Failed Re-Introduction and a Lesson Hard Learned

The lesson simply being, not to split up a same sex pair even for a night.

I started a thread on this a while back so thought I would give a final update.

Juno spent a night at the vets away from her daughter and we have not been able to reintroduce. We tried everything - rides in the car, walks on leads together, swapping hutches and neutral space but to no avail. We took them to see a specialist rabbit rescuer with a lot of knowledge and she watched them for a while together and said that it wouldn't work. Verity is just too dominant a character.

Very very sad. We are keeping Juno as we rescued her and don't think it's fair to move her again, so Verity is going. Fortunately a good friend is taking her so we can still see her and know she is in a good home, but I still had a good cry!

I am sorry that things haven't worked out for you and your rabbits. They are amazingly complex with their relationships and the more I study this, the more amazing it gets.

Who knows why they decide to get on or not, and all I can say is that having done your all to get them back together, you can rest easy knowing that you did everything and even if it had worked for a while, it may have broken down in time anyway - same sex parings, even siblings just seem to sometimes.

I hope both buns go on to have lovely new relationships with a husbun and both have happy endings.

Bunny hug for you too.

Helen

I'm so sorry. I know exactly how you must be feeling. I have two 8 years old rabbits who have fallen out because the female is very dominant. And I've had to separate. I currently have them in separate hutches.

OUt of interest, what were the signs that led the rescuer/bonding expert to conclude that they would never form a successful bond and that the dominance was too much? Obviously I'm very interested as this sounds like a very similar issue to mine...

And what behaviour were they showing when they were together following the separation that caused their bond to break?

I'm sure Verity will be very happy in her new home

Thanks for any advice you can offer x

Rabbers said:

I'm so sorry. I know exactly how you must be feeling. I have two 8 years old rabbits who have fallen out because the female is very dominant. And I've had to separate. I currently have them in separate hutches.

OUt of interest, what were the signs that led the rescuer/bonding expert to conclude that they would never form a successful bond and that the dominance was too much? Obviously I'm very interested as this sounds like a very similar issue to mine...

And what behaviour were they showing when they were together following the separation that caused their bond to break?

I'm sure Verity will be very happy in her new home

Thanks for any advice you can offer x

Click to expand...

Bumping because I'm really interested to know what the key signs were to suggest a rebond would not succeed, ever.

Bump!

Kiwi Bron said:

I'm really interested to know what the key signs were to suggest a rebond would not succeed, ever.

Click to expand...

You would be best advised on speaking to the person who bonded them to find out why they did not feel the bond was rescueable.

Whenever I have given up on bonding rabbits there are often different reasons why I have come to the decision on abandoning the session, this could be on day one or even after 10 days it really depends on the circumstances, some is due to persistent fighting, constant and persistent humping, constant nipping and others have been that I feel that the bond is not good enough and another partner would work better.

Thanks Janice! I think mine fall into the persistent humping and nipping category. I am going to attempt to rebond my two oldies when i move in a month or two...