Bonding rabbits

Hi Everyone,

My friend is bonding her 2 rabbits. They have been together all day, eating from the same food bowl. Shut in the hutch together for about 1 hour then let out. What she wants to know is if she should let them share the same hutch tonight.


Any help would be great.

Thanks
xx

To be able to advise we would need an awful lot more info than that I am afraid. We would need to know about neutrality, size, condition of rabbits (neutered etc), what she has done so far.

When starting to bond the person doing it needs to follow some very clear rules.

Totally neutral space,
small area
watch them constantly for atleast 24 hours
do not increase space for a good 4-5 days
and note all behaviours and decifer as necessary.

Hi, They are only little,

the doe is 5 months and the buck is 9 weeks.

The hutch and the run are totally neutral.

When she first introduced them the buck was a bit aggressive to the doe so she seperated them. Then tried again the next day they seemed fine but put them in seperate hutches last night. Then put them back together today and they have been together all day in and out of the hutch, lying together in the hutch and outside, they look very relaxed with each other.

At first she was in the run with them, then watched from a distance and has been monitoring them all day.

The run is about 8 x 6 in size i think.

Whilst it is possible to bond such a young bunny (I have done it myself) I hope your friend realises the responsibility of catching the baby before it gets to maturity to ensure no fighting.

I would say that the space is not quite right for bonding. I would suggest an area of about 4x2 (e.g. an indoor cage base with a bonding pen around it) and the rabbits should stay in that until they are properly bonded (although I use that term loosly as bonding in reality takes many months to become rock solid).

What size is the hutch she is using?

I would restrict them to the bonding space only and would certainly not let them have the run this early.

I'm no expert but I think it's advised not to bond until both have been neutered.

Babsie said:

I'm no expert but I think it's advised not to bond until both have been neutered.

Click to expand...

In general this would always be my recommendation too, but with a tiny baby it is possible but will always mean a massive responsibility for the owner to ensure early neutering or it is quite likely to fail as soon as the baby starts to reach maturity.

One of my rabbits was adopted from ARC at 10 weeks because the partner rabbit wouldn't accept an older one. She treated the baby as her child and accepted him, BUT, I was very lucky in catching him just as his boy bits dropped and fur had flown overnight. By neutering the very next day, the relationship was saved and I didn't need to split or rebond. They carried on as normal.

But this relies on Anna'sbunnies' friend being a very capable owner and one who can intercept this kind of event.

The hutch is also quite big about 8ft long.

I will pass on your advice on to her, she does have a smaller run which might be better.

Thanks
Anna
xx

ANNASBUNNIES said:

The hutch is also quite big about 8ft long.

I will pass on your advice on to her, she does have a smaller run which might be better.

Thanks
Anna
xx

Click to expand...

Anna, if she (or you) wants some more info about how I do a bond with older rabbits, then please feel free to message me on my e-mail therabbitcrossing@yahoo.co.uk and I'll send my leaflet over which might help a wee bit.

Hope it works out for her.

I will do The Duchess, as soon I will need to bond my doe once she is spayed (she is only 12 weeks now) to a older neutered buck. What age would you say it should be?

Well she left them together all night, Checking them about 4 times in the night. Everything seem fine and they were still cuddled up this morning.

I have warned her to keep an eye on her buck for when he matures.

So fingers crossed it will be a happy partnership.