Bunny bonding

[Ayanna543]

First time bunny owner here..I have got a female and male rabbit and both have been neutered/spayed 4 weeks now for the girl and 4 3.5 months for the boy. I will be moving house in april and will be hopefully putting them together if they are bonding but right now they are living as neighbours. They are happy eating, grooming, sleeping next to eachother with a divider and I have been swapping their toys. They also share the same space when I free roam them in my living room separately for 2 months so far.
Today I decided to start bonding process and put them both in a small neutral place with c&c grids. Within 10 seconds they started trying to fight and circling. I tried for 3 mins and was worried it was escalating so separated them. I really need advice on whether to try again tonight or what else to do..
Im so scared i dont want one to get hurt.
I am confused as they are so relaxed with the divider but soon as its gone they hate eachother.
My boy is quite submissive and the girl is pretty dominant.. HELP

 

[Omi]

Hi, bonding is a scary business It sounds as though you are proceeding in the correct way. The two bunnies will have got used to each other and have to an extent developed some trust, although that is only with the divider in place. Once that is removed they will need to get to a position of trust again.

They will not be hating each other, although it might appear so. It is difficult to judge how serious any perceived *fighting* is. They need to sort out their heirarchy and so separating them at too early a stage is not allowing them to do this. That said obviously a full on fight has to be separated. Are they chasing each other and is there enough room for each to run away? Usually it will be the male chasing the female, although you have said that your male is submissive.

I would give it another try. If they go for each other again, I would get between them using protected hands, but unless it looks very serious I would not then separate, but continue with them together. It's sometimes useful to put a big pile of herbs or similar as a distraction between them.

I have recently bonded a male and a female after they were side by side for a few days and once they were put completely together it took around 24 hours for the chasing and nipping to stop.