Hi everyone, I'm trying to bond two lovely rabbits. It's my first time and I'm really struggling... any help gratefully recieved.
Beanbag (top pic)is my gorgeous house rabbit - female, spayed, just over a year old. I thought it would be nice to get her a friend...
So I took Beans to the RSPCA to meet some of the males they had. It wasn't love at first sight with any of them, but she and Jedi basically ignored each other, and he is beautiful and needed a home, so we settled on Jedi. He's male, neutered. No idea of his age, he was just found 'wandering in woods' apparently
So I put them in separate enclosure/hutch in the living room, changed them over every day for a week. Left it a week, because Jedi seemed nervous and wasn't eating very much.
After a week I attempted the 48 hour bonding - car journey, in which they huddled together in the carrier, followed by me putting them in a disinfected large hutch (took the roof off etc so I could reach in). Big fight. Before I could stop it, Beanbag got her ear bitten and Jedi lost a chunk of fluff.
So, new plan. Jedi is outside in hutch/run on the patio, Beanbag is in the living room and free range on the patio. They can sniff through the mesh of his run. I've been introducing them 2 x 20 minutes a day in the bath, and there's some 'good' stuff - both have flopped over at different points, and nibbled hay - yesterday morning they even snuggled together. But they seen so scared! Lots of shaking. I feel I am putting them in a really stressful situation and I feel so guilty. But I thought it would be worth it.
Then, yesterday evening, Beanbag just suddenly took a chunk out of Jedi's side! It was too quick for me to do anything about it. He lost fluff, and has a small cut too.
I know Beanbag is territorial - she has deposited neat little pellets in piles all around his run! And I think she's jealous too. Twice, when I've been feeding Jedi through the run, she's bitten me! (not a nip, a proper bite. Ouch.) It is almost always Beanbag who starts trouble, and then Jedi retaliates.
Sorry for the long post, I didn't want to leave out anything important. I just don't know what to do next. Should I carry on with the intros? Her attack was so sudden, I'm worried one of them will get hurt again. And I'm desparate for my two lovely bunnies to become friends
Any ideas anyone, PLEASE?