Bonding, when to give up?

You’ll have to bare with me while I ramble here, I’m desperate for some rabbit bonding help! I’ve recently been trying to bond my two rabbits together for about a month now and making very little progress. To give you a little bit of background Spodge is a neutered male, 6years of age and he’s previously had two companions. The first female companion was easy to bond as they were both babies and Spodge was the new rabbit not the current resident. When his first companion died I tried him with my other single female, it took a lot of face to face time through wire before Spodge stopped attacking her, even then when we let him out with her he would chase her around and around trying to bite her. Thankfully his companion never fought back and they settled down. But then she also passed away so I made the decision to adopt another female for him.

Marley is about 18months old and spayed. For the last month now I’ve been bonding them every day in a neutral territory. To start with it was just a massive bundle, fur flying and lots of little bite marks which I’ve had to keep an eye on. Most of the time they ignore each other, they remain on either side of the pen and either groom themselves or lay down; but as soon as they come nose to nose a bundle ensues. It seems to be caused by Spodge who nips and bites at her causing her to go all out and attack him. Up until a couple of days ago I’ve always had to separate them as neither rabbit would back down. The other day they’d bundle, separate and then go off to groom themselves and then bundle a bit more. But yesterday they would just fight and fight until I separated them. Spodge was in an absolute foul mood yesterday and would not stop grunting and thumping the entire time I was bonding them, his moody behaviour carried on for the rest of the day and he spent it sulking in his run. Has Spodge just had enough of all this bonding, after all this is his third companion now? He seems content on his own but it would be nice for him to have another companion. When do you know that a bonding just isn’t going to work? I don’t want to give up too soon but at the same time I don’t want to stress Spodge out!

I have limited experience but will give you my thoughts although someone with more experience may overrule me!!

To let them bond successfully it is much better not to use 'dates'. You need to let them stay together otherwise every time you separate them then put them together they have to start from the beginning.

By splitting them up when the going looks tough you are not letting them finish the tussle to find out who will be most dominant. Bonding can be distressing to watch but on the whole you have to let them sort it out. Fur flying is perfectly normal and they may have minor nips and bumps. If there are serious injuries, lots of blood etc then it will be unlikely that the bond will work.

So, try putting them in the pen and keeping them in there. Once they have had 72 hours with no chasing, mounting or aggression you can think about putting them in their neutralised hutch. Have piles of hay and some pellets/veg scattered round the pen to give them something to occupy themselves.:wave:

If you are struggling, why not try and get someone who lis experienced at bonding who lives in your area to bond them for you.