Trying to bond Baby and Adult

I am currently trying to bond two dwarf lops together. My 1 year old neutered male, and a 13 week unspayed female.
As my male is reasonably shy I was worried about how he would take to a friend. He appears however to love her! He goes all doey eyed and floppy and can't stop looking at her. Their first few bonding sessions went quite well, they played together, he tried to mount her a few times and she gave him a little nip (nothing serious). However the past 3 times she has proper gone for him and they have had a real scuffle - that said he doe'nst seem to actually bite her back. I am wondering if this is due to the fact that she is unspayed? I am going to have her done but the vet said she will have to be 5 to 6 months old and that I should introduce them as soon as possible! I am not sure at this stage until she has been done whether to carry on with the sessions as I don't want him to end up resenting her!
Any suggestions would be welcome.

:wave: and welcome to RU

Well done for getting your male a wifey bun
I would certainly wait for her to be spayed before trying to bond them, epecially as she is already showing signs of being hormonal. You will also need to wait 6 weeks after her op for her to recover and heal.
For the time being I would keep them close to each other so they can see and smell eachother and then when you do bond them, make sure it is done on neutral territory.

What are your bunnies names and do you have any pictures?

I would wait till at least 4 weeks after she's been spayed, 8 would be better. She sounds like she is getting hormonal and you dont want to risk them actually fighting because of it, as then it will be harder to bond them in future.

It may also be worth looking to check that you have followed the rules of bonding as that may have caused some of the scuffles. It is even more important when hormones are involved to make sure they are followed, particularly regarding neutralising EVERYTHING. When you do come to bond them, unless there is a particular reason not to, it may work better to use the 'keep them together in a 4x2 space for at least 48 hours fully supervised then increase space' method instead of dating.

There are some vets that will neuter does as early as 15 weeks, this may be worth looking in to. One of my own was done at this age which was particularly good as (as I'm sure you know) rabbits will often be more likely to accept a baby rabbit as they are less of a threat, so although she wasnt a real baby anymore it may have helped and I needed an easy bond to reduce stress for my male (he has snuffles).

nessar said:

There are some vets that will neuter does as early as 15 weeks, this may be worth looking in to. One of my own was done at this age which was particularly good as (as I'm sure you know) rabbits will often be more likely to accept a baby rabbit as they are less of a threat, so although she wasnt a real baby anymore it may have helped and I needed an easy bond to reduce stress for my male (he has snuffles).

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My bun was also spayed at 4 months, by a very rabbit-savvy vet, and never went through a major stroppy phase as she was done quite early. She also healed very quickly and straightforwardly once I'd stopped her picking the stitches.

The reason some vets wait for longer is that occasionally the organs aren't sufficiently developed at that stage and so they could end up putting her under GA, not being able to remove anything and then she would have to go back in another month or two. Which means two big ops for the bunny and two lots of recovery supervision of her and vet fees for you.

Photo's

ralphus maximus! said:

:wave: and welcome to RU

Well done for getting your male a wifey bun
I would certainly wait for her to be spayed before trying to bond them, epecially as she is already showing signs of being hormonal. You will also need to wait 6 weeks after her op for her to recover and heal.
For the time being I would keep them close to each other so they can see and smell eachother and then when you do bond them, make sure it is done on neutral territory.

What are your bunnies names and do you have any pictures?

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Thanks for the advice.
Bunnies names are Harvey and Misty - photos below:

Vita said:

My bun was also spayed at 4 months, by a very rabbit-savvy vet, and never went through a major stroppy phase as she was done quite early. She also healed very quickly and straightforwardly once I'd stopped her picking the stitches.

The reason some vets wait for longer is that occasionally the organs aren't sufficiently developed at that stage and so they could end up putting her under GA, not being able to remove anything and then she would have to go back in another month or two. Which means two big ops for the bunny and two lots of recovery supervision of her and vet fees for you.

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Thats a good point, I had the same thing with Annabelle - because she was spayed before she got hormonal she never went through the stroppy stage at all so I didnt have to wait weeks for hormones to die down after her spay, she was ready to be bonded as soon as she was healed. The rescue I got her from tends to neuter all their litters at around 15-16 weeks age I believe, as long as they are healthy.

Vets now booked

Vita said:

My bun was also spayed at 4 months, by a very rabbit-savvy vet, and never went through a major stroppy phase as she was done quite early. She also healed very quickly and straightforwardly once I'd stopped her picking the stitches.

The reason some vets wait for longer is that occasionally the organs aren't sufficiently developed at that stage and so they could end up putting her under GA, not being able to remove anything and then she would have to go back in another month or two. Which means two big ops for the bunny and two lots of recovery supervision of her and vet fees for you.

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Misty is now booked in to be spayed at the end of next week aged 4 months. The vet agreed to do her then based on a series of questions regarding her age, breed, manerisms, and weight. Fingers crossed that everything goes well.

Thats a great update

Can I ask, is the room pictured where one buns cage is, is this where you have been doing the bonding? As this may be part of the problem you are having. If one or both buns have been in the bonding area before, or see the other bun approaching their territory, this can provoke them into defending their 'territory' (ie. anywhere they have been before) against what they see as an intruder - rabbits are very territorial. Bonding should always be done in preferably an area that neither bun has been into before, or if not one that has been thoroughly neutralised.

Hi. Both buns cages are in this room now. I tried doing the bonding in the room and another room where neither of them have been. The ironic thing is, this is his room and therefore if anything I anticipated a problem with him! but no even though she is the new one and she had never been in the room before she is the one than started going for him. I have to admit though this was'nt until they had been in the room quite a few times together - perhaps she was getting more used to it? although she had never been out in the room on her own!

Just to give you an update, Misty has today been spayed. Shes not very happy with me at the moment, but hopefully she will be my friend again tomorrow!

The vet said that I only have to wait 10 days before I can try my two rabbits together again! - although i'm not sure whether this is a little soon?

Furballs said:

Just to give you an update, Misty has today been spayed. Shes not very happy with me at the moment, but hopefully she will be my friend again tomorrow!

The vet said that I only have to wait 10 days before I can try my two rabbits together again! - although i'm not sure whether this is a little soon?

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She needs longer than that to be fully recovered, minimum 3 days total cage rest, seven days no jumping/climbing/sprinting in big spaces and so on... She will be sore, possibly irritable, her hormones will be up and down more than ever over the next 6-8 weeks, she will be more likely to fight and injure herself than ever. Her fur should be well into regrowth over a nicely mended scar by the time you chance it.

The other thing I would mention is that you want the bonding area to have toys and a few minor distractions to break tension, but it should be relatively bare. Too many items confuse the issue and also create greater potential for one rabbit to choose an area, or for a fight to break out when someone is cornered in all the stuff!

Jerseylotte said:

She needs longer than that to be fully recovered, minimum 3 days total cage rest, seven days no jumping/climbing/sprinting in big spaces and so on... She will be sore, possibly irritable, her hormones will be up and down more than ever over the next 6-8 weeks, she will be more likely to fight and injure herself than ever. Her fur should be well into regrowth over a nicely mended scar by the time you chance it.

The other thing I would mention is that you want the bonding area to have toys and a few minor distractions to break tension, but it should be relatively bare. Too many items confuse the issue and also create greater potential for one rabbit to choose an area, or for a fight to break out when someone is cornered in all the stuff!

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Thanks for the advice - that seems much more like it to me. Makes you wonder if vets always know what they are talking about! does'nt fill you with confidence does it! Good news is shes much happier today, currently sat happily munching away!!

Furballs said:

Thanks for the advice - that seems much more like it to me. Makes you wonder if vets always know what they are talking about! does'nt fill you with confidence does it! Good news is shes much happier today, currently sat happily munching away!!

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Curious indeed!

Glad to hear she's eating and on the mend

Nice to hear that she is coping well and recovering.

You will be going the right thing by waiting at least 4 weeks to try bonding again, and it will all be worth it in the end

There are some good tips here on bonding which you may find useful:


http://flashsplace.webs.com/bondingbunnies.htm

This is from one of the forum members, Sky-O and there is a wealth of info Flashes Place website xx