First Time Bonding - New Bunny in the house - seems rather solitary.

Hi, I haven't been on here in a while but, we have a house bunny called Alfie, and we've had him about 3yrs now. We have just got a girl bunny as a friend for him as we go on holiday for 2 weeks every year and we have a neighbour come in and feed him but we always felt guilty leaving him. Our bunny is a male neutered rex, 3yrs old, and very friendly; the girl (who we have called Lily), is an unspayed lop 2yrs old. We are hoping that in time, they will be friends and will be happy together.

At the moment though, the girl seems rather solitary and not very confident; this is fine as we know that everything is new to her and needs to get used to her new home. We are just a little worried how long it might take as in her previous home, she was an indoor/outdoor bunny. In the summer, she lived in a hutch outside in the garden, by herself. In the winter, she lived (we were told), in her teenage daughters bedroom, I'm guessing in a cage. We don't know how much attention she received while with her previous owner and we didn't like to ask. We met the owner to collect her face to face and asked a few questions. She is rather timid and does seem rather alone, like she's not used to other bunnies, or having lots of human contact/attention. When we went to meet her owner and see the bunny, the owner said she grunts alot when you try to pick her up, but once you hold her, she is fine. This is exactly what happened when the owner picked her up - 'grunt, grunt, grunt.' Then she passed her to me, but she sat in my arms comfortably (despite me being a stranger), and didn't struggle or complain; she seemed quite happy

Now, we have only had her since Bank Holiday Monday so its her 3rd day in our house so, its really early days yet. She lives in a big cage in the dining room where Alfie lives (roaming free, and with his own cage etc), so he can go right up to smell her etc. Alfie goes right up to her cage and follows her when she moves about (so cute to watch), and she goes up to bars and they touch noses and make contact with each other. Other times, she ignores him, while he is trying to get her attention.
The reason I'm posting is to find out if she will become more confident? Will she stop grunting before being picked up? (I haven't picked her up since we brought her home though, as don't want to scare her). I stroke her when I feed her, and sometimes through the bars, I gently rub her nose; she seems ok for a few seconds, then runs away. I'm hoping for some advice for 1st time bonding, and any tips. We let her out last night to run around on a blanket (we have wooden floors, bit slippy). Alfie was on the other side of the child/pet gate that we have, dividing the dining room, and living room. She was very active running and hopping about and even stood on her hind legs and put her front paws on my knee (I was sat on the sofa). However, she did wee or spray the duvet quite a lot! I didn't see her do it though. There were quite a few patches on the blanket. Is this territory marking?? Will it stop if we get her spayed? Or will it calm down once she is more used to her new home?
I'm probably worrying over nothing but just want to make sure everything will be ok

Your female should be spayed for health reasons (a large proportion of unspayed females develop uterine cancer) and because her hormones will make bonding extremely difficult. A lot of behavioural issues will disappear once hormones have died down after spaying.

Babsie said:

Your female should be spayed for health reasons (a large proportion of unspayed females develop uterine cancer) and because her hormones will make bonding extremely difficult. A lot of behavioural issues will disappear once hormones have died down after spaying.

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Hi, thank you for your reply. We are definitely going to do that, and have made an appointment. Glad to hear that spaying helps behavioural issues as well as health reasons.. Thanks again.

Alfie1010 said:

Hi, thank you for your reply. We are definitely going to do that, and have made an appointment. Glad to hear that spaying helps behavioural issues as well as health reasons.. Thanks again.

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Good move!

When this has been done and her hormones have died down, perhaps we can give some advice on bonding, which will have to be in a neutral area (ie where neither rabbit has been).

Hi guys,

Just wanted to update you on our progress with Alfie & Lily. Alfie is our resident bunny, Lily is our new bunny. We have had Lily about a month now, and had her spayed about 2 weeks ago. She seems less grunty & growly now which is nice; was starting to get used to her grunting at me every morning & evening when I fed her ;-)
We kept her in her separate cage but near Alfie etc to get them used to each other and after spaying we put her back in her cage to rest & recover. After a week, we decided to introduce them properly & with our supervision and so far, it seems to have gone well.
Over the past couple of weeks, we started by putting them in a semi-neutral area (our lounge) as its where Alfie sometimes comes over for some petting when we are watching tv etc (he lives in the dining room, which runs through to the lounge). We let them play together while keeping an eye on both in case of fighting. It started off with alot of chasing - Alfie chasing Lily and sometimes nipping her; and Lily running away. Lily is rather timid and a little nervy anyway, and Alfie is more dominant. But the more we put them together, the less chasing there was. We were always there when we let them play together, and started to let them play about 2-3 times a day when we were around, especially in the evening.
These days, they spend time lying together, playing together, and eating together, and even sharing Alfies cage now - its soooo cute! Hope it continues this way A few days ago, we decided to let them be together overnight, and remove Lily cage she was living in when we first brought her home. I have to say, I was a little worried in case a fight started once our backs were turned, and wondered what I would find in the morning!?! BUT, all was well We haven't seen a single fight yet. Fingers crossed eh guys?? Its still early days yet but they seem to be getting on wonderfully x

I only have one question though...something I didn't and still don't understand..
In the first few days that we let them out together, whenever Alfie was near her, she would put her chin straight down to the floor, as if she was being submissive to him. But she may have been being dominant by asking Alfie to groom her?? Hence why she put her chin to the floor everytime he was near her.
She still does this but not as much. Can anyone provide an explanation as we are unsure what this type of behaviour is, in the bunny kingdom
Have a look at my new Avatar. I have changed it to show both bunnies now, they are eating together x

Thanks again
Will provide photos..

Photos of Alfie & Lily (Lily is the Lop)

They are really lovely looking and match so well! Yes it does sound like grooming requesting behaviour to me. (I am not an expert, just someone who reads loads of threads on here).

They look like a very happy bonded pair! They're beautiful, I do really like their colours.

Yeah the head down means groom her, and is a dominant posture, although my rabbit has put her head down to me, but was submissive and not asking for head rubs.

As long as it doesn't cause any problems, I wouldn't worry about it.

tulsi said:

They are really lovely looking and match so well! Yes it does sound like grooming requesting behaviour to me. (I am not an expert, just someone who reads loads of threads on here).

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Awww Thank you x They are very cute together..hope it continues. They occasionally wash each others ears..sooo cute

Thanks Guys..
When we found Lily, we thought she looked a lot like Alfie - eg similar style of coat, just lighter in colour (and not a Rex like Alfie is). But they do both have lovely soft coats and colours x

Mirth said:

They look like a very happy bonded pair! They're beautiful, I do really like their colours.

Yeah the head down means groom her, and is a dominant posture, although my rabbit has put her head down to me, but was submissive and not asking for head rubs.

As long as it doesn't cause any problems, I wouldn't worry about it.

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Thanks for your help too ..we didn't know if head down was submissive or dominant in bunny language