Hi, so I've been bonding my female rabbit with a male for the last 2 months now - it's been a slow process but they've made a lot of progress. However, they've been stuck at more of less the same level of bonded with each other for the last couple of weeks now, so I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to encourage them to take those final steps and whether I should still be expecting a bit of nipping/chasing/nervousness in a recently bonded pair?
At this point, we're up to long (4-6 hr) sessions in a large area with litter boxes, hay, water, and plenty of other distractions to keep them occupied. We initially tried a smaller area, but found she was just too scared to interact with him aside from lunging and wouldn't eat, so we increased the size to give her the opportunity to run away/spend time away from him if she needed.
They're now close to being bonded (we think). Here's what they'll do at the moment: eat veggies together nicely, eat some pellets together (after a bit she hops off and then comes for more later), eat hay together/near each other, snuggle, groom (he doesn't groom her every session, but she always grooms him multiple times and he's groomed her at various points), drink water around each other, groom themselves, use the litter tray, flop/lay down, binky (him, not her), and I'm reasonably sure she's fallen asleep a couple of times too.
This is all great and such progress compared to the beginning, but the issue is they're still having periodic fights (only a handful have been serious - no blood drawn, but tails up and "whirlwindy", and some fur pulled - certainly enough for us to intervene to prevent it escalating, but I don't think they were trying to seriously hurt each other) and there are still a few scuffles (small lunges/some agitation showing). He seems to be the dominant one (he certainly gets more grooming and he nips and chases more). Most of the aggression/fear comes from one of them scaring the other by moving too suddenly after cuddling/grooming, her lunging defensively if he runs past/towards her, him nipping her when he approaches or she moves past him, or her losing her patience with the repeated butt nipping/forceful grooming requests.
They have been gradually trusting each other more over time and can move around each other comfortably most of the time, but there's still some defensive lunging from her (not trying to hurt him, just a warning) and a bit of nipping and chasing from him, both butt nipping and more recently some light nips on the bridge of her nose. Neither of them has humped the other at all which surprised me, but I guess the nipping and grooming is their way of establishing dominance. They're still breathing pretty heavy when they're lying together and there's still some tension when they approach each other. It quite hard to tell how an interaction will go because sometimes they don't react negatively at all and other times it starts a scuffle or fight, so I'm reluctant to let them have unsupervised time together untill they trust each other more and we trust them not to start a fight.
So, is it just a matter of time and patience now, or does anyone have any advice for things we could do/try at this point that might help? And should there be any nervousness/scuffles/nipping/chasing in a bonded pair or should they fully trust each other by this point?
Thanks for your help
At this point, we're up to long (4-6 hr) sessions in a large area with litter boxes, hay, water, and plenty of other distractions to keep them occupied. We initially tried a smaller area, but found she was just too scared to interact with him aside from lunging and wouldn't eat, so we increased the size to give her the opportunity to run away/spend time away from him if she needed.
They're now close to being bonded (we think). Here's what they'll do at the moment: eat veggies together nicely, eat some pellets together (after a bit she hops off and then comes for more later), eat hay together/near each other, snuggle, groom (he doesn't groom her every session, but she always grooms him multiple times and he's groomed her at various points), drink water around each other, groom themselves, use the litter tray, flop/lay down, binky (him, not her), and I'm reasonably sure she's fallen asleep a couple of times too.
This is all great and such progress compared to the beginning, but the issue is they're still having periodic fights (only a handful have been serious - no blood drawn, but tails up and "whirlwindy", and some fur pulled - certainly enough for us to intervene to prevent it escalating, but I don't think they were trying to seriously hurt each other) and there are still a few scuffles (small lunges/some agitation showing). He seems to be the dominant one (he certainly gets more grooming and he nips and chases more). Most of the aggression/fear comes from one of them scaring the other by moving too suddenly after cuddling/grooming, her lunging defensively if he runs past/towards her, him nipping her when he approaches or she moves past him, or her losing her patience with the repeated butt nipping/forceful grooming requests.
They have been gradually trusting each other more over time and can move around each other comfortably most of the time, but there's still some defensive lunging from her (not trying to hurt him, just a warning) and a bit of nipping and chasing from him, both butt nipping and more recently some light nips on the bridge of her nose. Neither of them has humped the other at all which surprised me, but I guess the nipping and grooming is their way of establishing dominance. They're still breathing pretty heavy when they're lying together and there's still some tension when they approach each other. It quite hard to tell how an interaction will go because sometimes they don't react negatively at all and other times it starts a scuffle or fight, so I'm reluctant to let them have unsupervised time together untill they trust each other more and we trust them not to start a fight.
So, is it just a matter of time and patience now, or does anyone have any advice for things we could do/try at this point that might help? And should there be any nervousness/scuffles/nipping/chasing in a bonded pair or should they fully trust each other by this point?
Thanks for your help