The house is mine for a week... now for some bonding.

[JamesK]

Our male mini lop is about 1.5 years old, female about 9 months, both have been neutered now, the male last year, female a about a month ago. Their initial introduction didn't go that great, it wasn't so much the hair pulling or so called 'normal' bonding activity, more about the female weeing all over the floor, and at some point my other half decided she'd had enough of this so we separated them. To be fair that was before the neutering. So this time round we decided to do it by the book: Get her neutered, wait, then try again.

So now I have the house to myself for a week, I decided why not try some bunny bonding? I cleared out the kitchen, and setup the run indoors, put the female into the run, so he could get used to her. I made sure he could get all the way round, because when we put the run up against the wall, he always wants to get into the gap between run and wall, like he needs to go all the way around her. This was setup Monday midday. Tuesday I let the female out a few times while I was watching. When things got a bit heated I kind-of guided the male away to give her a bit of space. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do that. He is not aggressive with me so I didn't need to wear any gloves or anything, I just have to act like I'm about to pick him up and he scarpers. I swapped them round a couple of times so he went in the run and her outside although I didn't leave things like that overnight because she's not very tidy with droppings and I'm also concerned about the aforementioned weeing issue. Inside the run she is mercifully weeing in her litter tray even if a lot of her droppings don't make it there. Today I let them both out for a longer period. There was some chasing, but they seem mostly calm. He seems to have stopped nipping now and I think the chasing is just that.

So I'm leading up to two questions:

1) In this environment is it possible that putting her in the run overnight is now a backward step and can undo progress so far?
2) Do you think I'm ready to leave them overnight mixing freely?

I have until Sunday to either wrap this up or abort it because I need to get the kitchen back in a usable state for the family, thanks for any advice!

James.

 

[Omi]

It's sounding quite positive

Have either of the bunnies been in the kitchen previously, so that either might become territorial? Chasing is normal and usually a part of bonding. As long as there is no real aggression, the female will usually run away and the male will then give up.

 

[JamesK]

It's sounding quite positive
Have either of the bunnies been in the kitchen previously, so that either might become territorial?

This is the problem. He's been in the kitchen, she's been in the bedroom. So kitchen is probably his now. They are very different rabbits: She doesn't chew or mess with anything at all so has been freely roaming the bedroom without issue except we stick her in the hutch at night. She didn't even go out the door when it was open to explore and was quite happy chilling in there. He chews everything, so we rabbit-proofed the kitchen. We also need to take everything off the floor every night (all his toys) otherwise he makes a racket in the small hours. throwing stuff about.

So it was never going to be easy to simply 'swap' the territories around as I believe you're supposed to do, and neutral territory is also a bit of a challenge because we'd have to rabbit-proof it.

I was hoping setting up the run in the kitchen would help and I'm sure it has to some extent. They do seem pretty calm, although since your post he's taken a bite after they had their kale. I suspect it may be my fault partly. He eats very quickly, so I kept him away from her while she was finishing, then as an experiment (once she'd eaten about 3/4 of hers) I let them do their thing. He went for her bowl, and there was this quite amusing moment when she flattened her chin over the remaining kale. It could have been she was just submitting but it looked like she was blocking him from getting the last bits of kale! I'm certain she's not that smart, however. Anyway, some time later he spontaneously bit her bum, then spent the next 2 mins trying to get her hair away from his face (serves him right...). I think his frustration that he couldn't find any more kale may have had something to do with it.

 

[Omi]

Females are much more territorial than males. Where do you intend for them to live once bonded? Swopping territories for a while as part of bonding is the slow method. Putting them together in a neutral territory and keeping them together progresses much faster.

I have found bum-nipping to be part of bonding behaviour, so it might have had nothing to do with the kale.

If you intend to keep them together overnight, you will need to stay with them, so that you can separate if necessary. There are many different views about bonding methods and some people in your situation would keep them both in the run and others would give them both the run of the kitchen. It's impossible to say really which of the two is the most likely to be successful. The purists would probably say to keep them both confined to a small space ie the run. The alternative view is that it's beneficial for the female to have space to run away.

Whatever you decide to do I wish you loads of luck. Bonding can be stressful. Please come back with questions or ask for more advice if you need to.

 

[bunny momma]

Good luck with your bonding. Will you be nearby overnight if you need to intervene?

 

[JamesK]

Good luck with your bonding. Will you be nearby overnight if you need to intervene?

Thanks. I hope I don't need to, they've been together since 10:00 a.m. and just a couple of altercations in that time, both quickly settled with her running away. I won't be far away, just hoping I do actually wake up.

 

[tonibun]

I think they should be ok. You have them in his territory so that's fine and they have been in the home for quite awhile so they are not exactly unfamiliar with each other. They should sleep for most of the night if it is dark. Have they got a good supply of Hay?

 

[JamesK]

Have they got a good supply of Hay?

Yes indeed, and I spread it across two boxes opposite sides of the room. Just checked on them and they are sleeping in loaf against each other (they were apart for the midday sleep). The kitchen being 11 degrees may have something to do with that!

 

[Omi]

It sounds as though it's going very well How's things this morning?

 

[JamesK]

It sounds as though it's going very well How's things this morning?

Great! I looked around for bits of her fur on the floor and didn't find any. They even briefly shared a hay box without squabbles while I was filling them. Interestingly she's sped up eating her pellets so he doesn't have the opportunity to steal them when he's done (she used to take ages eating them). Still some issues though: Her droppings go all over the floor, and she's drinking a lot more water than him, so they had run out by the morning. I think in the new year I'm going to have to get her to the vet to see what's up with the excessive drinking.

 

[Omi]

Excellent I wouldn't be at all concerned by the droppings. That is completely normal during bonding (marking territory) and will soon lessen and hopefuly stop altogether. Is the larger quantity of water drunk only since you started bonding? If so, I would monitor it and see how it is in a few days' time. Also it would be helpful to measure how much water she is in fact drinking per day.

 

[JamesK]

Excellent I wouldn't be at all concerned by the droppings. That is completely normal during bonding (marking territory) and will soon lessen and hopefuly stop altogether. Is the larger quantity of water drunk only since you started bonding? If so, I would monitor it and see how it is in a few days' time. Also it would be helpful to measure how much water she is in fact drinking per day.

I think she always drank more than him, but it wasn't always the same person refilling her bowl, so we weren't keeping the best track of it.

Update: I got fed up with pulling droppings out of the hay boxes, so I've combined them now to simplify the job. They don't seem to fight over the hay which is good. For the moment the litter trays are separate as they seem to have a preference, but they are using each other's on the odd occasion. She sometimes grooms him when I pet him, did that three times today. One time when she was done, he started grooming me, it was really cute. I was in two minds whether we needed to get another rabbit as we were giving our boy lots of attention working from home and he seemed happy but it's great watching the way they interact. I can't wait for the weather to get better so we can get them outside together, think it'll be a fun summer.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[tonibun]

I think she always drank more than him, but it wasn't always the same person refilling her bowl, so we weren't keeping the best track of it.

Update: I got fed up with pulling droppings out of the hay boxes, so I've combined them now to simplify the job. They don't seem to fight over the hay which is good. For the moment the litter trays are separate as they seem to have a preference, but they are using each other's on the odd occasion. She sometimes grooms him when I pet him, did that three times today. One time when she was done, he started grooming me, it was really cute. I was in two minds whether we needed to get another rabbit as we were giving our boy lots of attention working from home and he seemed happy but it's great watching the way they interact. I can't wait for the weather to get better so we can get them outside together, think it'll be a fun summer.

Thanks for the advice!

Some of use use litter boxes with Hay in them as Rabbits like to chew and pooh at the same time. This is a good way in which to encourage good toilet habits. As long as the litter tray is cleaned out every day there is never a problem.

 

[bunny momma]

It is so nice to see bonded bunnies interact! Well done!