bonding outdoors

hi:wave:

i have a question (im not even bonding yet- im still hoping a rescue will be able to bond for me!)

what do you do if you have to bond rabbits outside? im asking because if i bond steve and a doe together it will have to be outside because my OH is allergic to rabbit fur so they cant come inside.

so would i start really early and hope for the best when they have to stay on their own at night or could i stop, and put them back together in the morning?

i know that really once they are together thats how they should stay so m a bit confused on what happens at night.


ETA:
oooooo ive had an idea,what if i split steves run in half (5foot x 9 foot at the mo) with a puppy pen type thing, put another hutch in the new half and have them live side by side for a while, swapping them over so they effectivly share the space..... could i slowly introduce them like this? does it work as well?
has anybody bonded outside that has any advice/tips?

When i took Ronnie and Lola for bonding at Tree's, she put them in a run outside first I think she left them there for a few hours then took them in her bedroom in a dogcrate overnight. The following day they were home and in their shed!

The main thing is you need to limit their space.

The living side by side, swapping litter trays, or even swapping sides of the run/hutches would be fab Would mean they get used to each others smells. From what i gather theres 2 ways of bonding, the slow way, which is what youve explained here (side by side etc) or the quicker way is to stick them together and watch them!

Even better, send them to a rescue

ETA: theres some really good info in this article!

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

Good luck :wave: xXx

I am doing an outside bond at the moment as the house is far too warm to bring them inside and then put back out. They are being seperated at night and then put back in the morning. I have been doing this for 4 days now and still have a long way to go and if I could have kept them together 24/7 we would probably be there by now. So it is possible but does take longer as there is always a step back at the start of each day. Putting them in each others housing at night can help too

oooo thank you, i may not need to bother taking up a rescues time if this way could work, it may be slower but it'll all be good eventually.....hopefully.