Binky's New Friend-To-Be

Hi everyone! I introduced myself and Binx a while ago but haven't posted since, but I have been lurking! Anyways, Binky was bought as a gift for us in September and we've had the time of our lives with her! She's so much fun, she really completes our home. We both work full time and the vet when we took her for her vacs and all the research we did said to get her a companion. We always knew we would end up getting her a campion because Mr and I fight over who's turn it is to cuddle her - we need a second bunny for the sake of our relationship! :lol: So we decided we would get her a brother after we'd had her neutered. Anyways, we went to buy Binx some Christmas presents yesterday and we ended up meeting Victor - well, we fell head over heels in love! We couldn't just leave him there. So we brought him home.

Victor - I have petitioned with Mr to change his name to Barnaby.. Mr wants to call him Brian!! :shock: - seems to quite like Binky.. but Binky isn't so sure.

Day 1 of bonding..

- We brought Victor home and set up a brand new cage for him. There is no neutral ground in our home. Binky has free reign of the house when we are home, so the only thing I could think to do is set Victor/Barnaby/Brian next to Binky in her bedroom where they can spend all day getting to know each other through the bars while we're at work. Initially it went well, we left Victori in his cage and let Binky out for a run and she was initially uninterested and then she went in for some kisses through the bars before leaving Victor to it and she went downstairs.
Last night while giving Victor some more hay, fresh water and some nugs before bed (exactly like I do with Binx) I tried to bond with him a little myself by gently encouraging him out of his cage, just to let him know this is a nice house and he can trust me. Well Binky hopped upstairs. For a second she didn't seem bothered that Victor had ventured out of his cage but then before I knew it she lunged at him, there was a bit of a scrap and then there was a squeak, a tuft of ginger hair (Victors beard! :shock: ) and I grabbed a bunny, I didn't know which one until I'd run out of the room with him in my arms in horror and then we put them both back in their separate cages. Binky got incredibly aggressive stomping around her cage and getting possessive over her nuggets. Victor - he's cool as a cucumber. Every time we checked on them in the night Victor was against the cage looking at her, she was doing the same until she noticed us and then scattered off as though caught doing something she shouldn't, but no fighting that we heard.

Have they both been spayed/neutered at least 6 weeks ago? (So hormones will have subsided) You will need to set up a small neutralised area where Binky doesn't go much, neutralise with white vinegar/water mixed and use a pen to make a bonding area. Bonding in her territory is unlikely to work and may cause fighting.

Hi Zoobec thank you for your response. Binky has free reign of the house and so the only room we could neutralise would be our bedroom, which is fine and we're happy to put Barnaby in with us until we can put them together as neither are spayed/neutered at the moment.
I've been discussing this with my partner and we're unsure how separating them will work? The idea is that we've put them in our spare room together, in separate cages a couple of inches apart. The idea, we feel, is that they will get to know each other in the meantime while we wait for them to be ready to be spayed/neutered. So they are in their cages during the day when we are at work. When we come home, Binky has free reign of the house except for our bedroom and this evening Barnaby is currently exploring the spare room with me overseeing. Is this not the correct way to go about things for the time being? What would suggest we do?

Day 2 of bonding...
This morning Binky was slightly aggressive over her food, but otherwise a fairly uneventful morning followed by an uneventful evening. Binky is downstairs tearing into a Carrot Cottage while Barnaby is happily hopping around his new bedroom sniffing everything. He is rubbing his chin on everything.. could this be him "laying his scent" since he hasn't begun to spray yet? Which I'm told he will do when his bits descend..

You can't bond them if neither of them is neutered or you will end up with babies!

You will have to keep them separate until the male is neutered and about 6 weeks have passed. Then you can try to bond them in a neutral area. Female rabbits are very territorial and will attack any other rabbit which come into their space. Even when they are spayed. It isn't going to be easy as she is your first rabbit and used to all of your attention. So while you are waiting to have the boy neutered you can plan on how to bond them. You will need to prepare the area very carefully.

could you split a room in half and have them live side by side that way until both have been neutered?

the rspca manchester and salford branch have a slow bonding guide available which sounds like it would suit you well until both are neutered http://www.manchesterandsalfordrspca.org.uk/documents/bondingguiderevised.pdf

then once they are, and hormones settled etc, you can decide if the slow bonding method is the right one for you. some people prefer to keep the rabbits together once introduced rather than keep splitting them :wave:

Thanks everyone for your responses. Oh Tonibun we're not planning on putting them together long enough for anything like that to happen! No babies thank you. He hasn't hit puberty yet that we're aware of. The guy said he would be full on spraying everywhere as a way of marking his territory when he's hit puberty. So an educated guess is telling me we won't end up with babies yet anyway if that ever did happen.
We do realise we've made it harder on ourselves but we really did fall in love with him, we've seen and met a lot of rabbits but Barnaby just couldn't be left behind.

We can't really split a room, we live in a tiny two bed they take up enough space as it is! :lol: They seem happy, Barnaby has been running rings around the room and Binky is showing some more interest in him this evening.. might be because he has just been given a big bundle of fresh hay though. Everything we touch she thinks is food though, is this a territory thing?

Thanks biscandmatt1 I'll read this guide with a cuppa in a minute. We're going to my grandparents this weekend, it might be an idea to put them together in a neutral place. They will never be alone without supervision in case of mating. We just want to do the right thing and have a smooth (as possible) bonding.

Good luck with your bonding, with two unneutered bunnies on the female's territory you haven't got an easy start.

Binx said:

Thanks everyone for your responses. Oh Tonibun we're not planning on putting them togetherlong enough for anything like that to happen! No babies thank you. He hasn't hit puberty yet that we're aware of. The guy said he would be full on spraying everywhere as a way of marking his territory when he's hit puberty. So an educated guess is telling me we won't end up with babies yet anyway if that ever did happen.
We do realise we've made it harder on ourselves but we really did fall in love with him, we've seen and met a lot of rabbits but Barnaby just couldn't be left behind.

We can't really split a room, we live in a tiny two bed they take up enough space as it is! :lol: They seem happy, Barnaby has been running rings around the room and Binky is showing some more interest in him this evening.. might be because he has just been given a big bundle of fresh hay though. Everything we touch she thinks is food though, is this a territory thing?

Thanks biscandmatt1 I'll read this guide with a cuppa in a minute. We're going to my grandparents this weekend, it might be an idea to put them together in a neutral place. They will never be alone without supervision in case of mating. We just want to do the right thing and have a smooth (as possible) bonding.

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Mating only takes seconds :shock: make sure they can't get to each other in their runs, it has been known for a male to impregnate a female through the mesh of a run!

Zoobec said:

Mating only takes seconds :shock: make sure they can't get to each other in their runs, it has been known for a male to impregnate a female through the mesh of a run!

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Oh.. right.. *moves cages a few inches further apart*

I am pleased to hear you want to do the right thing, so please listen to what we are saying. It takes 1 - 3 seconds for a buck to get a female pregnant. If you are going away, please make sure they can not get together as rabbits can kill one another, or injure one another very badly.

It's a good idea to bond them after they've both been spayed/neutered. After their ops they need to be kept separate for a few weeks while they recover, and once they've been kept separate for a few weeks, they will need bonded again. It's a lot of headache to bond them now only to rebond them later...

One of our current rabbits had a bonded sister, but they were separated for 6 weeks after their spay ops, and they just wouldn't go back together again - her owners couldn't handle two individual bunnies, and gave the sisters away. I'd be heartbroken if that happened after I'd gone through the headache of bonding...

So what are you all suggesting?
Are you suggesting we take our new bunny, whom as I said we've fallen head over heels in love with, back?
Or are you suggesting we confine our new bunny to our bedroom where he won't be able to run around as freely as he can in the bedroom he's in with Binky?
Are you suggesting we're doing everything wrong from the start and there's no hope of bonding from what we're currently doing?

Judging by the slow bonding guide that Biscandmatt1 linked to, we seem to be doing fine. Both rabbits seem to be happy. But we are no experts.

We want to do the right thing, we want both rabbits to be happy. So what do you all suggest we do from here?

Binx said:

So what are you all suggesting?

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I obviously cannot speak for anyone else, but I would suggest you keep the two bunnies apart until they are neutered and then try and bond them.

Your little girlie can be spayed at around 6 months old, maybe earlier if she is a good size.

I hope all goes well, two bunnies snuggling up together is a joy to watch

Personally, I would never attempt to bond or even introduce rabbits until they are both neutered and hormones have died down. If there is any fighting or any aggression at all, it puts their future successful bonding at risk.
Although the temptation is to get on with things without delay, patience at this stage really does pay dividends.

No one is saying you take your new bunny back, but I just wanted to make you aware of our personal experience. The lady who had our Poppy before us wasn't aware of the difficulties of rebonding after the spay - it's like going back to square one. I wouldn't go through the stress and pregnancy risk knowing you'd just have to go through it again in a few months...

Keep them apart (& out of site) until they are both neutered / spayed. Then wait 6 weeks before trying to bond them. That way you stand a good chance of success. No-one is trying to criticise you or say you should take your boy back, everyone is just trying to help [emoji3] p.s. Spraying is a poor / imprecise sign of puberty in my view, you can gently hold your boy so you can check whether his testicles have descended. Then get 'em snipped off asap.


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Thank you everyone for your really useful comments. Now we know what we have to do! We're going to move our boy into our bedroom and keep him hidden from Binky. As soon as they're both sprayed we'll try bonding again. Thanks again!

I hope the bonding goes well. My two bucks fell out around puberty and I did the separate well out of sight of each other for six weeks or so. I then reintroduced them and added in two spayed bonded sisters.

I now have a very happy quad.