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Male rabbit bonding help please!

Dawnl627

New Kit
Hi,
We currently have a 14 month old castrated male rabbit (called Fiver!) and last week we found a stray rabbit just sat on our drive... couldnt leave him outside lost so we took him in and put posters up asking if anyone had lost a rabbit. Now a week on no one has claimed him, so we are looking at keeping him, ideally if he would live with Fiver.

We're trying to bond them, but having never done this before we're not sure what to do! We've put their cages next to each other, and theyve sniffed but thats about it, then today we tried putting them in a pen with a divide between them (they can sniff noses, but cant actually get at each other!)

Fiver was more interested, and when stray bunny came up to say hello not much happened the first time, then Fiver bit stray bunnys nose, and now stray bunny is just sat in the far corner not wanting to go near!

What does this mean?
Where should we go from here?

Any help much appreciated,
Dawny & Stu ;)
 
Is the new bunny neutered?

Ideally it would be recommended that you would quarantine the stray because you have no idea where it came from, or if it carries anything and you don't want to subject your current guy to any risks of catching something from the new bunny.

I would separate and quarantine (being mindful of the 'invisibles'), get your new guy neutered, wait 6 weeks after that and then look to bond them.
 
The stray bunny has been to the vet and has been all checked out health wise, however, he is not neutered... is this a must for bonding?

Dawn & Stu ;)
 
Definitely a must, and you need to wait for his hormones to die down first too.

Your vet will be able to tell you what condition he is currently, but not what he is incubating and what your bunny may be exposed to.
 
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