Aggressive female in bonding

Hello!

Newbie here! Desperate for some advice for my situation!

I have a grumpy neutered female. Had her about a year and thought she would be happier with a mate, after reading lots of rabbit advice online. Yesterday I brought home a sweet neutered male about the same age.

As per a website I'd read, I put them in the bath together today. He initially tried to hump her and she was not happy. She bit him on the rump and latched on. There were a few more scuffles. SO much of his fur all over the place! I did intervene with the bites but put them side by side and petted, stroked and talked to them both. She calmed down a lot, really relaxed and lay flat on the bath. He was still more upright. I did this to them for about 10-15 minutes. If I stopped stroking, he sniffed her and I was worried she'd bite him, so I kept on. He eventually nuzzled right into her side, it was so sweet! I then briefly separated them (he went into a pet carrier) as my baby woke up from his nap. When i went back I reopened the pet carrier. He was reluctant to come out and when he did she bit him on the face! Latched on for a few seconds whilst I eeked and banged a saucepan. God, it was so stressful!

I have now read lots of websites and am panicking that it is all going wrong and I am a terrible rabbit owner and they will never be friends. She is so bloody grumpy (she has bitten me before) and territorial. What do you all think? I am planning on trying the bath again tomorrow (I have swapped over soiled litter tray overnight, but she is in an outdoor hutch/run and he is in an indoor cage). What should I do?

Many, many thanks in advance, Laura

She sounds a lot like my rabbit Chloe! Have you looked into bonding services? You may find somewhere local that will do it for you.

You are a good bunny mummy as you want to see your female rabbit happy with company of her own kind. I suspect much of the problem is down to females' territorialness. I have a number of females which are next to impossible to pair off and The suggestion of having her bonded somewhere else is a good one and might be your best course of action. Good luck and hope she comes round to accepting a new friend.

Bonding can be so complicated it really can!

You are doing a lot of things well but for me personally I would not use pots and pans to stop them fighting, I think the noise just adds to the stress levels. I would perhaps use a pair of shoes on your feet or a sweeping brush to just try and push them away from one another should something happen.

Have you tried giving them just a bit more space, say using the entire bathroom floor rather than the bath tub?

The best thing to do is try and avoid bites and scuffles all together, try getting some yummy food and putting that near them both, see if they will eat near one another.

Its such a complicated process, its just a case of finding out what works for them!

Good luck, hope it gets better x

Many thanks everyone. I took your advice and found a local lady who is going to (attempt to!!!) bond them for me. Fingers crossed!!

helpme said:

Many thanks everyone. I took your advice and found a local lady who is going to (attempt to!!!) bond them for me. Fingers crossed!!

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Good luck!

Hope the bonding goes well. Remember to neutralise the area where they will be living. Water and vinegarmis good for this. Any old vinegar is fine.

Please keep us updated.

My sister had this but it was her male that was aggressive. As soon as a rabbit came near he lunged to bite and we had to intervene. The female was surprisingly tolerant and didnt retaliate so we thought we'd give it a go. We split a run area up (neutral to both bunnies) so they could see eachother but not harm. They had this as their daytime space and went into their own hutch and run space at night. We then alternated who was in the space to be shared, letting the male explore it for a day, then the female. After a few weeks the male was laying beside the entrance to the females run and it was looking good. Next they decided to bond themselves and he must have undone her run somehow. Theyve been happy and loved up ever since. Took many weeks to get to that stage though. Also, I would advise the final introduction to be in a neutral to both space, fully supervised, not often are bunnies well behaved straight off and decide themselves!

Update. It's day 4 of the bonding with this 'rabbit whisperer' (she's on these forums I think!).and it now seems a bit better. Female was still very aggressive but it has apparently died down a bit now and I hope tonight they will be in together overnight. Fingers crossed!!!!

Can I ask a question? My neighbour has a male, unneutered rabbit and he often breaks through into our garden. She retrieves him immediately but is this going to be a problem when my newly bonded pair return?

Yes if neighbour's bunny goes up to your rabbits' run or hutch it will most likely spark off Referred Aggression which means the more dominant rabbit will attack the other one and they can be quite aggressive. So you are going to have to sort this problem out somehow. It can also happen if a cat gets into the garden. Hope you can stop visiting bunny from getting in. Hope the bonding is a success.

tonibun said:

Yes if neighbour's bunny goes up to your rabbits' run or hutch it will most likely spark off Referred Aggression which means the more dominant rabbit will attack the other one and they can be quite aggressive. So you are going to have to sort this problem out somehow. It can also happen if a cat gets into the garden. Hope you can stop visiting bunny from getting in. Hope the bonding is a success.

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Thanks. I've reinforced the fence today so he should not be able to enter the garden. However, the fence is picket style so now I am worried that the bunnies will be able to see him through the fence. We also have cats that come through the garden. I have the hutch facing this fence but now after your comments I am thinking I should have it facing the house to avoid seeing the cats/rabbit passing by. Do you agree?

The main problem is if another animal comes into their territory and especially close to their hutch although it will help if your 2 can't see them through the fence. :thumb:

My oldest female bun is pretty aggressive in bonding too. I tried introducing her to my other two buns but she lunged at the wire and bit them through it. She is vicious! I took her to our local rescue to be bonded but they sent her home after 2 weeks after trying her with about 5 different boys - she would just attack them all straight away. So, she is staying single - she does love human company and is so gentle and calm and loves to be stroked.
Please keep us updated on how your bonding goes. It'll be interesting to see if it is possible to bond aggressive buns!

A picture would speak a thousand words but I don't know how to upload.... Two weeks after the first disastrous meeting and two days after coming home from a week with the rabbit bonder, they are now sleeping next to each other, him having groomed her beforehand!! I have even witnessed her licking his head too!! I am so happy!!
It's not perfect yet as she pulled a lot of his fur out when he dared to enter the run this morning(she got a bit possessive of it) but I'm hoping these are all promising signs for the future ahead.

I wouldn't let her have any area as she will claim it and attack him if he goes near it.

It may be a wise move to reduce their area until they are even more settled.

Sounds very promising.

Update. All still going very well. They have different personalities and do spend time apart (one in run, one in hutch connected be a tunnel) but when sleeping or eating they are always together. Watching them groom each other is a joy. She is much much calmer than she used to be.

I do need them to have more room. I am going to get a 7x5ft run (what my tiny garden will allow) from ukrabbithutches. Has anyone had one from them? Been very friendly with emails when I've tweaked design.

Also, silly question perhaps but if I have the run on all concrete slabs, will it not be slippery for them? I want them to be able to run a bit without slipping. Should I have a patch of grass in the middle or just pave it all? They will have another tunnel to a smaller, movable run on the grass too. Thanks.

The problem with grass is it will soon turn to mud now at this time of the year. There are a lot of folk on here who keep their bunnies on slabs and no they aren't slippy.

Hi 'help me'!

I am interested in your story as I have 2 bunnies boy and girl who I am desperately trying to bond and they having none of it! I am totally with you how stressful it is, I bought them for my children reading boy and girl are best together after neutering. So we had them from 12 weeks now they are 26 weeks and been neutered for 2 weeks now. I've spent weeks desperate for them to be together (i was a little nieve as didn't realise how long the process would take) but I put them together just on our laps and it was so cute, they sat eating their food together.. Day 2 I put them on the hallway floor small area they'd never been and they were fine, a few grunts from her but no problems. Day3 I put them on grass in the run that they both have used regularly on their own. And after 3 minutes they had a massive fight and like you say hair everywhere.!! Now I don't know what to do.. My husband is saying if they can't live together then they are gonna have to go as we are paying two lots of bedding, cleaning two Hutches etc.. But I want to persevere and make them get on. It's so scary when they get fighting isn't it! Please can you advise how your two get on and what the lady does to help them get on, I really hope she is successful with yours X