Territorial Rabbit and bonding stress!

Soirry if this turns into a ramble, I just need someone to share the stress with...

I'd decided against getting a bunny to bond with Fidget (after the original bun I was going to take to bond with her was unavailable) until she's been spayed. She'd never shown any signs of being territorial, but because of her age (somewhere between 12 and 14 weeks), it was always a risk, and one that wasn't worth the hassle when it could be easier to get her a rescue boyfriend when she's been done...

Anyway, then I acquired Daisy. My friend went to P@H, and saw her there in the corner of her little pen, being ignored and as he puts it "bullied" by the other rabbits (I don't know how much truth there is in that, but judging by her character I can quite imagine her being on her own), and she had a bit of a dirty bum. So, the silly fool bought her :? , knowing how bunny mad I am and that I had a spare hutch, and that I could never take a bun back to that place. And all this after I'd refused to go because I can't go to that place without wanting to leave with an animal.

So, I let Daisy settle in a bit (not that it took long, she's lovely), and then decided that an attempt at bonding the two buns couldn't hurt (especially since they have to live in the same room anyway). So...did the whole neutral environment thing...but Fidget hated it. Fur flew, Daisy was terrifieid, Fidget circled my feet, headbutted me, grunted at me and poo'd in circles around me. Luckily, they both came out of the fight unscathed (and my some miracle, so did I...it was like prising two velcro buns apart though, and Fidget had a sizeable chunk of white fur in her mouth)...I guess she was more territorial (and posessive of me!) than I'd thought. And yesterday, I had my hand in her cage, stroking her...I reached for her food bowl to feed her (like I do every day) and she bit me! She's never, ever bitten me before. So it seems I've set off some territorial habits with her cage too. So, the bonding attempt was a mistake.

So, now Fidget hates me, she hates having another rabbit in the room, she's generally running around her cage like a mad thing. It does sound insignificant, but it's really stressing me out that my once loving animal feels the need to try and take my finger off every time I go near her cage. She still runs up to the bars to say hello to me, lets me put my hand in to stroke her...but as soon as I move my hand to another part of the cage. I presume that spaying will solve this, but I can't have that done for another 3 months or so. Will her territorial-ness get worse as long as there is another rabbit in the room, or is this likely to be the extent of it? I fully expect her to want to pee on everything when she's let out in the room that smells of other rabbit, but I can live with that.

I'd move Daisy out of the room, but I live in a shared house and I really don't trust my housemates to leave her be. They mean well, but they'll probably end up feeding her something stupid or dropping her from a height.

Is it possible that they'll bond when they're both spayed? Anyone have any fur flying, rabbit scuffles that lead to true love stories? I'll put it down to my inexperience, but this stuff is really stressful!

On the up side, Daisy, who came to me 2 days ago she was sooo timid, doing little sneezes, hardly eating any hay, crouched in a corner, not eating her cecals, had a sticky bum and was and producing very few tiny, dark, hard poos. Now she's eating a ton of hay, eating her cecals properly, doing huge bunny poos, isn't sneezing anymore (I think it must have been down to some sort of irritant, because that's cleared up completely) and practically jumps on me to lick me!

I'm not to good with bonding advice, mine have been together since I got them, and never had any problems.

I have read in the past to try and bond bunnies together in neutral places, somewhere neither bun has been/doesn't normally go. Let them have a little sniff and see how it goes.

I'm sure other people on hear have better advice and experience! Good luck!

I had a bad experience trying to bond Phoebe and Amber who are both spayed. They had a fight and Amber lost a piece of her ear. It was very upsetting.
Phoebe would try to attack Amber every time she saw her in the garden through the wires of her run. I used to have to put a board in front of Phoebes run so she couldn't see her. Its been a few weeks since the fight and Phoebe seems to be calming down. Amber sits right in front of the run having a wash and Phoebe sniffs her through the wire but isn't attacking anymore.
I'm hoping that given time they will get on and could possibly be introduced in neutral territory again.

I would say to get them spayed when they are old enough and let them get used to the smell of each other through the safety of their cages. It could take a few months but hopefully they will calm down

Idont recomend trying to bond two females especialy when one is older, your bound to have bad fights whitch could result in injuries. val

Thanks for your replies everyone. They just sort of, sniff each other inquisitively through the cage bars now, I think they've got used to each other's scent. Fidget is back to her old self, though she demanded I stroke her for about two hours before she licked me once (once!) in a "hmph, I'm still in a mood with you!" way :lol: . I'm still cautious about just sticking my hand in her cage like I used to, I don't want to invade her territory, but she's out all the time anyway, so it doesn't really matter. She was binkying around like a mad thing today, which is always good.

There'll be no more introductions. I think they'll be fine with each other, as long as they don't cross each other's paths too often. Fidget is a lot calmer anyway. And, neither of them has peed on my bed in protest, which is also great