Bonding dilemma

We are collecting our new rabbit tomorrow to try and pair with our rabbit who sadly lost her sister. The one we are getting is a boy who lost his brother.

The advice on bonding seems to be quite conflicting so wanted to see what the great and the good of this great forum think.

- How long should we let him settle in before attempting any bonding?
- When we do bond do we start with 15 minutes and increase slowly? Or go for the chuck them in an enclosed space for 48 hours and keep a close eye on them?

The RSPCA don't help with bonding, it's suck it and see!

Thanks in advance.

Whereabouts in the country are you? Another rescue may be able to help with bonding.

There are different opinions and ways of bonding - fast and slow.

The fast method in brief you put the buns together in a small neutral area and watch them constantly and carefully

Slow method in brief you keep them living next to each other for a few weeks swapping bedding etc over.

Either way both buns will need to have been neutered for at least 6 weeks before you do anything. which you choose is very much up to you. The slow method is probably easier if you havent bonded before, there are a lot of threads on here on bonding that are worth reading

We are in Kent, both buns are neutered already. We have got a new hutch set up for the new rabbit (Prince Oompa Lumpa!) so they can see each other and will let him settle in and then swap the bedding over so they start to get used to the smell of each other.

I have an indoor hutch that I used when recovering from the spay operation so will use that when we start to introduce them.

Fingers crossed they will get on as they are both sad at the moment!

I have done lots of research on bonding and most of it was on the slow method but then reading about the fast method confused me.

Thank you for your help.

I would say stick with the slow method unless you can commit all day for 2 days and are good at watching rabbit body language