Help!! Bonding not going well :(

Hi,

I recently got a neutered Lionhead female (Dotty) as a companion for my neutered Netherland Dwarf x Lionhead male (Diggy) who was neuteutered a month ago. She came from a house where she was living with seven other rabbits. He has been on his own since we got him.

We first put them together in the bath, all went well a bit of humping from him but she was very submissive and didnt seem bothered, we would push him off after a couple of seconds and stroke her to reassure her. The next bath date they started nipping each other. We have tried new areas of neutral ground and they seem to be getting worse. Now they try and fight We've been spraying them with water when they look like their about to fight or when they do fight to stop them and separate them whenever they show any signs of fighting but yesterday Diggy ended up with a little cut on his lip I feel terrible!

Have been swapping their hutches and have recently purchased a puppy pen for the garden. We are alternating who is in the pen and who has the run of the garden. Not sure if this is the right thing to do.

I'm getting so worried about it! I have never bonded rabbits so don't know if this will pass with time or if they just aren't right for each other?

Please any advise is much appreciated! I have no experience at bonding rabbits and although have read as much information as I can find I feel clueless as how to continue with them!

x

In my experience of bonding bunnies, I've always found the 'squish them together and force them to sit RIGHT next to each other so they can't run away and start a fight' method the best.

I've also used either a water spray or my hand to break up any potential scuffles, preferrably BEFORE anything starts. But the last bonding I did, I started using a large pen (about 10ft by 3ft). Soon realised this was much too big and reduced it to around 4ft by 2ft but even that was too big and they could still sit at each end of it and ignore each other inbetween chasing, nipping and humping. It wasn't until I forced them into a tiny puppy crate and made them sit side by side that any mutual grooming began and they were effectively 'bonded' within 24 hours from that point.

Might be worth a smaller area - smaller even than you think practical. Something like their carry case that you take them to the vet in? Unless there's an absolute hatred of each other (in which case bonding may never work), if there's space to chase, there's space to ignore!