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Bunny bonding, first time, first thread! Newbie!

S

steph-Hegarty

Young Bun
Hi all,
So... as much as I have read up online I'd rather get the opinion of you lovely people who have actually been through this stuff.
So we bought bailey 2 months ago at 8 weeks old.
For the past 2 months up until beginning of this week he was living alone (too young to be neutured)
My husband wanted another rabbit to bond with him once he was neutured and recovered.
We adopted bailey 6 days ago, we have kept them both seperate with half the dining room each, in pens with the cages inside. They were extremely curious about each other and both pacing up and down the side of the others pen, I knew they should be able to see and smell each other to get used to each other in the hopes our first ever bonding session will go easier.

Anyways.... yesterday our adopted bunny decides to jump the pen sides ( they are the height of half way up my thighs so god knows how!!) And into baileys pen
Needless to say they were fighting by the time we got in there, both trying to mount and humour each other. Lots of fighting, we got them seperate as quickly as possible and back in their pens.
I then phoned the vets to see when they could get them both in for neuturing. To my surprise she had today available.

So both bunny's have now been neutured and are currently on cage rest recovering

Advice I need is what to do next???

How long to wait before attempting the bond
And your tips on getting it to go smoothly.

Thanks
 
steph-Hegarty said:
Hi all,
So... as much as I have read up online I'd rather get the opinion of you lovely people who have actually been through this stuff.
So we bought bailey 2 months ago at 8 weeks old.
For the past 2 months up until beginning of this week he was living alone (too young to be neutured)
My husband wanted another rabbit to bond with him once he was neutured and recovered.
We adopted bailey 6 days ago, we have kept them both seperate with half the dining room each, in pens with the cages inside. They were extremely curious about each other and both pacing up and down the side of the others pen, I knew they should be able to see and smell each other to get used to each other in the hopes our first ever bonding session will go easier.

Anyways.... yesterday our adopted bunny decides to jump the pen sides ( they are the height of half way up my thighs so god knows how!!) And into baileys pen
Needless to say they were fighting by the time we got in there, both trying to mount and humour each other. Lots of fighting, we got them seperate as quickly as possible and back in their pens.
I then phoned the vets to see when they could get them both in for neuturing. To my surprise she had today available.

So both bunny's have now been neutured and are currently on cage rest recovering

Advice I need is what to do next???

How long to wait before attempting the bond
And your tips on getting it to go smoothly.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hello

I am a bit confused. Are they both Bucks ? You say you have Bailey who is about 4 months old and Bailey (????) who's age you haven't stated

If they are both Bucks and they have already had a fight then getting them to bond is going to be a challenge, although not totally impossible. However, until you attempt to bond them I'd keep them totally away from each other, preferably in a different room. They will remember their fight and they will continue to wind each other up if they remain in close proximity. It will take quite a few weeks for their hormones to settle, even though they should heal physically within about 10 days. I would certainly not attempt to introduce them again for at least 4 weeks.

The re-introduction will need to be on 100% neutral territory and initially a relatively small area.
 
I'm a bit confused as I think you have referred to both rabbits as Bailey:? I presume both rabbits are male? If that is the case I am really not at all surprised that two entire bucks fought.

In my view I think you should start from scratch again. Sadly, it is possible that having fought with each other once, they will remember even though they are now both neutered and will never be able to be happy in each other's company. It's worth a try though.

What I would do is to separate them completely while they are recovering, so that they can't see or smell each other. I would then wait about 6 weeks for their hormones to completely die down. Then I would re-introduce them to each other on completely neutral territory, i.e. where neither rabbit has been before, making absolutely sure that you can step in to part them if they start fighting again.

I hope all goes well with their recovery and also with the bonding.
 
Omi said:
I'm a bit confused as I think you have referred to both rabbits as Bailey:? I presume both rabbits are male? If that is the case I am really not at all surprised that two entire bucks fought.

In my view I think you should start from scratch again. Sadly, it is possible that having fought with each other once, they will remember even though they are now both neutered and will never be able to be happy in each other's company. It's worth a try though.

What I would do is to separate them completely while they are recovering, so that they can't see or smell each other. I would then wait about 6 weeks for their hormones to completely die down. Then I would re-introduce them to each other on completely neutral territory, i.e. where neither rabbit has been before, making absolutely sure that you can step in to part them if they start fighting again.

I hope all goes well with their recovery and also with the bonding.
Click to expand...


Hi Steph and welcome to the Forum :wave:

Omi has give you some very good advice here :D

Hormones can take up to 12 weeks to settle down after neutering, so best not to be in a hurry to try and rebond :)
 
Sorry, it's been a really long day.
Yes both bucks
Bailey is 4 months
FUDGE is approx 10+ months (not sure as he is a rescue)

Putting them in different rooms isn't an option unfortunately, as they're currently in the biggest room in the house.

One thing I'm confused about in your replies is what the difference is between them fighting now and rabbits that fight on their first few bonding sessions??
X

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I think you might have mistyped one of their names?

Either way, if you have two males, one male & one female I'd suggest something similar to Omi.

Completely separate them so they can't see/smell each other at all. Be aware, a rabbit can easily jump 3ft high.

Keep them like this for 6 weeks to allow hormones to settle down.

Once the 6 weeks is up you can start bonding in a completely neutral space (where nether rabbit has ever been) - bathrooms are normally the easiest choice.

You've two main bonding techniques. The slow technique is to allow them to live side by side without any chance of them getting into each others enclosures and doing play dates in their bonding space. This technique can take months for a successful bond.

The other way is to let them live in the bathroom for a length of time - or whatever neutral space you decide to use (until you see a good bond forming). They will require constant supervision during this time to separate any undesired behaviour. Once the bond has become good, you'll move them into their shared accommodation which would have been neutralised with warm water and white vinegar. Start small and gradually building up their shared accommodation.

Fur pulling, mounting, nipping and chasing are all normal and to be expected.
Unwanted behaviours consist of full fighting, rolling on the floor together, causing actual bodily harm. If you see this separate immediately and do not attempt to bond again as it's unlikely they'll ever get along.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the replies guys. There was definite mounting from both nipping and chasing as neither seemed to like the mounting. Luckily I think we may have stopped it in time. So hopefully no damage done. Will just have to only have one out at a time and one in cage. Incase one decides to jump the pen again no fighting can happen

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Could you make it higher with puppy panels or use something solid to cover the top of the pens to prevent them jumping out?

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Puppy panels, sheets of wood? Anything solid that you can secure so it won't fall, or risk damaging your current set up.

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We have a "lid" on a section of the indoor pen to stop any jumping out. It consists of two sides of 0.25" x 1.5" wood joined by battens with mesh between the battens, the battens rest on top of the pen and the sides of the lid locate over the pen. We have fitted two handles on the battens to ease lifting off
I probably haven't described it very well, if a photo will help I will see what I can do
 
If you could get a photo that would be perfect. Because all I keep thinking is if I put wood over the whole things it's gonna be really dark, if I only put it on half they could just jump on and walk across haha.

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steph-Hegarty said:
If you could get a photo that would be perfect.
Click to expand...

As requested

DSCN3887.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
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