Advice of bonding rabbits needed

[kayw1]

Hi, i haven't been on this forum for ages but I really need some advice on rabbit bonding. My male rabbit Patch lost his brother a month ago. They lived together in a hutch outdoors. I was worried Patch would become ill from missing his brother so i have brought him in the house to live in the kitchen.

I have a neutered female house rabbit called Tribbles. She is a German lop and lives in the kitchen and she roams freely there. On the advice of a lady who owns a bunny hotel, I have put Patch in a cage in the kitchen. When he comes out of the cage, Tribbles will chase him back into his cage and he is frightened to come out. She is a lot better with patch because when we first introduced them she was very aggressive and would growl and pull his fur and attack me if i got in the way. This is now limited to chasing and very irregular fur pulling.

It is a completely different story in the living room which is a bit more neutral than the kitchen. Tribbles is not aggressive and Patch will sit quite close and they will each groom themselves and lie down near but next to one another. This can take place for over an hour and both rabbits seem very comfortable with each other. Patch will also present himself to be groomed by Tribbles. It has taken me a week to get to this stage. However, tribbles will also try to mount Patch which results in a lot of chasing.

Basically Tribbles is a dominant female and patch was the dominant male in the hutch. I really want Patch to live with Tribbles in the kitchen but Patch is very reluctant to come out of the cage. Will they ever bond and how can i start to transfer the behaviour to the kitchen. i have been slowly introducing for a month now. Am I beeing too cautious? I am struggling to lock tribbles up in a cage to let Patch out to exercise in the kitchen because she has never been put in a cage and rattles the cage when locked in and appears very distressed and Patch won't come out. I am also hating keeping Patch locked in a cage all day too. He only gets 2-3 hours exercise a day. Sorry this is such a long post but I am getting a bit anxious over this bonding process!!!

 

[Stator]

Basically I think you need to take them both out of the kitchen and keep them in the living room for about 3 days straight, watching them very closely the whole time. The kitchen is her territory so whilst they are out of the kitchen you need to clean the whole thing as much as you can to get rid of her scent. It's important to keep them together the whole time once you start the bonding, the bit-by-bit approach doesn't work as they have to sort out who is in charge every time you put them back together. Once they have bonded well for the 3 days you can try moving them back to the kitchen. If possible change things around so that she finds a different layout and if you can change the litter tray or cage so that is new as well.

 

[ecudc]

to bond you need to do it in 100% neutral space. Usually the bathroom is idea as it is quite small. When you start to bond put them in together and do not separate unless they are seriously scrapping (i.e. whirling, boxing, masses of fur flying and blood being drawn). If you see this then separate and see how you progress, if it keeps happening you will have to remove them and try the softly softly approach. Chasing, humping and a bit of scrapping are all perfectly normal, do not separate if you can. Leave them together in the neutral space for at least 3 days, preferably a week + although you will be able to tell when they are OK to be moved as there will be no more scrapping and they should be interacting with each other. Use the time that they have spent in your bathroom to completely clean the house and preferably move things around a bit, get them new litter trays and toys. When they go back in to non neutral space then you will have done every you can to make it as neutral as possible.

If you have to go down the softly softly approach you will need to keep them separated but close and swap litter trays every day for probably a month & then try the bonding again. It sounds as if you wont need to go down that route though.

 

[LoopyLouie]

You need to bond them on completely neutral territory, no bigger than the size of an indoor cage and leave them together, unless there is any locked on fighting. Just give them food and water, no litter tray and monitor them. After the first couple of days, of the signs are good, you can gradually increase their space.

Like others have said, clean your kitchen completely, and anything else that they may share.

 

[kayw1]

Thank you all to your replies. they have really reassured me and made me feel hopeful. I will go out and get a big cage and put it is the living room. I must admit, I am a little apprehensive keeping them together like this for three whole days but i am sure you have all done this out of appearance. So I leave them alone for a few days. Going to try this at the weekend and will let you all know how I get on.

 

[Stator]

You don't leave them alone alone, just together. You need to keep a close eye on them during the process

 

[kayw1]

Thanks, I get what you mean. I will monitor them very closely.

 

[LoopyLouie]

Be ready with a pair of old trainers and possibly a spray bottle in case anything serious kicks off! A bit of fur pulling, humping and chasing is normal, locked on fighting isn't! Good luck!

 

[VickiP]

Be ready with a pair of old trainers and possibly a spray bottle in case anything serious kicks off! A bit of fur pulling, humping and chasing is normal, locked on fighting isn't! Good luck!

:wave: What are the old trainers for?:lol: The only thing I would like to say if you are going down this route is to be careful which cage you get, I don't know if you do a search on bonding cages what will come up but, I would imagine it would be handy to have one you could get one of the buns out of if necessary without hurting them or your hands. x

 

[kayw1]

Be ready with a pair of old trainers and possibly a spray bottle in case anything serious kicks off! A bit of fur pulling, humping and chasing is normal, locked on fighting isn't! Good luck!

I have just put Tribbles and Patch into a cage. It is a small dog cage that can house a High Westland terrier. It is big enough for them to move around in.

It is not going well and i am really worried. i put them in and Patch sat there side by side to Tribbles and Tribbles was munching on hay. Then they started chasing each other, pulling fur then they stopped and then more fighting. They would not stop even when I sprayed them. One of them squeaked and there is a spot of blood on the newspaper. I am really upset and don't know what to do. I want to keep Patch in the house as a house rabbit. Please help!!

 

[Stator]

If there is blood seperate them :?
How big is the cage? I know some rabbits become more aggresive when in a confined area.

 

[kayw1]

Hi, the cage is 24" length and 18" wide. My neighbour gave me the cage. I did wonder if it was too small afterwards? To be honest Tribbles does not like being locked in a cage and is not used to it. She was very on edge and ready to attack anything when i let her out like how she was when i first introduced them). Patch was very shaken and he had lots of fur pulled out. Is there still a possibility I could bond them?

 

[tintin]

The fact that they can get along in the living room sounds promising. The problems seem to occur in a confined space and in a room that tribbles thinks is exclusively hers, the kitchen. Maybe the cage was too small - could it have had a dog scent on it? Maybe they could smell that a bit, even if it was clean?

I hope you can bond them. Ours fell out big style, but rebonded - I have brought them inside tonight because of the low temp, and they are snuggling together in a box in the hall.

 

[Stator]

Keep them apart for at least a day and then try and rebond but with more space I would suggest.

 

[kayw1]

Thanks for your replies. I am going to see if i can get a bigger cage today and try again. Heres hoping!!

 

[kayw1]

Can I ask what size cage I need and where is the best place to get one? I have heard of people using X pens and did a search on the internet but can find nothing.

 

[VickiP]

Can I ask what size cage I need and where is the best place to get one? I have heard of people using X pens and did a search on the internet but can find nothing.

:wave: Pets at Home do bunny play pens that would be fine in my opinion if you do a search on bonding aswell you will see that lots of people use different sizes from carriers through to sectioning off half a room or as mentioned above a bathroom. Bathroom wouldn't be practical for me personally and I intend to have mine living side by side for a few weeks once my doe has fully recovered from her spay (about 6 weeks) - you just need to swap their litter trays and toys etc daily so they get used to smells etc, they can see each other but, just be careful the two pens aren't right next to each other as sometimes they can bite the bars and catch each others noses which can cause a disagreement understandably. I did a search on playpens and saw this link to ebay aswell, some playpens come with a net although you can cover yourself with an old sheet or net/voile to prevent them jumping out into each others pens. I like the playpens as you can stretch them out aswell to form a sort of gate/barrier when they are being used to contain the bunny. I think you need to be careful if they have already had a fight, I would sit in initially on the floor and hand feed for a while with them and then leave them with plenty of hay and water etc
if they immediately start to becoming aggressive try clapping your hands or stamping your foot (as they would) to indicate that you don't like it. There will be some 'banter' but, you did the right thing by the sounds of it in getting them out of the cage. A playpen will be less 'claustrophobic' and therefore they might feel a bit more relaxed. Most of my experience in bonding is with other species like dogs and rats but, the principles are the same they need to be relaxed and feel safe. You could also do a search on bonding and housing and have a read through some of the threads and see pics etc you just press the down arrow and then enter a key word or words and then it brings up all the threads with that word in the posts. Some you will probably just skim over but, some might be of use to you. Hope that helps a bit, try to stay calm and relaxed and very good luck xx:wave:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....01456&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2372wt_1165

 

[RABBIT FAMILY]

sounds like your having a nightmare of a time, hope things get better.
i'm having to start the bomding process soon and have found the comments very useful as i'm new to being a rabbit owner

 

[VickiP]

sounds like your having a nightmare of a time, hope things get better.
i'm having to start the bomding process soon and have found the comments very useful as i'm new to being a rabbit owner

:wave::wave: Hello RABBIT FAMILY thats good, there is loads of different suggestions/opinions on here to help and then you can adapt it as appropriate to your bunnies as they all seem to have their own little personalities and preferences