Winter bonding

Since Ruby died I've been looking for a new partner for Wesley. The RSPCA have a female available who was found as a stray. She is currently being held in an outdoor, but covered, pen and I've arranged to go and see her on Friday.

My dilemma, if I were to rehome this girl or another: Wes lives outside and I have no spare hutches or garage or anything for bonding outdoors. I do have a large dog cage but can't bring them inside because of the temperature. I've heard and read people say that a male will accept a female into his territory easier than a male going into a female's and wondered if it was feasible to put them in the dog cage inside Wesley's hutch which is 8ft x 4 x 4 approx. Or does it absolutely have to be a neutral space?

I mentioned this issue to the lady from the RSPCA but she didn't suggest that they would be able to do the bonding. I might be able to borrow a hutch, I guess. Or use someone else's shed/garage - but then I couldn't keep a close enough eye on them.

What do other people do re bonding in winter?

Bonding in the winter is a nightmare. I tend to hole up in the spare room, with all the windows open, heating off, and stay up there freezing by backside off for them :lol:

It does have to be neutral territory to give the highest chance of success, but you can neutralise a space with a distilled vinegar solution, so maybe that would be an option?

So indoors isn't totally out of the question, if, as you say, you make it as cold as poss? Hmm.

Although if an existing space can be just neutralised with white vinegar - that may be a good option. A friend has just offered to let me borrow a spare hutch so that helps, too!

Cheers.

RubyGordy said:

So indoors isn't totally out of the question, if, as you say, you make it as cold as poss? Hmm.

Although if an existing space can be just neutralised with white vinegar - that may be a good option. A friend has just offered to let me borrow a spare hutch so that helps, too!

Cheers.

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Hi

Would be interested to know how your outdoor bonding went as i am in a similar situation & now wishing i'd waited til summer!

My female Skittle has a large double storey hutch in the garage & we have attached a wire run to it...however 3 days ago i got a neutered male, Mojo, from the RSPCA who assurred me it would be OK to put him in with Skittle & although things appeared to be going OK at first yesterday they had a massive fight which i had to break up with a brush in my hand & which resulted in poor Skittle going to the vets with bite wounds & a swollen leg (how bad do i feel). They are now separated til she is better..she is shut in her hutch & he is in her run with a good 2 feet between the two cages...am now totally at a loss as to what to do when shes better...do i throw them in together again & hope it doesnt happen again...but so scared they will hurt or kill each other!

I cant monitor them 24/7 & i cant bring them indoors as i have no spare rooms to conduct bonding sessions. I dont want two bunnies in two cages that was never the plan..i got Mojo for Skittle as i felt so sorry for her all alone & thought a boyfriend would enhance her life however all i have succeeded in doing is making her unhappy because she got hurt & stressed!

I bond in my back passage over winter

It's the area between my back door and inside back door in the kitchen (rubbish when you need to go outside), but it's the only place I can do it where there is (or can be) no heating.

I don't actually suggest bonding one of our rescue bunnies with house rabbits when the weather is this extreme as I have no way of finding a middle ground for the temperature. I only have outside rabbit housing for our rescues so it does become a problem.

So, in short, bonding isn't impossible in the winter if you are able to turn the heating off in a room in your house.

I'm not really any further forward and also wishing I'd waited till it was warmer, if at all.

I tried putting the buns together (see my other thread) and Wesley got the hump big time. So I've borrowed a hutch and run from a friend and at the moment, Wes is in his and the new bun is in the one I've borrowed. I've been letting each out for a run seperately so they've been able to see/sniff each other and get each other's scents but whereas the new bun, Angel, is really keen to be with Wes, he's not shown much interest and has run back in his hutch a couple of times when she's approached. He has had a sniff at her nose when she's put her nose up to his run and he's watched her as she's run by.

He did have a giddy couple of days where he was spinning around and binkying madly like he was on drugs and I thought he'd got excited about her scent but that didn't last long.

I only have a 1 bed garden flat so don't really have any rooms I can put them in, even with the heating off as that room would still be relatively warm from the rest of the flat. The only thing I've been thinking of is putting them in a dog cage right next to the open living room door with the heating off for a short while to see how it goes. Prob with a central divider as I think Wes will still sulk.

And a further step backwards this afternoon. Gave Angel a run round the garden while I went in and emptied Wesley's litter trays. He got out of the run and so they were both in the garden at the same time. I thought I'd just leave them and see what happened - and Angel chased him, furiously biting at his rear end, getting gobfulls of fur as she did. He was terrified and I had to rescue him and put him back in his hutch.

I'm really not sure this is going to work. Even if I put them in dog cages next to each other I don't see Wesley suddenly becoming interested. And, if I try them together again, I risk the same thing happening with him getting scared again. Is he going to be terrified of every bun I try to bond him with? Is every female going to chase and lunge at him like the last two now have done?

:?