• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Bonding

pjdicky

New Kit
I am going to pick up Tundra from Bunnymadhouse on Friday and attempt a bond with my one year old Dutch boy. I know she has been aggressive to a male bun before.

I have been trawling through all the bonding posts and it seems the best thing to do is put them together on neutral territory and just be there with water spray if it gets really out of hand.

I feel a bit nervous that if I don't intervene at the right time one of them might get really hurt and it's just not worth that. Is this really the best way to do it?

I am a complete novice at this so I am just going to listen to all the advice and go for it :D.
 
:bunny:I'm going through the same at the moment, made the mistake of trying them together in my existing rabbits run! now have them living oppposite each other in their hutches at the mo and am planning to try again on neutral ground at the weekend - mine have both been recently neutered so maybe there are still hormones on the go... would be interested to know how you get on
 
I am going to be bonding them indoors because my current bun is a house rabbit. Trouble is there isn't really any neutral ground! My understanding was females are worse than males for being territorial so I might be ok! I'll let you know how I get on :D.
 
oooh I wouldn't try and bond Tundra in the normal way at all - unless you have a big vets fund. She's already proved herself aggressive and I thought she'd be going as a single house bunny now :shock: You might find 'slow bonding' more successful with one like her - just house them near each other and be prepared to juggle running space/time, and keep noses out of biting distance, for many many months - it could work that way but you need to be patient and good at reading her - so you need to get to know her first too. When you think of all the stress she's been through already she could do with a little bit of a settling in period in a new home I think.
 
Ok, thanks for that. That was my original plan but after reading some of the posts on here I changed my mind. I suppose in depends on the rabbit in question. Maybe I have taken on too much :cry:.
 
ah but maybe you shouldn't be listening to me - the keeper of happy single rabbits who thinks bonding is a dangerous mission :roll: you never know till you try, as bunnies are all different, but I know the speed bonding method can be very stressful for bunnies and result in illness and injury, so unless you have a big vets fund be wary.

Slow bonding doesn't get mentioned much because it's not very exciting or glamourous, and most people don't have time for it - but sometimes it's a case of 'more haste, less speed' - my boy Benny hated female bunnies with a passion and just attacked without any hesitation, because he had been attacked in the past by my group of girls - whom I got to bond with him but it turned nasty very quickly (did speed bonding method as that's all I'd heard of)

However, after he'd lived next door to Maa for about a year he became used to her and I think he quite liked her (at first he would fly at the wire and try to bite her) - the one time they accidentally got let loose together he was very submissive to her and washed her face etc - but then she tried to rip his manhood off and I stepped in with a wash basket - pop it over one of them and that stops fighting :)
 
Last edited:
I don't know what to do now. I will probably just keep them in the same room but so they can't get at each other and take it from there.

The rabbits health and well being is paramount! Not interested in excitement and being glamorous lol got my car for that :lol:.
 
Don't have much time but....there is nothing exciting or glamarous about being trapped in your kitchen for hours on end.....being attacked by rabbits with an oven mit on and a sweltering hot hand....never letting your spray out of sight...why do I keep doing it?
 
Back
Top