Bonding two male rabbits

Just got a other male lionhead two days ago as breeder says there sould get on ok as there is not a lot of age gap. So other one as started to go upto cage with new one in and getting to nose to nose with no problems so today I have started to bond them all was good just sniffing each other then just started ignoring each. But then tryed to mont each other and a little bit of a fight and fur flying so I stoped it right away, and put new one in his cage. Am I doing the bonding right I know male & female are best to bond was told by breeder bond males can work. Or are the two going have to get neutered first before I try bonding again as was told by breeder this might be the case.

If your new male just arrived 2days ago from a breeder then is he neutered? How old are they? If they are old enough to be mounting each other I'd suggest don't go there until they are both neutered, they could really hurt each other.

Bonding neutered males can be fairly straight forward, bonding un-neutered males is a big no-no!!

Edit - Just re-read your post - don't even think about it!!! Have you bothered to read older posts about bonding? All the posts on here about bonding emphasise the need to have the rabbits neutered first - use the search engine and don't let your rabbits hurt each other.:roll:

I would have them both neutered and then wait AT LEAST 4 weeks before attempting bonding again.

Thanks for advice as I've never bonded rabbits before. I get them both neutered before I try again. Shadow is about year old and Owen the new one is 7 months.

Yep, thay are both far too old to be trying to bond unnneutered.

Silly breeder :no:

:wave: Good luck! Hope it all goes smoothly when they're neutered.

Male rabbits that are intact can really injure each other. I thought Leon was a girl at first and put him with a neutered buck. It ended with Leon having a big gash in his leg that cost £300 and a lot of stress to resolve. The rabbit that injured Leon was at the rescue because his owners had had him with another male rabbit (both unneutered at the time) and they had fought and the poor lad's little boy bits were ripped to shreds. Not nice!!

It is very important that both are neutered. I hope it all works out for you.

Would it not be simpler to take the new boy back to the breeder and get a female?

If that was the case then Shadow should be neutered before aquiring another rabbit....else there will be baby bunnies :?

I bonded my two boys very easily and very quickly! I got Bbop 5 weeks after Sammo and on the first day i put them together and there was a bit of a scuffle so i separated. They were left overnight apart with cages facing eachother and the next day i tried again. There was a lot of grooming going on and they have been together ever since! They are the best of friends lol

cazsamps said:

I bonded my two boys very easily and very quickly! I got Bbop 5 weeks after Sammo and on the first day i put them together and there was a bit of a scuffle so i separated. They were left overnight apart with cages facing eachother and the next day i tried again. There was a lot of grooming going on and they have been together ever since! They are the best of friends lol

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Good to hear that two males can before good friends. I hope for same.

My boys are the best of friends! I never separate them not for a second. If one has to go to the vets then they both go etc! They are house bunnies and spend all day hopping about together and playing and sleeping together etc they really are BEST buds!! I hope yours bond just as well! :wave:

Can I ask why you 1) went to a breeder and 2) got a male??

Sorry, but you must read posts on here about how many buns are in rescue and about bonding and that a male/female nuetered/spayed pairing is best.

Because these bunnies are older bunnies, with the new one being 7 months, it is very difficult to bond two males together. It is not impossible and there will always be someone who has successfully got two boys together, but often they have been litter mates or introduced whilst they were babies. I personally would not risk damage to my bunnies, by bonding older males of 1 year and 7 month, if there was an alternative. As the bunny is new and from and from a breeder, why not change for a female?

How old were yours when they bonded Cazsamps? Yours are also free range and if they get on each others nerves, they can just move off. In a cage, it would be more difficult.

Bonding also comes down to temperaments (bunnies not owners:lol: ) A few experienced bunny owners on here have bonded two elderly laid back buns together. Good luck with whatever you decide and, whatever, that is, they will need to be neutered before bonding.

I thought I should add why I got 2 male rabbits cos it may help target information from rescues.

I first bought a single bunny from a breeder. I didn't mind which gender I got & the one I liked most was a buck. I had read alot of information on bunnies & the usual advice is that a house bunny can be kept on his own.

I first tried to get a bunny from a pet shop because they are the most obvious & easily accessible place. However, there were no mini-lops available (probably a good sign!). I next searched the web. I looked at several sites & freeadds showed alot of choice & many were available within an hours drive from home. So I bought what was going to be a single house bunny & called him Storm.

I very much enjoyed having Storm therefore I spent alot of time looking at the forums & info on the web. This led me to feel Storm may be happier if he had a companion for when I am at work. He was male & too young to be neutered. If I bought him a female companion there would be a risk of an unplanned pregnancy & having read the info on the web I came to the conclusion a young male bunny would be better & I'd get them both neutered.

So I bought Mallow. He & Storm got on brilliantly. Mallow was older & was neutered first. I put them back together & they were fine. A few weeks later I got Storm neutered but he was in a very bad mood when he got home & attacked Mallow when he came near. I'm now in the process of a slow re-bond.

Of course, if I knew then what I know now I would have gone straight to a rescue:wave: & get a bonded pair which would be better for the large numbers of rescue bunnies & easier for me.

The difficulty is the amount of conflicting 'advice' that people new to bunnies get. New owners will be looking at sites from anywhere on the web & some info is better than other! Even on this forum there is a diversity on whether 2male bunnies can get bonded & what age it should be done etc. Plus there is a huge amount of criticism for people who add to the number of baby bunnies by putting male & female bunnies together. Imagine what its like for a new owner who reads all this & has to make sense of it.

Here's something we could do to improve:
I do feel that insufficient emphasis is put on the benefits for the new owner of getting rescue bunnies instead of from breeders. I now know that this would have been better for me because bonding in not easy & someone would have done this for me plus they would have arranged for both bunnies to be neutered. Perhaps rescues could promote this side of their work more?

Got from breeder as friend and know her plus she lives near me, so less travel for bunny. Also wanted a other lionhead near same age as other one. Yes I agree there is a lot of bunnys in rescue and better to give a home to bunny from rescue.

I have got them both booked in for 28th to be neutered. Not a day I am looking forward to but I know there be in safe hands with Judith as she a rabbit special.

When they've been neutered, wait until they've healed completely before bonding. It would be good for you to come on here for info on bonding. There is a lot of good advice.

Especially as yours are both boys, you need to make sure that your bonding area is COMPLETELY neutral with nothing that either of them are familiar with in it.

I look forward to hearing how everything goes.