question - in bonding process..

hi, i am currently trying to bond 2 male neutered rabbits (ted and bruce). they have been living in cages next to each other for a few weeks and on sat i introduced them in my bathroom with scattered food on the floor. i sat with them for 1 hour, no fighting, some licking, plenty of thumping and one even laid next to the other whilst he washed.

i then put them in a the same cat box and walked them round the garden and keep them in it whilst i cleaned the hut and run with vinegar (teds house) so it would remain neutral terrritory.

still no problems with them in the cat box. i placed them in to teds house which had now been washed carefully with vinegar and within 2 minutes they started to fight..so i broke them up.

ted is 6 months and was neutered several weeks ago and bruce is 18 months and was neutered nearly 2 weeks ago.


any advice? so far a positive start but i dont know how to overcome the terrritorial bit...help....

You moved them into the housing far too soon in my opinion. I would have kept them in a neutral space for 5-7 days to allow the bond to strenghten and a hierachy to develop.

It also allows time for Ted to forget about his hutch. It helps to rearrange everything and to clean all toys, bowls, bottles and litter trays.

Also, had they not got on initially, I would have suggested you hadn't waited long enough after Bruce's neuter for his hormones to subside.