Bunny Bonding Help

[TheSunnyBuns]

On April 6th I started my bonding journey (24/7 method) It’s been relatively decent but there’s just a couple things that have me hesitant to expand their pen (currently in a 2x2 as we’re still on the first step) . For a bit of background Arizona, my girl, is free roamed and Phoenix, my boy, is free roamed minus at night where he’s penned. Each in their own rooms. For the past couple months we’ve been letting them get used to each other through his pen, every night they’ve eaten dinner together, shared hay and chews, swapped litter boxes, and I’ve caught them laying down together through the bars. So finally I took the step to start bonding in a neutral territory. It’s been relatively good so far, no fighting or anything overly negative. They’ve even cuddled together and share their food/water 100% fine. However it’s also a bit strange. There’s been practically no mounting. The only bit they’ve done it is one time each on the second day and neither of them cared. But I think this is where the issue may stem from. They do commonly get into those “head wars” where both of them refuse to groom the other (they’ve groomed each other before just not as often as I would like) which makes me believe they’re having a hard time deciding who’s dominant. Phoenix is extremely sweet towards her and has never showed any negative behavior whatsoever however Arizona will swat at him occasionally I don’t know whether it’s because she gets annoyed with him or what but I’m too scared to move on with this continuing but it is the only negative behavior I have ever observed which makes me think she may just be frustrated in the tight quarters. I’ve tried downsizing the pen and i didn’t notice much difference in their behaviors . Apologies for this being such a long post just kinda lost on what to do, should I expand further to see if it solves the swatting and have any of you gone through something similar? Any advice is so very appreciated.

 

[InspectorMorse]

Firstly I am assuming both Rabbits are spayed and neutered and both are at least 6 weeks post surgery ?

The behaviour you describe re the occasional ‘head swatting’ by the Doe does not sound to be overly worrying as it would seem the Buck is not reacting aggressively in response. I would expand their space a bit and see how things go. A bit of ‘telling off’ behaviour from one Rabbit to another is normal during bonding and only becomes a problem if the telling off leads to a very defensive aggressive response and neither Rabbit backs down.

I would not intervene if increasing the space leads to some chasing and fur pulling. This is completely normal during bonding. You only need to intervene if lots of circling with tails up occurs with both Rabbits.

If you can get some videos posted of how they are behaving it would be useful for those on here who would want to offer you some advice, We can get a much better idea about what is going on if we can see the body language of the Rabbits

 

[tonibun]

When you are bonding it takes time for the Rabbits to trust one another. From what you have described it all sounds very good to me. I have a very gentle boy, now with his second partner, who has never mounted the females. I would definitely give them more space if they are in 2' x 2' as they will get frustrated.

 

[TheSunnyBuns]

Thank you all so much for the help! And yes, they’re both fixed several months/years post-op.

My male has never even thought about retaliating. He just kinda bows his head down and chills for a moment and then proceeds to what ever he was doing, he doesn’t run or anything and it never escalates so I’m glad to hear this is normal! In all the research I did I didn’t see a situation like theirs so this is very comforting.

Ive documented the process quite thoroughly with images and videos of all their negative and positive behavior so I’ll definitely be sure to share some for you @InspectorMorse so you can get a better idea!