So disappointed, bonding help needed

[Ted an Petal]

hi hugo's there i tried bonding my girls over christmas and it didn't go well, they just hated each other and was full on lock fighting scared me to death, so i'm not doing it again and i know a bun shouldn't be on their own but i don't much choice other than that. don't be feeling bad about it, sometimes even we don't get along with someone so there's no reason that it can't be the same for bunny's.

 

[AlisonA]

Oh no, what a shame How long has Fuzzy been neutered?

I don't normally intervene either but when I bonded my boss' rabbits I was told that when they tried, the female just instantly locked onto the male and wouldn't leave him alone. So I sat in the run with them and pretty much kept my hand very gently on the females back and whenever she started to put an aggressive posture towards him I just pushed my hand slowly down and she became all submissive and stopped. She got better over the next couple of hours and by the time I got out of the pen she was binkying around like crazy :shock:

I wouldn't normally go for 'forced' bondings either but with these two, apart from the fact that it was a choice of 'this one or no-one' for a friend so I had to give it a good go, it became obvious that it wasn't that they hated each other, it was more that their initial bonding behaviour was upsetting the other. By keeping this under control for the first couple of hours they soon settled happily and now 5 months later are always snuggled and loving towards each other.

 

[Hugo's There]

Thanks for the replies. Fuzzy has been neutered for at least 9 months but to my knowledge has never met another rabbit before.

There was any real aggressive behaviour from him except for his using his teeth if that makes sense. Summer would have tolerated being humped if he hadn't used his teeth too. My finger has swollen up like a ballon where he bit mwe yesterday. I think in a couple of days I am going to try just sitting them together with me for 10 minutes here and there and see what happens. Fuzzy just needs to work out some bunny etiquette.