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An unbondable pair?

BunDad

New Kit
Greetings all, I have a question to ask and haven't found anything fitting my exact situation. I'll try to keep this as summary as possible. I have three rabbits right now, Kuri is an eight month old female Holland Lop, Shimo is a five month old male Netherland dwarf, and Cookie is roughly five year old male mixed about average size (4 pounds). Kuri was spayed more than 6 weeks ago, Shimo was neutered just over three weeks ago, and Cookie was neutered before I got him about one month ago. I'll likely be finding Cookie another home as I rescued him from being released in the mountains, so I didn't plan for him being in the family.

I'm planning on bonding Kuri and Shimo, and from what I've read it's very likely too soon to try. I have kept their cages close to where they could see and sniff at each other since I brought Shimo home, and even had to put up a divide to keep Kuri from seeing him so she would stop going at the cage wall there. It's made of soft wood so they can chew it without hurting anything, but the way she would initially go it I was a little worried she would pull her teeth out (not to mention the noise keeping me awake at night). Lately, they've been pretty indifferent to each other through the chicken wires after I took out the visual barrier so I thought maybe it would be ok. Reading up, I chose the tiny little toilet room (separate from the "bathing" room in Japanese homes) as neutral ground since that area is barricaded off. What worries me is that everything seemed fine until Kuri saw Shimo, then before I could blink she had his skin in her teeth and I had to pry her jaw open to make her let go. I can relate to the other new member saying he was more shaken than them. No blood drawn, skin wasn't broken so Shimo is perfectly fine, but after that was the only time he's ever growled and boxed me as I returned them to their cages.

Now that it's too late to be short, my question is: can they ever be bonded, or is she too aggressive towards him... it would really be disappointing if I can't bond them, and it's challenging to give all three free run time when none of them can be in the same space together. I'm getting rather stressed over it and I know they are too.

Another note with Kuri, ever since puberty she's become "cage aggressive", a real Jekyl/Hyde case. Running around the apartment, she's the sweet little girl looking for her salad in my lap and playing with the wood scraps I leave laying around or digging in the giant hay-pile box. In her cage, she'll growl and box me for putting her food bowl into the cage, when she wants the food. At the worst, I've felt teeth touch my skin but she's never once actually tried to bite me, though I've felt her claws many times, and she's gotten in the habbit of uncleaning her cage. I tidy it all up, litter box nice and fresh, she gets back in the cage and starts moving things around, I've had to raise up the walls of her box so she won't dig all the litter out into the cage and onto the floor...

She used to be such a calm sweet little girl, then hormones struck and she's a raging teenager now... I was sooo hoping for a snuggly little baby girl. Not much chance of that from Shimo either, he's only barely starting to sit still for any petting :cry:. Hope some of you out there can help.
 
Hello and sorry to hear you're having bonding issues. It's a long time since I've had a female spayed but I believe it's at least 6 weeks post-spay to allow hormones to settle down. I would think she's become territorial simply because there are other bunnies in the vicinity. Even a spayed bunny will do this. I still think there's hope though so don't give up yet if you can bear it. I would completely separte them (and I'm talking about the 2 youngsters here) for at least a few weeks.

I would start swapping their bedding from one cage to the other so that they get used to the smell of the
other bunny and get used to the other bunny being in their territory. Once you've done this for a few weeks
I would then try reintroducing them in a small, neutral space.
 
Unfortunately I can't separate them, a downside of Japanese apartments, and mine is larger than standard too. I could move their cages apart, but then I let one run around they can visit the other's cage and look tauntingly in through chicken wire. I have plans for building a large bunny duplex/triplex on legs with solid walls in between, but removable for the future when they get along well. Kuri is well past the 6 week hormone withdrawal, Shimo is getting there now (I noticed he didn't stop and pee in front of Kuri's cage when he got out last night). They've had exposure to each other for so long I would think they'd be fully accustomed to each other that there wouldn't be any fighting. Maybe they just gave up trying to get at each other. It's kind of depressing really, "can't we all just get along...?"
 
I had 2 girls spayed on the 11th February and they are just calming down and getting back to how they used to be, ie clean and tidy. So, I don't know whether it's Spring in Japan but here you seem to need a lot longer for hormones to settle. If she is in an indoor cage this sometimes makes them aggressive as there is nowhere for them to run away to so they attack instead. Hopefully, in time, they will settle down and be happy.
 
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