Bonding of Poppy and Floppy??(and piccys)

As some of you know Im trying to bond together Poppy and Floppy,the thing is they were bonded nicely before,were getting on fine and cuddling up etc,but after a month they fell out and fur was flying all night,so i seperated them(was a bit worryed after the incident with bertie and Liquorice,it put me off)Well Iv put pops and Flops back in together,they had been in the run every day together,but fur is still flying,Poppy will hide in the sleeping area and Flop keeps coming in to look and Pops gos mad,they are constantly chasing each other,flops keeps trying to bite pops bum!! :roll: I wonder how long this will take,and wonder why after they were bonded before they fell out????Iv tryed the usual pet carrier task but its still not done the trick??Also Iv read a few times that when you are bonding bunnies you mustnt touch them??why is this?and if so how can I put them in there run??or shall i wear gloves???

since this post look at them,

maybe they need more room overnight if they are to tolerate each other? - my girls chase and fur pull a bit, but they have a shed so it's easier for them to avoid each other and defuse a fight as no-one really gets cornered - If they were in a hutch I think they would be a lot worse as there'd be no-where to run or hide.

There seem to be mixed views about touching them during bonding. I was told by a very experienced bonder several years ago that it's best not to touch them in the first 24 hours of putting them together and the reason is that if you add your scent into their bonding, it can confuse their sense of hierachy that they are developing. Makes sense to me but I confess I haven't always done that!! I wonder if she partly uses it as an excuse, i.e. to make sure that people don't pick them up (i.e. effectively separating them) while they are bonding.

I think one of the reasons that the fur flies every day is because you are putting them back in separate places overnight, is that right? This means that every day you are almost going back to square 1 with the bonding. I'd suggest you take some time, maybe over a weekend if you don't work weekends, to put them somewhere large and interesting, where you don't have to move them from place to place, and as long as there is no serious fighting, leave them together all day and all night. I have slept on the floor with my bunnies before to achieve this (hence the need not to be working the next day!) If you keep on moving them, they will need to establish who is boss over each individual piece of territory, whereas if you let them establish their bond properly somewhere neutral and where you don't have to keep moving them, it is far more likely that they will establish their bond more easily and permanently.

As for what caused them to fight over a month - I don't know. Sometimes a bunny can feel a bit sick and it can make them grumpy, especially if their normal house isn't huge and they can't get away from a companion who wants to play/hump etc. Could be a peak in hormones made one of them a bit grumpy, territorial etc, especially if you have other bunnies that they could smell. Are both the bunnies you are bonding neutered? It's hard to say, really.

I hope you have good success with bonding this time

Both bunnies are neutered,I have left them in together for two nights now,the hutch isnt too small,its a double decker they are both in the run washing each other so theres hope,poppy is blind in one eye,and i think when she cant see floppy coming and then hes there it startles her,they look so lovely together!

I think you're right about the blindness - they rely a lot on body language as they aren't verbal, so it's possible she didn't respond to him as he expected (cos she couldn't see him demanding respect or whatever) and he would have got cross and nipped her, which would have ourtraged her, etc etc - Hope they are OK!

they seem to be ok,they are back in the hutch,shes in the sleeping quarters and hes outside watching lol :lol: they are not chasing each other and theres no fur (iv cleaned the hutches today)so touch wood and whistle