Post op rejection in bonded pair

Hi, this is my first post on here. I'm so upset at the moment....... a bit of history......Last summer I adopted two rabbits, Casper and Poppy, from a rescue. They were both approx 6 months old and neutered/spayed but were single rabbits, not a bonded pair. I decided to adopt both of them and bond them together. After settling in I started bonding them, Casper was mounting Poppy and nipping her but she is such a relaxed bunny she just hopped off and ignored him. Casper eventually gave in and started grooming her and since then she has been the dominant one, in a very relaxed way. Casper grooms her a lot and she is happy having him devoted to her.

A couple of months ago Poppy started showing signs of hormones by fur pulling and nesting, she was also chasing casper . I took them to the vet and they checked for a spaying scar and couldn't find one......Poppy HAD NOT BEEN SPAYED!!! So last week she was booked in for a spay, Casper went along with her and he stayed with her in an adjoining cage after the op. When I got them home I put them in the indoor run I had set up for them and Casper immediately started mounting and nipping Poppy. Obviously I couldn't allow him to hurt her so put a divider down the middle. The next afternoon when Poppy was fully awake I tried putting Casper in her side again as she was so desperate to get to him. Poppy immediately tried to snuggle underneath him buta e did exactly the same dominant behaviour and Poppy was so scared, she started running around to get away from him and he was mounting her and nipping her..

So they are now permanently in separate sides until Poppy is better and sadly it looks like I will have to start from scratch bonding them again. I'm so upset because they got on so well before. I'm worried he won't want her again and Poppy is so sad wwithout him snuggling up to her.

Do you guys have any advice? How long before you would reintroduce them? I'm not too worried about Poppy's hormones as she is so relaxed all the time but I am worried about her being fully recovered from her op. Any advice or experience of bonding would be much appreciated.

Casper is trying to be top bun and they can take advantage of this when one is poorly. I would keep them next to each other until Poppy is feeling better and start the re-bonding but meanwhile whilst they are heavily supervised put them together but make sure he does not mount her if she is missing him.

I hope she recovers soon.

Sounds as if good advice has been given. Chasing and mounting are sometimes difficult to watch but they are essentially signs of desire, so may signal that your pair will rebond once the female has recovered.

I agree with the other posts. Wait until she's recovered and re-bond. I'm sure if it worked before it will work again. :thumb:

Mounting is dominance rather than sexual desire. He is taking advantage of her weak state and pushing for dominance. It happens with my two when one gets very poorly.

Best thing to do is to keep them separate, but so they can still see and smell each other through bars. Keep them like this until she is fully healed. Bear in mind that chasing, extreme movements etc is not good for her spay healing and can cause the wound to open in the first week, so I'd be inclined not to allow them any time together without bars between them for now.

Once you feel that the wound is fully healed, she is fully well, and she is no longer hormonal, then you can rebond them. If you keep them so they can interact between bars, as you have been doing, this shouldn't be too much of a problem.