Failed bonding..too soon after spaying? advice please!

April is my 7 month old female bunny, she is a big grey/silver half french lop (crossed with a Heinz 57 we think!) spayed 3 weeks ago and we took her along to a bunny rescue on monday to see if we could find her a neutered male friend. There were two possibles.. the first one was a young male english rabbit (black and white spots) and he had only been neutered one week ago. He immediatley went over to April, washed her face and then humped her senseless poor girl!! He wouldnt leave her alone though, and the rescue lady parted them a couple of times, he just went back for more, pulled lots of her fur out with his teeth and poor April just surrendered...

We then tried another small lop neutered male with her after that but they sat as far apart as possible from each other - he was very nervous after being badly bullied by his previous cage mates ( he was stained yellow with urine from them and had scabs healing on his back from bites pooor thing) April went towards him and he panicked and ran away, skidding and banging into things, so the lady removed him saying he wasnt ready to bond yet and that April would dominate him if she sensed this.

So - we came home with no friend for April..

The lady at the rescue suggested we try the first male again this time next week... she said his hormones will have calmed down by then.. is this true? I still think it might be too soon - April seemed really stressed out when we got her home she just lay down all day, I felt terrible for putting her through that. Is it distressing for the female rabbits to be sexually harrased? Is it likely he will loose the urge soon? A week after his op seemes very soon to me. Does anyone think I should try the randy male again or try another rescue with another rabbit altogether? Sorry for the long post... but any advice welcome thanks!

Hi, yes i would say it was too quick to bond a female with a male who had only been done a week ago- his hormones would have been all over the place. Pawz for thought which is a charity based in Sunderland- provide you with a suitable rabbit and allow you to bond the rabbit at home with support and guidance where you can allow the rabbit to get it know you and its environment and then easing the bunny into a bond that causes as little stress as possible. It doesn't sound like an ideal situation if a bunny had markings on it and it had been bullied to put it into a situation to bond- they should have known better than that!

I believe any rabbit can be bonded contact jennypawzforthought@gmail.com if you would like more information about bonding with us

thanks Vicky

A week is normally too early to bond a male who has just been neutered. Some males have a hormone declines quite quickly after neutering whereas some are still humping for England months afterwards it is therefore difficult to give definitive advise which works for all rabbits. If the male you are interested in is very persistent it may pay to wait a couple of weeks to give him more time to settle post neuter

If you are unfamiliar with bonding I would suggest using a rescue who will keep your rabbit for at least 48 hours to start off the bond for you prior to you taking them home. Rescues who start the bonding process off for you will usually offer advise once you have taken a rabbit home.

I tried Smudge a few weeks after neutering and it was too soon so a week definitely doesn't sound right.

Thankyou!

vickypawz said:

Hi, yes i would say it was too quick to bond a female with a male who had only been done a week ago- his hormones would have been all over the place. Pawz for thought which is a charity based in Sunderland- provide you with a suitable rabbit and allow you to bond the rabbit at home with support and guidance where you can allow the rabbit to get it know you and its environment and then easing the bunny into a bond that causes as little stress as possible. It doesn't sound like an ideal situation if a bunny had markings on it and it had been bullied to put it into a situation to bond- they should have known better than that!

I believe any rabbit can be bonded contact jennypawzforthought@gmail.com if you would like more information about bonding with us

thanks Vicky

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Thanks Vicky! I will ask my husband if he would drive us to Sunderland - not sure of distances ect.. but we are just outside Darlington. I will contact you if he agrees - the rescue we used was based in Richmond. xx

janice said:

A week is normally too early to bond a male who has just been neutered. Some males have a hormone declines quite quickly after neutering whereas some are still humping for England months afterwards it is therefore difficult to give definitive advise which works for all rabbits. If the male you are interested in is very persistent it may pay to wait a couple of weeks to give him more time to settle post neuter

If you are unfamiliar with bonding I would suggest using a rescue who will keep your rabbit for at least 48 hours to start off the bond for you prior to you taking them home. Rescues who start the bonding process off for you will usually offer advise once you have taken a rabbit home.

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Thankyou Janice :wave: This is what I thought.. I have never done bonding before and was also a bit concerned about bringint them home and putting them both into Aprils run - wont she be terratorial? Do I need to clean the hutch and run so it doesnt smell familiar and maybe move it to a new spot? x

Schuette said:

I tried Smudge a few weeks after neutering and it was too soon so a week definitely doesn't sound right.

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Hmm yes the more I read about it the more it seems wrong! This lady is very experienced though I thought she would know better! Aww Smudge is gorgeous by the way! What a looker he is!

popcornpigs said:

Thankyou Janice :wave: This is what I thought.. I have never done bonding before and was also a bit concerned about bringint them home and putting them both into Aprils run - wont she be terratorial? Do I need to clean the hutch and run so it doesnt smell familiar and maybe move it to a new spot? x

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If you bringing a new bun home and you bond them, the bonding and any new space thereafter needs to be totally neutral.

The hutch can be in the same place, but it must be desmelled. Vinegar and water mixed together is good for this.

janice said:

If you bringing a new bun home and you bond them, the bonding and any new space thereafter needs to be totally neutral.

The hutch can be in the same place, but it must be desmelled. Vinegar and water mixed together is good for this.

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Really? thats good - I have a huge bottle of white vinegar somewhere... Is it also true that dried t-bags can help? Thats what the lady at the rescue put into Aprils carrier! :lol: