Bonding Bunnies... am I missing something?

Reading through the various posts on here there seems to be lots of success in bonding bunnies.

I have also noticed that people just put the two bunnies together for what seems like days and let them get on with it. Also, this tends to be bathrooms.

However I don't get what happens when you need to sleep.

Do you:

A) just shut the bunnies in the room together and hope that you come back to two intact bunnies in the morning?

B) Sleep in with the bunnies (in the bathroom!?)


The bathroom is the only neutral territory we have in the house and its not exactly designed for sleeping in. I don't want to leave them in there unsupervised as they have a tendency to attack each other when they think they are not being watched.

I have read that people spend DAYS bonding the bunnies and leaving them in the room together. How does this work in practice? Surely life gets in the way?


My other concern is with my two is the fights. Once a fight starts and we split them up all they want to do is zoom back and attack each other. Is this normal? Or is this a bad omen?

My two are odd. They are happy with each other one minute and then the next its as if they hate each other. We have tried bonding them with each other for hours in neutral territory (the bathroom) and they always end up attacking each other as mentioned above.

I REALLY want them to bond as it would make life so much easier for them and for us.

I sleep with them or move them into an indoor crate next to the bed overnight.

I only bond when I have either myself or my partner home constantly for 48 hours to monitor the bondings.

On one occasion both rabbits cam to work with me

I much prefere the continous method to the stop start one.

My o/h refuses to have them sleep with them in the bedroom or me go and sleep with them overnight. I dont want to leave them unsupervised until they are 110% bonded.

Surely your o/h cant refuse you sleeping where the rabbits are as you can make decisions.You could use a baby gate on bathroom and sleep outside the bathroom have done that before just having short naps when rabs being quiet

I didn't sleep in the same room as my bunnies when I bonded them, but I had the door open with a "gate" in between so they would stay in the room. I took them with me to my mums house for bonding and slept in the hall way while they were in the kitchen. We used the kitchen almost like normal but tried not to spend too much time there, aspecially during the first day when they needed to sort things out for themselves.

Are your bunnies neutered/spayed?

Ida said:

I didn't sleep in the same room as my bunnies when I bonded them, but I had the door open with a "gate" in between so they would stay in the room. I took them with me to my mums house for bonding and slept in the hall way while they were in the kitchen. We used the kitchen almost like normal but tried not to spend too much time there, aspecially during the first day when they needed to sort things out for themselves.

Are your bunnies neutered/spayed?

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Both bunnies have been neutered. She and he have both been "done". The research i did before getting them said that a neutered male/female pair work best.

caismeister said:

Surely your o/h cant refuse you sleeping where the rabbits are as you can make decisions.You could use a baby gate on bathroom and sleep outside the bathroom have done that before just having short naps when rabs being quiet

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I could but my o/h would not sleep. This would cause issues. I suppose we could sleep downstairs with the babygate across the bathroom door.


Alternatively. We could sleep with the gate across the study door, though this isnt neutral territory and I think this would cause them to fight.

How about asking a rescue if they will bond them for you and then have them in the bathroom together for a few days. Perhaps will they be such good friends after staying at the rescue that you could get some sleep as well?

Thats a good idea Ida - if there isnt the time or space to bond then try a rescue because you really cant force these things and have to give them as long as they need and you need the time to supervise.

It is tough whne you need to spend time overnight with them btu if its necessary thats what needs to happen... if you can figure out the arrangements before you start then maybe that woudl help... can you clean up the study so that you and your partner can sleep together? that may well be the best case scenario if you want to do it yourself...
When I tried to bond four it was 6 days before I stopped. 3 of those days I went to work and only oe night I slept in the bathroom. I was lucky to have been there when the worse fights started btu with four there was a lot to work out. And in an ideal work I wouldn't have left the hosue at all (and have web cams etc lol) there was never a lock on fight btu it was getting to that opitn when I stopped. for much of the time I supervised and let them get on with little squabbles cos they need to figure out ranking etc

When you say they fight is it a lockign on fight or bum nipping and chasing or mounting etc? And how many times have you tried to bond htem? Have you tried a car ride?