Advice needed re: bonding

So we have a 4 year old female and a 6 month old boy. We had her spayed a month ago and he was neutered a week ago and is all healed up. Vet said it was ok to go ahead and bond them because we have already let them see each other through bars and have swapped them out to each others living spaces. We opted for the bath tub as there are no neutral areas in our house. Our female was whimpering incessantly and he would only try to hump her. Wanted advice on whether we should have continued for longer as we only did this for 10-15 minutes as she seemed utterly stressed out. Is it detrimental to try this soon as his hormones may still be overbearing and if that shouldn't be an issue should we have let them sort it out amongst themselves for longer. Any advice would be much appreciated!!! :wave:

I would suggest leaving it until 4-6 weeks, minimum, after his neuter to give his hormones some time to abate.

isnt there a risk of pregnancy up to six weeks after being neutered?

She's been spayed for a month so no chances of pregnancy thank goodness!!! I think we will wait a few more weeks before reintroducing them. Do you think it's still ok to have them near each other though to keep them familiar?

Even waiting 2 years won't stop him humping her, as it's dominance as well as mating behaviour. I can't name one male we've had who hasn't done this during bonding at some point or another. Crackers has been done 2 years and still has done it to every female. He's currently in a quad, and mounts the one girl out of two and has never humped the male. The girl he does this to is a dominant girl-larger than him at 4 and a bit months old. My point being that if the mounting is the reason she whimpered/you separated-it won't necessarily stop after his hormones have dropped in level. It's a part of the bonding process in rabbit's eyes it establishes who is the boss and will pass. If he starts biting her back whilst doing it move him away, and keep doing this. He will, in my experience anyway, reduce this behaviour the quicker she accepts him mounting her. It's hard to watch but in the wild there are no humans to intercept-it's their natural behaviour unfortunately

Thanks guys. We think we are going to wait a few more weeks longer just to be safe but thanks Linz... as we will be less likely to break them up when he humps her. We will let them sort it out amongst themselves next time. It's hard hearing our little girl whimper though... Would be better to have someone else bond them for us! :roll:

thebuz said:

Thanks guys. We think we are going to wait a few more weeks longer just to be safe but thanks Linz... as we will be less likely to break them up when he humps her. We will let them sort it out amongst themselves next time. It's hard hearing our little girl whimper though... Would be better to have someone else bond them for us! :roll:

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Humping is normal and natural, but when bonding its important to know it is dominance and not hormonal driven, and the more doubt you lose, the better.

Its ok to let humping continue, unless its the wrong way round, then you need to stop it, or if its causing problems with the other rabbit, then you need to stop it in that situation too.

It is hard to witness your buns as what seems being nasty In our eyes. But the key things to remember are to stop any biting, chasing or circling behaviour and as sky-o has said humping the wrong end is a big no no-it can result in serious injury should the male get his penis bitten he could bleed to death. It's easier to say than do but remaining calm, focused and undertanding / showing them what's ok/normal and what's bad behaviour helps a lot. Good luck with them-it's worth the stress in the end