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What does this mean during dating??

honeywebb

honeywebb

Young Bun
Date No.5 for Skittle (F) & Mojo (M).
Skittle is my old bun..Mojo is the newbie boyfriend. I put them out in the run in the garden today as the sun was shining. They spent most of the day together..i only lowered the separation barrier when we had to pop out for an hour..i cant leave them unsupervised together yet.

Skittle goes up to him with her head lowered & pushes it under him & he will oblige by grooming round her ears & her forehead for abit then he gets bored & hops away..today she was rolling on her back next to him...what does this mean?

She wont groom him but he doesnt lower his head to her...neither does he lay down and 'chill'...what does this mean?

He sniffs her back end & she seems to get agitated at this & runs away. Just before we put them away in their hutches they were going mad running round the pen..not really sure if they were chasing each other or wether it was just high spirits. Cant really work out what all this body language means, i am a rabbit-beginner...any advice??
 
Looks really good.

Bowing the head for grooming is a sign of dominance. Sounds like Skittle is the boss. Might be time to go for it. Are you around tomorrow? To let them have the whole day together?
 
Yes i thought Skittle would be the boss..shes a woman after all :D

Am planning to put them bck in the run together tomorrow morn but will have to have the barrier down as we are out but it a wire mesh so they will be able to see, sniff & sit together if they want. We will be back by midday so i will let them have the whole run together for the rest of the day.

Just hope we have no set-backs & am unsure at what point i can trust them unsupervised?!! How do you tell when they are fully bonded??
 
It's difficult to tell - when they've gone a good 24 hours without fighting/chasing probably.

Spring fever won't be helping - my bonded girls are bickering at the moment. They are currently sulking - one on each side of the tv - not sitting together :lol:

When they are grooming each other and lying down near each other it's a great sign. Buns don't usually lie down if they feel threatened - it's normally something they only do when very relaxed.
 
So sounds like Skittle is more relaxed than Mojo but i suppose thats to be expected as its her house/garden/humans etc & poor Mojo is only 6months old & lived in the RSPCA since a baby.

Trust me to try bonding in Spring...i had NO IDEA that this bunny bonding business would be so difficult, stressful & open to potential disaster!!

I'm glad to hear that you think so far the signs are positive.
 
Overall it sounds positive but do be careful - those 'high spirits' are far more likely to be chasing as part of the bonding and not fun/excitement...possibly because the bum sniffing means she thinks that he is going to try and mount her (a sign of dominance) which might make her cross if she is bossing him about at the moment. I would keep a very close eye on them and if they do chase or run after each other, make sure you're on hand to gently put your hand on each of them to stop them (but don't physically separate). While a little chasing in bonding is normal, you do have to be very careful because it can easily escalate into a full-on fight and it's far better to gently intervene, calm them down, maybe distract them with food to stop that behaviour before it becomes serious. If today was the first day you put them in that run outside, a little chasing may also have been caused by that...I would normally recommend keeping them together (supervised) once you have started bonding and not moving them to a new territory for at least a week, as it can cause them to become territorial and makes a fight more likely.

I would also advise not putting a barrier down the middle of the pen you are using for bonding, so for example in the run tomorrow morning. If you do that, you will be letting each of them establish half the run as their own territory (even in a short space of time) and this greatly increases the chances of fighting if you take the barrier out and carry on in the same space. If you're going to separate them back to their own accommodation overnight, I would keep them there until you are ready to put them both into the neutral pen together tomorrow.

Good luck!
 
Santa said:
Overall it sounds positive but do be careful - those 'high spirits' are far more likely to be chasing as part of the bonding and not fun/excitement...possibly because the bum sniffing means she thinks that he is going to try and mount her (a sign of dominance) which might make her cross if she is bossing him about at the moment. I would keep a very close eye on them and if they do chase or run after each other, make sure you're on hand to gently put your hand on each of them to stop them (but don't physically separate). While a little chasing in bonding is normal, you do have to be very careful because it can easily escalate into a full-on fight and it's far better to gently intervene, calm them down, maybe distract them with food to stop that behaviour before it becomes serious. If today was the first day you put them in that run outside, a little chasing may also have been caused by that...I would normally recommend keeping them together (supervised) once you have started bonding and not moving them to a new territory for at least a week, as it can cause them to become territorial and makes a fight more likely.

I would also advise not putting a barrier down the middle of the pen you are using for bonding, so for example in the run tomorrow morning. If you do that, you will be letting each of them establish half the run as their own territory (even in a short space of time) and this greatly increases the chances of fighting if you take the barrier out and carry on in the same space. If you're going to separate them back to their own accommodation overnight, I would keep them there until you are ready to put them both into the neutral pen together tomorrow.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Right OK i will leave them in their hutches til ready for the Big Meet again!
Also thanks for the tips re chasing...i will keep an eye on that in future...though they only started doing that near the end of the session (about 4 hours in).
Prior to that they ate together..sniffed each other..he groomed her..she lay around & they also ignored each other.
My its stressful!
 
Oh and just to add to the above...the pen & barrier in the garden used in todays dating is the same pen & barrier i have been using in the garage on their previous dates..i just moved it outside on to the grass as the sun was shining.
I figured that as they have both been in it & left their scent in both sections i was hoping it is sort of both their territory now & wouldnt cause conflict...but you're going to tell me i'm wrong now arent you?? :D
 
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