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Best way to Bond

riaob1

Warren Scout
Hi all

I am looking for good ways to bond my two furries, I have been told to swop them around in their cages (ie his in hers and visa versa) each day for 2 weeks and then try and put them together, but I have also read numerous articals on the net saying that introductions on the bath and then in the car are best!

In the bath so they are on nutural terratory and in the car as it will stress them and they will form a bond!

Now silly question but if they start to fight in the bath surely they will still fight in the pet carrier out in the car - till I start driving??? or will being in the carrier keep them quiet??

Any help would be good! Although have a feeling that maybe I am worrying a tad too much and they will be fine
 
I have done three bonds now and each time I just put them together and watched them - each time they initially chased, mounted, bottom nipped each other but eventually settled down and got on with life. Each time they went into the hutch together on their first night. It has only been since coming on these forums that I have heard of all these different ways to do it and the time it sometimes takes - maybe a case for ignorance making it easier!!
 
riaob1 said:
Now silly question but if they start to fight in the bath surely they will still fight in the pet carrier out in the car - till I start driving??? or will being in the carrier keep them quiet??

We don't have much in the way of neutral territory, so we tried the bath, and it was rubbish. Chips just kept leaping out and the others just huddled (this was for a 4 rabbit introduction).

If you have a nice open boot and someone who can sit in the back seat on guard duty, then the car works well. Just let them run loose in there and hope you don't get stopped by the police. :? They might do each other damage in the carry case on the way to the car so transfer them separately and put them in the boot. It's neutral territory, so they'll be too unsettled at first to fight, and then just drive around for a bit. When you're done try keeping them together until they fight. So pop them in the same carry case to get them out of the car and then maybe bung them in a run together. After they've spent a while in the car not fighting, they'll be a bit more prepared to give each other a good sniff without biting.

So keep them together as long as you can. Let them pull fur and mount each other, but if the fighting gets aggressive then separate them and let them calm down. If they aren't fighting then don't separate them. If it get's to the evening and they still aren't fighting but you're wary of leaving them together, pop them next to each other in their cages so they can still see and smell each other.

Definitely do the cage swapping. We did it and it works at getting them used to each others smell and sharing their territory. Try to keep them within sniffing distance as much as possible. And after your car trips always leave them together somewhere peaceful for a less stressful play session.
 
We've tried various tactics; short introductions (pulling them apart if there's any serious fighting), putting them in cages next to each other, the car trick...

The best things seem to be the car trick (we dumped them in the boot/hatchback bit and they all huddled together), dumping them in the run in my mum's garden, and just lumping them together and letting them sort it out themselves. The latter actually seems the best method if you can stand to watch all the fur fly.
 
I've bonded a pair and a trio.

I find the "let them get on with it" tactics works best with minimal interference from me.

We've got no neuteral territority either so I just let the trio out in the living room together and watched them in case anything got nasty.

I let them chase each other and do a bit of fur flying. They tend to sort themselves out after that.

I dont mess around with seperating them for the night or hutch swaping, once there together thats it.

Its worked for me!

Louise
 
Cheers for all the help guys

I am debating whether to try it tonight in the lounge as that is the best place and they need cages cleaned so it would be an ideal oppertunity, actually may try in the itchen as it is square and no hidy bits for me to get them out of!

Wish me luck. :shock: :? I will get a an and spoon to bang on if they get too violant.
 
ellepotter said:
I let them chase each other and do a bit of fur flying. They tend to sort themselves out after that.

Indeed.
One bunny chasing, one running in terror = good.
One bunny latched on by the teeth and the other desperately trying to escape the jaws of death = bad.

My brother took ages getting his rabbits bonded because my sister-in-law was really squeamish about the fighting. But it reaches a point where you need to force the issue and make them have the final fight. It shouldn't be a violent Thunderdome style encounter, Two Buns Enter, One Comes Out. But they need to sort out who's the boss. And once they've done that you very quickly reach the point where it's hard to imagine there were ever any problems.

Ours still have their little spats now and then, but they're over in 30 seconds, and it's really just Cassidy making sure that everyone's still scared of her, and they are. We're all scared of Cassidy. But mostly the four of them flop down together, groom each other and egg each other on to destroy our property.
 
I gave it a go but after 20 minutes of Kip running away and Buster mounting her every time she came near I thought I would leave it and try again tomorrow! She started to get stressed, although she was fighting back but would then sprint off!

I tried it in the lounge but Kip was running everywhere so I may try it in the car tomorrow. Buster did lick kip once but she didn't recipricate it.

Oh well I will carry on and perservere!
 
Indeed.
One bunny chasing, one running in terror = good.
One bunny latched on by the teeth and the other desperately trying to escape the jaws of death = bad.

You seem to have interpreted what I have said wrong.

Rabbit's always chase each other when bonding. There hardly running in terror! :)

Likewise with a bit of scuffling/fur flying again this is natural when Rabbit's are bonding. I never mentioned anything about letting them have a WW3 style fight! :lol:

There's a difference between a bit of fur flying and rolling around on the floor together trying to injure each other.

The way I bond Rabbit's has worked for me with no problems, I will continue to use this way if I bond any future Rabbit's.

Louise
 
Yes, I think sometimes people do seperate them too quickly, its understandable if your not used to it as it does look a little worrying. But chasing and mounting is part of setting the heirachy so they need a chance to do that. As Louise says unless they are actually fighting then letting them get on with it and settle who is boss is a good idea.

The chasing mounting will settle down with more introductions, it can get stressful after awhile so taking a break and having another session later will help. You'll probably find after several the mounting reduces and they spend more time just sitting around.

Tam
 
ellepotter said:
You seem to have interpreted what I have said wrong.

I was being tongue in cheek.

Something you can try if they're fighting more than sniffing, is to distract them with food. Doesn't always work, some bunnies don't like to share, but if you can take their minds off their fighting with a bowl of pellets then by the time they've finished eating they sometimes forget to start fighting again. It worked for us when Daddy and Chips were having hormonal spats.
 
I will try them with some pellets as they both love them or maybe even a carrot, there was about 30 seconds when they sat together without me holding them, but then Kip ran and Buster followed, loads of ginger hair around the place, and Kip did start to fight back but she was looking for her cage so thought it best to let her in.

I will give it another go each night and hopefully they will get used to each other lol!

Thanks for all your help!

With love
m
 
I put Shadows temporary home next to Bugzee in her home at night, so they were next to each other but apart. Along with time running around together. (I only did this as he was a rescued male bun and had to get him fixed :D )

This seemed to work. Maybe harness them up and let them have some time hopping around outside together as your neutral territory.

bronie
 
hello, this is all very usefull advice. i had no idea that you had to let them fight a bit first!! i've been interviening far too quickly.

bernie is a lot better now, so i thought i'd see what happens if i got al and steve out. i held on to bernie so she didn't get herself all worked up, she mostly sat and ground her teeth from pleasure of being groomed. the boys ignored her at first. untill bernie made like she was going to fight with al.

i think i'll leave it for a few weeks, untill bernie is 100% better, then try again in the living room where no bunnie has ever ever been. then i'll see if they can sort it out between them who's boss. don't know who will win, bernie is bigger, but al is like a mini bull dog! steve just sits on something off the floor and let's them get on with it!
 
smallbrownfrog said:
Andi, Boy of Destiny, i love your picture!!! :lol:

Thanks! As you can imagine, Chips is a bit of a handful. We've managed to stop him using his laser-eyes in the flat, but my mum's garden hasn't been so lucky.

You should definitely expect some scrapping. We tried introducing the two mellower living room bunnies to the bathroom bunnies last night, and for my trouble Sheffield bit my knuckle hard enough for it to bleed and scratched my other hand pretty nicely too. I was only trying to stop Sniper from biting his nose off. :(
 
It was really weird. Monopoly is the dimmest little bunny in the world. Never shown a hint of aggression, and she's still quite small. She had the two lops, each of them twice her size, running away from her and hiding. The problem with Sheffield is he gets scared and tries to escape from the other bunnies by jumping over them. The others see this big rabbit lunging at them and so they attack in return.
 
Bertie said:
The problem with Sheffield is he gets scared and tries to escape from the other bunnies by jumping over them. The others see this big rabbit lunging at them and so they attack in return.

And that he then bites me and scratches me. When I'm trying to protect him. :(
 
well I have decided to wait until I come back from Dublin next week to start the proper bonding session, their cages are side by side so they can see each other most of the time (when kip is downstairs lol).

I will then do the swop cages thing then back onto the meet bit.

Will let you know how I get on but it won't be for a week so they should be used to each other and by the time we reintroduce Buster should be used to us as well bless!

M
 
Think I may have scared both bunnies! I tried a quick intro session last night and they both sniffed at each other and then as Buster was going round the rear Kip darted off and jumped up at my hubby (who was asleep at the time).

Is this what girly rabbits do - like a little hard to get act sorta thing.

This bonding process is harder than people say! lol.

I will leave it for a while till Buster has really settled in and got used to us all.
 
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