Yin-Yang Bunny Bonding

[dogmom]

So we’ve had our all black rex female named Mamma Dot for 2 years that we got from the rescue because she has a small white dot on her nose. Recently she’s been sort of pathetic and grooming a furry blanket in our family room which is her out of pen area. Since I’ve been constantly stalking the House Rabbit Network rescue web site near me there became a all white lion head male name Warhol that might be a good match. (Of note, I’m related to Any Warhol so my 12 yo artist daughter was all over it.). We went for a speed date. They spent time in a neutral pen together, share a litter box, and ate and groomed in the same space. They seemed relaxed, a little curious, no fights. The volunteer said that was as good as it gets and encouraged us to take Warhol home, so off we went with them both in the same carrier. No fights on way home, some good stress bonding not he 30 min ride. W got placed in an extra large dog crate near the expen with MD bunny condo. They highly recommended switching living spaces every day.

Day 1: OK, got a little cocky and decided to let the out in the family room which was too large of an area and too much furniture to hide under. Let MD out first, she hops up to W crate, sticks her nose in to touch his. CHOMP! She does it again. CHOMP he goes on her nose again. I pull her away. Let him out. Things were going OK, then some grooming demands, and they there was a circle chase, fur flying, that just looked like a spinning yin-yang symbol. No screeches, no yelps, no blood, they got separated and went off exploring. Then again, this time under a chair, little more challenging to break up. Decided 20 min of bonding over, and we switched habitats and were done.

Day 2: Learned our lesson, went into an empty room. 15-20 min. Some mounting behavior and a lot of demands of grooming from MD with nose under W chin. We would separate mounting and pull MD back when the groom demands looked like it might turn into a bunny underbelly thing. There were no 45 degree ears or upright tails on either day. They would hop around. MD seemed more relaxed than W. We did give greens, which MD ignored, but W ate. But he’s more into greens. We did another session the same day, but I was still devouring bonding blogs and there seems to be a thought that some mounting is OK? So I’m wondering if I’m breaking them up too early? So I let them go a little further. Switched pens at end of day.

Day 3: Husband home unexpectedly and I was at my 12 hr shift. Could he try bonding so I wouldn’t have to do with when I came home? Sure? Did he want some advice? Nope, he’s got it. WRONG! Next thing I know I’m getting texts about he let MD out first, W wouldn’t come out of his cage, So husband busy cleaning litter, MD goes in W space, hops in litter box, ,W hops right in, fur starts flying. Husband tries to break it up. He didn’t have the oven mits. Next thing I know I’m getting a text with a picture of his hand injury and he tells me he cant get them out of MD cage now. ARGH!!! They did wind up spending some not fur flying time together and there was no actual injury.

Day 4: Reset. Husband banned from bonding duty. (I’m thinking this might be his plan all along.) Tub bonding it is! Works great. They cant get enough purchase to shove under the other or mount. They spend a good 15 minutes nose to tail right beside each other snuggled up. MD requests grooming several times, does not get it, but then she very nicely grooms W ears! The both showed interest in us, came up on haunches, came over to get pats from us. 25 min, them back and switch habitats.

Welcome any feedback. All new at this.
P.S. husband does love the bunnies. He just gets stressed and honestly tries to keep me from getting animals because he gets too attached and is so sad when they get old and die. We’ve had multiple rescue dogs over the years. Now have two.

[Asriel and Bombur]

How long have you had Warhol? I think the problem is you’re not letting the new bun settle in. You’re bringing a new bunny to a new house and then starting sessions immediately. He’s probably already stressed from being in a new situation, and now you’re adding your existing bunny to his stress.

Take a step back. Let Warhol settle in for a month. Because there has been a fight, let him settle in to your place in a room different from your existing bun, or he could still feel stressed. After a month, begin prebonding them by moving their cages near each other and switching them between the cages. Don’t prebond until after Warhol has settled, for the same reason I suggest moving him to a different room. After a month of prebonding you can begin short sessions in neutral territory.

A new bunny isn’t going to easily bond when the environment and people are new along with your existing bunny. The goal here is to make Warhol feel safe and make him feel like he can trust you when you start sessions. With bunnies it’s all about trust.

[dogmom]

Somehow I missed the prebonding idea in all the bonding stuff I read. I don’t think it’s realistic with my set up for separate rooms due to the need to keep the dogs out for time being. Day 4 session went amazing well. Empty room (it will be empty for one more week, then occupied.) They sat next to each other. Groomed themselves. Took pats and raisins. Explored in their own. Some mutual distraction of some cardboard. No fights. If I could remember how to shrink file size I would post pics of the two of them.

Hear your advice however. Want to be steady in my bonding, not get ahead of myself. I was thinking of letting Warhol out in the room that will be the out of pen room eventually on his own. So he can get adjusted to it. OK idea?

[Asriel and Bombur]

I think that could be a good idea. Like I said, I would wait on more sessions though. Sometimes the newness of the situation can make a bunny lash out when they’re typically docile, or it could make them be extremely shy when they are really the dominant one.

[Nutmeg]

Hey dogmom – congrats on the new addition.

A&B is right in that pre-bonding is a HUGE Step. It allows them to get used to the other ones scent in their area so they start to loose track of whats “Mine”.

I would allow a week or two of no bonding or pre-bonding of any kind. Just let the new boy get settled in the house. Maybe start with his cage being on the other side of the room. Then just alternate letting them out one at a time. ** Make sure to leave about 6 inches of space between cages so that they can’t get their noses through the others cage bars – as you saw – bites can happen.

Then spend 3 weeks pre-bonding – I started off swapping items in the cages, and then litter boxes, for the first week. Then I full swapped cages for 2 weeks every day.

Then I started doing to bonding dates like you are now.

A&B is right – if you keep going the way you are going – thinking “Things are actually going ok.. maybe I’ll just keep doing it this way….” what could happen is your new boy could be acting way more submissive right now than he normally is because every things new and he’s kind of scared and he doesn’t want to “rock the boat”.
BUT THEN 3 months down the road when he’s more settled and feeling more confident he could decide “WAIT, *I* want to the be alpha in this relationship” and flip the table on your girl – which will equal you coming home to a HUGE fight and an wounded (or worse) rabbit. And then having to start all over again anyway.

My suggestion is its better to do things in the proper order to insure long term success!

Congrats again on your new furbaby!

[dogmom]

OK. So, I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the advice of stopping, separating the cages a waiting a month because the rabbit rescue I adopted from had not recommended that after their initial get together. I debated even to come back and give updates, but if felt dishonest not to do so.

We did have another bonding session in a neutral room before a read you advice. The cuddles up well. Mamma Dot groomed Warhol nicely. No fights. Independent grooming. Some exploring. I even went longer than I had originally intended because MD started grooming W again. I’m so glad I did! Warhol just melted while MD groomed up one side of his ear and down the other. He looked so relaxed. And then they both flopped! This was day 5. I have continued with the bonding and switching habitats daily. And it’s continued to be an overwhelmingly positive experience. I do appreciate your advice and understand. But seeing them it looks like Warhol is getting comfort from Mamma Dot, which I can only imagine increases the chance they will form a strong bond. W is now grooming MD also. My plan is continue this for weeks before introducing anything new.

[dogmom]

Duplicate

[Nutmeg]

I’m very glad to hear things are going well – As you know things don’t always go that way – which is why we always go to the side of caution.
The reason for this is that things don’t NORMALLY go the way yours is. So we always go with the “better safe than sorry” approach.

if things keep going this way then PLEASE keep an eye on them for a few months after, just to make sure you keep an extra close eye on them – just in case (and I hope it doesn’t) the new one one doesn’t decide to flip things around – which could cause fights down the road.

Just like you, we all only want whats best

[dogmom]

Day 10: Just holding th course for now. Daily sessions. We are introducing things into empty room, we are going to lose our empty room end of this week, so they can learn to hop around and bump into each other. Warhol jumped up on a chair to find Mamma Dot there and it was just, oops, sorry to crowd you. There is a lot of deliberate drive by brushing us against each other. They don’t stop, just sort of brush by each other while exploring and binking. I keep reaching for the oven mits and spray bottle, but nothing happens. The habit switching is going well. I’m finding that the litter box habits are reasserting themselves. More stuff in littler boxes vs out and marking territory. Yeah!

My daughter is also learning to check their bodies everyday in case we miss some physical agression and injury. We aren’t leaving them alone, we figure it’s a good habit to be in. I swear the other day they were taking turns torturing our dogs. The Basset was sticking his nose under the closed door and they were going up to it and basically sticking their bunny tails up to the crack. Whole big room, let’s go sit in front of the Basset Hound nose and just listen to him snuffle at us.

I got this set up to hold steady until the end of November then we will reassess for any further stages. I realize I’m being lucky and I am trying to read up on changing behavior over time between bunnies. I also need to schedule a time to bring them both to the vet. Should it use two carriers or one like the rescue suggested that we take them home in?

[Asriel and Bombur]

If you’re continuing sessions, definitely stress bond while your bring them to the vet. At this point it will only help you

[Author]

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