Bonding: At An Impasse And Seeking Advice (Long)

Hello folks

I am the loving keeper of two lovely rabbits Conan the Bunbarian and Xena bunnier Princess. I've been bonding them for about nearly 5 months, over a 100 dates, with only a large 1 month break in between due to Conan getting injured and me going on vacation. Pardon the long post but I want to be thorough so folks can better tell what's going on.

I need a bit of insight that other more experienced or successful bonders have. Before I started bonding I heavily researched the matter and read a lot of other peoples accounts. I chose to do the slow method because it best fit my schedule so I did bunny dates that started at 15 min and now average 3 hours, with two marathon dates lasting 10 hours. Their cages are close together and currently I swap them in the other's enclosure daily.

I first got Conan (1 year old), then some months later got Xena (10 months old). They're both from breeders and have been with me nearly a year now and are both fixed. I started the dates in the neutral territory of the kitchen and initially both were indifferent. While gradually they would eat and loaf next to each other, there was never any humping or chasing. Two months into it they started to nip and lunge but not really fight, yet could still lay around each other and relax. It seemed i was at a stalemate so since things were all right I decided to let them run in shared run territory. That was a mistake because both we're very territorial and got into a fight where Conan's eye lid was injured and bled. I noticed it the followig day during a date that strangely both bunnies were behaving well. The Vet checked the injury saying it wasn't too bad and two weeks later he was all well but I had to go on vacation so for a little less then a month I had to suspend the bunny dates.

Started it again and asked a local rescue with bonding experience for help. He came over and saw my buns interact and thought they were easily headed towards bonding. He asked if I could open up the area to see the buns in shared territory and they had a vicious fight in which the rescue guy got bit. He said he's never seen anything like it and told me he'd seek advice from someone even more knowledgable. That bonding expert without seeing my rabbits claimed a bond would most likely not work since I didn't allow them to choose their own mate.

I have seen so many examples of people who bond rabbits whose buns didn't select each other so I decided to persevere. Now another two months pass and progress has been made where Conan and Xena groom each other and still fight. I've felt scabs on them, a lot of fur is missing in places and now Xena almost got eye damage when I noticed a scab right next to her eye. Yet at the same time one day while I was at work Xena got out of her pen while Conan was out and while fur was everywhere they didn't injure each other and I was gone for many hours. They even had a date where for 10 hours all was peaceful.

Also I should mention these rabbits don't stress easy. Bathtubs hardly spook them, they find car rides annoying and confinement in a small carrier doesn't bother them. I haven't tried the putting them on top of a dryer since I don't have that kind of access to one. They appear to be starting to claim areas of the kitchen (neutral territory) as their own and fight over it, and while I still have some available neutral space it's on carpet which gives them traction making fights more intense or I guess I could try to neutralize an area and hope neither recognize it.

Thanks for reading through that lengthly exposition and now the questions. Am I daft in thinking they can still bond? How much fighting is allowable before a keeper finally call it quits? Can rabbits still show very positive signs of getting along and yet never bond? If there is never humping can dominance be established? Any other insight would be most welcome. Right now I'm dating every few days during cage clean up and planing next week to stick them together for a few days in the kitchen or a new area to see if I can finally make this work but I'm obviously a bit worried.

I think maybe it was mistake using the slow method for them, different things work for different buns. If things started off ok you should've just gone for it and left them together, but stay with them 24/7 to supervise. I would maybe now leave it for a few weeks with no dates at all so they canchill for a bit, then try bonding in a totally new area to both of them. Wait until you have a few days at least to be with them. But if they start to fight properly again i would personally call it a day x

Due to how quickly bonds seem to be able to be broken (lots of threads where people comment that a bind will be broken after a small separation etc), I'm not too sure about using the slow method. My three benefited from intense sessions of bonding, and they made progress quickly. I'm wondering if by going slowly they are given the chance to forget any hierarchical developments made in previous sessions. As ripminnie said I'd probably give them both a break then go for an intense few days, with veg and herbs to behave as distractions, assuming they don't get territorial over food.

I have a dilemma. The 60 hour marathon has been inconclusive. The first day there was some fighting, but since then there's only been Conan running away from Xena but they eat, drink, poop near by each other and relax but don't really interact.. Xena even groomed him in the carrier when I went for a stress drive with them. Now I got to go to work in a few short hours and am stuck with 3 choices.

1.) Leave them in the temporary pen. This is my least favorite choice since the pen is rather flimsy and only hasn't been escaped from because I'm nearby to correct that. It's been home thought for the last few days so it might be a shock moving them again. Again though, not my favorite option.

2) Move them into the new cage I built that's a 8ft by 4 ft two floor condo. Now it's in the room they've been in but I thoroughly cleaned, laundered and vinegar and watered the area. The cage is constricted from their previous cage, bigger even, but is set up radically different, in a different area and again the room has been I hope sanitized. Of course moving them into it together might shock them and of course I'm not around.

3) Move them in the same cage I speak of, divided in half. This was to be the first choice originally if the marathon bond failed entirely, but since it hasn't conclusively I'm loathe to go back and separate them to have to start the process all over again. Of course this is the safest choice and the one I don't have to fret at work over.

So do I gamble? I know they won't kill each other alone, one accidental time they we're out together and only fur pulling and some scratches occurred. But I'm worried about an accidental major injury occurring. As for stressing them, The new cage whether divided or whole is a shock either way because it's not their old one. I'd be grateful for any timely advice since right now I only have a few hours to make the decision.

I can only say what I would/wouldn't do. I wouldn't go out and leave them together. I've certainly had a rabbit almost kill another (and would have done so, had I not intervened) when they weren't 'properly' bonded. Sorry not much help to you - but I can only go on my own experience.

You might have said and I missed it, but how much space do you initially bond in?

Personally, I would now give them the smallest space possible (litter tray and water bowl room only) and go intensively over a couple of days, only increasing space when progress is made and even then, very very slowly so that they hardly notice.

And yes, from my experience with 2 shockers to bond I would definitely say it is still possible