

[Beka27]

MD is exactly right and I agree with the options she laid out for you. It definitely isn’t easy splitting exercise time, but you might not have a choice unless you bond them (in which case one or the other of you would need to take both when you part ways). Is she planning on bonding her rabbit to her other rabbit (the one in her room)?

[Elrohwen]

I would work on bonding both of your roommate’s bunnies together, and working out a plan for separate exercise times. A bonded pair really cannot be split up, so it wouldn’t be fair to bond them and then move away, unless one of you takes both of them.

[BeatrixMom]

Thanks for your answers everyone!

I decided to move Beatrix’s cage to my bedroom. I bunnyproofed and she’s able to spend a lot more time outside of her cage than before.

[Beka27]

Oh good! Thank you for the update! I’m glad to hear things are working out with the new arrangement.

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