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Help/advice please.

Pix

Warren Scout
I've just separated my buns. I'm absolutely heartbroken about it.

I just want to know - Have I separated them unnecessarily?

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=289390

They were cute as a button for several hours this evening. And then after having to separate them for the 7th time this evening. I've put the ramp up and made their 2-up, 2-down into two one-bed maisonnettes.

She was tucking into her dinner and seemed okay, but bless him, he was just digging to find the hole where the ramp was. It's so sad watching him.

Is the humping normal? How easy will it be to re-bond them? Should I give them a bit of supervised together-time every day? (Until there are any him trying to hump her related problems)

The vet has said she'd prefer to wait another 3-5 weeks to spay/neuter.

Please help!
 
I am afraid I would also recommend to keep them seperate for now and wait until they have both been 'done' and recovered from their ops to start rebonding.
They are both likely feeling very hormonal and could easily get snappy with each other which could lead to fights even if there have not been any yet.
 
Should I call the vet and see if she will move either of the ops forward?

How easy will it be to re-bond them?
 
I think the boy could be neutered now, unless his bits haven't dropped - they can mate from quite a young age. It's a shame he is so depressed, but if they can have runs next to each other, it might help a little bit and then once they are both neutered, you can rebond once hormones have settled down. Whilst it is awful to see them upset, it would be much worse if there was an injury. Stick with it and see what the vet says.
 
Should I call the vet and see if she will move either of the ops forward?

How easy will it be to re-bond them?

How old are they now?
Like Batmobile said if your little boys plums have dropped then he should be able to be neutered now but ask your vet.
Becasue the girls op is much more invasive I would stick with the vets recommendation.

Once they are all healed up which wont take long for your boy but will take a bit longer for your girl- I would give her at least 2 weeks post op before trying to bond again.

If you re bond in as neutral a setting as possible then it should go well and hopefully not take too long.
When we started bonding Jimby and Cookie we thought they would never bond all they seemed to do was attack and chase each other that was when we tried bonding in completly neutral group in the hall and only gave them a meters worth of space- it did not go well at all.
Then we spoke to someone recommended by our vets and she advised that we increase the space and have them in a neutral pen in the lounge as we were told that as long as everything that goes in tot he pen is neutral that should be fine and to be honest it worked so much better!
It was not instant but after about 2 days of touch and go they started to be indifferent then they started to fall in love.
I started a thread about our bonding journey, I can not work out how to link it but I will have a look and see what I called it then post the name so you can search if you like.
 
If you have 4 - 5 month old or slightly older male / female rabbits who are both unneutered I would recommend keeping them separate until they are both neutered, otherwise it is more than likely you will have either a pregnant female or a litter of babies before you take them both to be neutered.

I would then leave it at least 3 - 4 weeks before bonding them together in a small totally neutral space where neither have been before or which has been thoroughly cleaned and desmelled of any rabbit.

Humping is quite normal when bonding rabbits. A male / female pair should be reasonably easy to bond.
 
They've been split up. They can't see each other in their hutches and I'm afraid they don't currently have 24/7 runs and whilst I hope to be able to do that eventually I can't see myself being able to do 2@24/7 runs without redoing everything. Plus I want to be able to rebond them/not let them properly debond

I'm giving them several hours of run time every day including an hour in together, but with either I or hubby in with them, encouraging and rewarding grooming and being cute together, but distracting just as she try's to mount him.

She's 4 months and a week. He's 2 weeks younger. And no, I don't think his nuts have dropped! I dont think he's interested in that kinda thing yet!

I'm running out of completely bunny-neutral space for rebounding. It might have to be the bathtub!!

I'm trying to swap bowls/litter trays/hutches/bottles/runs regularly between them so they stay used to the smells of the other.

Is this the right course of action?
 
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