Bonding attempt number two is going well! (For Sky-O and other nosy peeps)

I'm sure my sister has emailed you with details already, Sky-O, but we had date number one tonight at my house:
Licory, Dexter and Simba left to right.



We seem to have discovered something. Licory gets very stressed when confined to a small space with the other rabbits but in a large space he can easily get away from them if it gets too much and he was almost binkying tonight! We always knew this time around it would be unconventional but it seems this bonding will start off in a large area and then start to move to smaller areas. :lol:

We will have another date tonight and I think the focus is on him being comfortable around other rabbits rather than 'bonding'. Simba and Dexter are so laid back they don't care about him being there so I think once he is comfortable with the idea of other rabbits then they can be bonded, as in put together until they're in love. Slowly but surely.

No she hasn't :evil: But YAY!

Keep updating this please please would be the best Christmas present if he had his friends

Well yesterday there was a bit of chasing and stomping.
What was happening was Licory wanted to see the other rabbits. He would move up to them, sniff them, then stomp and run away. The problem is that Simba loves to be chased and she always runs up to Dexter, sniffs him and runs off to get Dexter to chase her. So when Licory ran, Dexter would chase him and then he'd get scared and it would almost become a fight.

Today....

It is much better! He's been sniffing Dexter and running, but no stomping. I have been stroking Dexter when he's come over so Dexter doesn't chase him. And... Licory binkied. He's still running but not so far and coming back to smell them even quicker. And just now he had a bit of a head war with Dexter where they both put their heads down and demanded that the other clean them. It ended with Licory running away but then he did two binkies in a row!

So my theory is he is really happy to be with other rabbits but scared of them at the same time. It's getting better day by day. It might take longer than a week of dating, but I'm sure my sister can do some more at home.

:thumb:

Hi I thought I would give an update but never go round to it! I have a free moment so I thought I better let you know what happened!

Basically everything was going quite well. By the end of the week the rabbits had all settled down and were starting to get used to each other. Licory and Dexter would clamber over each other and Simba with no fight. And Dexter actually cleaned Licory on the nose which got me quite excited.

Licory was very relaxed, he was eating and jumping and binkying all around them and was completely at ease. Then for the last two days Simba and Licory had a bit of a dominance war. But it was the laziest dominance war. Ever. There was lots of heads together and nothing really happening, Simba is a bit of a social retard so she had no idea what to do and Licory was acting like he's never seen a woman before so he didn’t know what to do. There was a little bit of nips and scuffles but nothing too major. Licory even aggressively cleaned Simba in a very dominant way. But neither wanted to give in. It was almost as if neither of them thought the other was dominant enough to give way.

As both of them were being quite well behaved about the whole situation I decided I would let them duke it out and I think if we'd had a few more days they probably would have sorted it. However, on the last day I noticed Dexter was just sitting in the corner. When Licory came near him he dug at him like he does to Simba sometimes when he's annoyed. Turns out he's teething again >.<
Which I know for him is very painful as his gums are getting quite tough.

He was just so unhappy and uncomfortable and all he wanted was hugs in my lap. I had to stop the progress because Dexter was starting to take his unhappiness out on Licory and I didn't want to ruin what we had accomplished.


So unfortunately everything is on hold again until Dexter is back to full health. Licory did enjoy his time with the other rabbits and I'm glad he had a chance to deal with his fear of other buns. But honestly I am not quite sure what to do with them.
They are all such friendly and lovely buns, but none of them seem to exhibit enough dominance for it all to fall in place. I need to let them fight it out to an extent but I can't afford to let anything happen to poor Dexter (although by the end Licory and he were getting on quite well)

And neither Simba nor Licory would give in without some time to work it out.

It's a bit of a tricky situation. I am now, I think, going to wait until the spring when things start to warm up and we will have time to introduce Licory to outside. Maybe then we can try again.
We are all back home now and they are all very glad to be back. Licory is just as happy as ever, binkying all over the place and generally being gorgeous^^

I'm keeping an eye on Dexter, hopefully as it’s only a peg tooth he will knock it out like last time and that will save us a trip to the vets!

I was going well, just towards the end it started to go down hill a little. Best thing to end it on a good note and try again in a little while.
I still think it might be a good idea, when it gets a bit warmer, to put Licory in the dog pen in the garden with a hidey hole and have Simba and Dexter free range so they can get used to each other.

You just have to go at the bun's pace and they told us it was enough for now.

How is my little Dex? I don't like seeing him unhappy.