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Broken bond after I bring in a foster!HELP!!!!!!

Lily Dohwa

New Kit
Hello, I am writing after the bond of my original pair (male and female) broke after I brought in a friend's bun to foster while she goes on holiday :(

Originally, my pair lives in our large living room, free range. They never had any problems since we've moved here!

However last week a friend's bun (who is actually my male bun's twin brother) has come to stay with us since her owner could not find any sitters. I had set up his enclosure in the living room, making sure there were no gaps for them to bite each other through the bars.
The plan was to free-range them separately, however when I put away my original pair to allow the new bun to have a go at the living room, he began to pee EVERYWHERE and chinning EVERYTHING (he is neutered, or so i've been told, so I was shocked at the lack of potty etiquette).

I scrubbed everything as clean as I can after his session and let my original pair back in, however my male bun must have smelt the pee or chinning despite my cleaning, because he went CRAZY and began to chase my female bun, who has become absolutely terrified.

Fur is flying everywhere from both parties, however i've observed that no one is biting, the fur is from all that aggressive running..? (my male bun, if he pushes the female to a corner, just stops and sits there staring at her, not attacking or anything.).
So now i've closed up their enclosure for some type of re-bonding. I have observed that if I give them treats or food in their small enclosure, they will come together and dine quite peacefully, however once i've opened up the enclosure, my male goes back to frantically chase my female around the whole room :shock::shock::shock: it's HORRIBLE to watch.

I have now moved my foster bun to live in the corridor, where he has space to binky with a heavy door in between him and the living room. He will only be living with us for a month and a half, I am hoping that by moving him outside my original bun's living area, his scent from all that previous chinning will disappear soon....

I am so scared that my original bun's bond may be broken forever, can I PLEASE have advice from someone on what to do to repair this situation? When I let them live in their small enclosure they seem to do good..however when should I let them have a large space again? Literally crying myself to sleep these days.
:cry::cry::cry::cry: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
 
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I am so sorry this has happened as it is very upsetting. What has happened is known as Referred Aggression. This means that because your Rabbit couldn't attack the foster he has attacked his friend. You must keep them well separated from the foster now and things should settle down between your 2 Bunnies.
 
You need to keep them in the smaller enclosed area for at least a week. Even if they cannot see or hear the other Rabbit they will be able to smell him. You need to try to minimise transferring his scent by using different cleaning utensils ( this should be done anyway for hygiene reasons). Always feed your two first. If you handle the Foster Rabbit it’d be a good idea to put on an old shirt or something you can take off before going near your two. Really, think of any ways you can to minimise transferring the scent of the Foster Rabbit into the room your pair live in.

When you do finally allow your two to have more space just increase the area gradually. It might be that you have to keep your two confined to a smaller area until the Foster Rabbit goes home. Whilst not ideal, it’s not going to be forever and is preferable to their bond being irrevocably broken.
 
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