Can I have the idiots guide to bounding please?!

Hiya :wave:

Im hoping to bound my two girls, they have spoken through the bars and have smelt each other and it seems ok, whats the next steps please?

Thanks Sam x

Introduce them both in a neutral area. I would make the area large, as a bit of chasing is to be expected initially.

Helen xx

Ensure that both are spayed. A bond with hormonal rabbits rarely goes well. Introduce first in a small, neutral area. Small initially is recommended because otherwise they will likely just sit at opposite ends ignoring each other. You need to get them to interact. Don't keep separating them, once they are together watch them for about 24-48 hours. Don't intervene unless it gets nasty. Circling usually means a fight is about to start. Nipping and chasing is natural though.

That's the basics I think, I may have forgotten something.

I'm really keen to here of some advice as well. I'm hoping to bond my male and female rabbit over christmas and have heard lots of different things, i.e some say a small space/ and some say a big space, some say about a car journey. Theres alot of really good ideas and tips, but which is right I don't know :roll:

Here you go: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=55913

Although you'll probably still find plenty of conflicting advice in there too! The problem is that bunnies haven't read the text book and all behave differently, so sometimes you just have to go with the flow and adapt things depending on how they go.

Personally I prefer to start with a smaller space as it means they have to get to know each other, and I think that a bigger space makes fights more likely as they get skittish if they have enough room to bounce about and get any speed up.

Also personally I tend to gently hold the buns apart early on during the bond if it looks as if they are going to go for each other (you can often see warning signs such as ears going flat back and tail up in the air). By just gently putting a hand on the buns backs for a few seconds, you can often diffuse any tension before it arises. As the hours pass and they get more relaxed together, this usually dies down and they don't seem to feel the need to attack each other. Also if they end up nose to bum early on I gently move them apart too, to prevent it escalating into a fight (easily happens if both lock on to the other bun's bum).

A little fur pulling and humping is normal and needs to take place, but sometimes again I will take the humper off (always if he gets on the other's head as he may get his bits bitten) especially if the other bun is starting to get a bit anxious. If there is lots of constant humping or going for each other, often I find putting a fresh pile of hay in gives them a little distraction so they calm down a bit. But there is a certain amount of trial and error involved as some buns will fight over fresh food!

Start off in a neutral small space. I introduced my 2 boys in a big dog crate and found it was too big and there was a lot of chasing going on. I then split the dog crate in half (with a side of my metal rabbit pen) and then used just the half and this worked much better. I then moved the partition over a small amount each day until they had the whole crate and they were fine

Thanks everyone - keep the advice coming please x