Help... (sorry for the essay)

I have a neutered male netherland dwarf named Elvis. He lives indoors in an indoor cage left open with a nic run attached. He also gets supervised free time around the house.

We have just got a 10week old mini lop doe called indie. At the moment we have put her into a pen opposite our current rabbits home. We have let them both have separate free time in the room they are in (which was neutral to both)

Elvis seems to run around the room not really interested in indie, continuing to binky and roll over etc. He has tried to rub his chin along the new cage a few times but when she comes to see him he just moves away.

On indies free time if she goes over to elvis's cage he make a little grunt noise and tries to get out (obviously protecting his territory)

Before we got indie I read up a lot on bonding and thought elvis having a companion would be best for him. Now we have got her home though Im confused as to where to start. I work throughout the day so I feel a fast bond with 24 hour supervision isn't possible. Someone told me to introduce them in the bath over short periods of time?

Please could you give me ideas as to what I could do. Other than this room (which they have both now been in) the only neutral place is the bathroom.

Hi :wave:

First of all getting him a companion is a great idea.

I cannot really advise if you wish to take the bonding slowly and do "dates" or have them in the same room as each other. I have only ever tried that way once and failed, though other members on here bond that way and may be able to help.

The way I bond is to place both rabbits into the same neutral area at the same time. This needs to be a fairly small space (so bathroom should be perfect) and scatter some food around on the floor and let them go. Don't put in litter trays, I have sometimes found one bunny takes this as their territory. Then basically leave them to it and watch, and only interefere if they have a fight, leave them to chase a bit, hump a bit and nip a bit and only separate if it becomes really agressive. I tend to have a water spray bottle, a thick pair of gloves and a brush (like dustpan and brush) handy for if a fight breaks loose that you can use to break up the fight. Fingers crossed within 24-48 hours you should see a friendship start to form. It can take a while for them to be fully bonded and laid next to each other and grooming.

This could be done over a weekend if you have the time off

I hope this helps a bit and sorry I can't be more helpful on the longer way to bond as I have no experience.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice.
I would prefer to put them in neutral territory and monitor them than to do it slowly over dates. I'm just concerned about not being able to watch them 100% of the time and if I leave them then a fight may break out. If I introduce them into the bathroom and sit with them for as long as possible and then put them back in their separate pens when I have to work will this have the same effect or will it be like going to stage one every time I introduce them again?
Sorry if I sound like I have no idea what I am doing. I have read so many books and forums about bonding and really felt I knew what to do but now the time has come i can tell it's going to be a lot more difficult than I first thought!

Thank you