What Next? Rabbit bonding

[texasreb]

Background: 

Snowball is a 5 year old spayed Californian. Her lifelong bunny buddy Jasper passed away at the age of 12+ years in February. In March I was given a 1.5 year old neutered male rabbit. At that time, I divided Snowball’s pen in half and put Basil on one side and Snowball on the other. The pen is on the floor and is an area of about 7′ x 5′. Each rabbit got a litter box, food, water, bedding and toys. The area is mostly  carpeted with indoor/outdoor carpet. I periodically switched the rabbits from side to side–sometimes switching their belongings and sometimes just switching the rabbits. Sometimes I cleaned the pens and litter boxes before switching and sometimes I didn’t. Snowball is about 15lbs (and overweight). Basil is about 3-4lbs. 

Yesterday, I took the two to a neutral, outdoor 10 x 10 chain link dog kennel for an intro. It went well. They mostly ignored each other, but did come together and sniff noses several times. This intro lasted about 20 minutes. 

Today, I removed the dividing barrier between the two halves of the pen. The rabbits ignored each other for about 10 minutes. Then Basil started getting closer and sniffing Snowball. They laid side by side for several minutes then Snowball started grooming Basil. She groomed him for several minutes and then started humping him. I let her hump as he seemed to not react. Then, I’m not sure what happened, but they started scuffling. I let it go for a minute, but since Snowball is so much bigger and older I broke it up when she flipped Basil onto his back. Fur was flying, but neither was hurt and no noise was made. After breaking up the scuffle, I let them be and Snowball seemed exhausted, but Basil was fine. They laid side by side again. She started to hump him again, I broke it up right away. Neither rabbit seemed scared. I held Snowball on my lap for several minutes while Basil ran around us. I petted them both. 

I put them back into their separate sides for now. 

Was that a fight? Should I continue with the intros? Do I need to go back to neutral territory? What do I do next? 

Thanks in advance!

[Mikey]

Never allow scuffling. Stop it the moment it starts. Likely, the boy did not like being mounted and reacted with aggression to get her to stop. Only allow mounting for 10 seconds or less, then remove the top bun and pet them both for a few seconds to ensure everyone is ok and not stressed out. Check both rabbits fur and skin as fur flying usually means it was torn out and rabbits have paper thin skin. Check for any possible scabbing or bruising. Rabbits are very good at hiding pain so dont assume both are ok because they didnt make noise and seem to be acting normal

I would go back to neutral territory and try to start again. If there are too many fights or the fights get worse, it can easily kill any chance at bonding, which you dont want. Take it very slow. Have several neutral bonding sessions per day for a week or two, then move to common territory. If theres another fight, go back to neutral territory and restart again

Good luck

[texasreb]

Noted. I’ll give them a day or two and then start over.

[Author]

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