bonding advise please

Hello, I've just joined the site and this is my first post. I have a 5yr old neutered rabbit smokey who I love to bits. He spends all summer with us in and out of the house as he pleases but lives in a hutch within a shed. Because I hated the thought of him spending more time outdoors in the winter alone I have just adopted a 3 yr old female neutered rabbit Rosie. She came from a rescue centre after being found as a stray, pregnant and with a broken leg. Despite this she is a lovely nature and I thought would be a good match after I spent a good few months looking the right bunny. But...I introduced them slowly in seperate hutches for 3 weeks then started gradual introductions and the signs seemed good. I then bought an indoor pen with the view to putting them together for a week or so to seal the bond on neutral territory. Although there was lots of chasing and mounting I thought things were going well, although we had yet to see grooming. But by day 4 smokey was getting more and more frustrated by Rosies reluctance to him as by this time he was besotted. She then started to get more and more agressive and yesterday ended with a trip to the vet after she scratched his eye. My dilemma now is what to do now? He is miserable because I've seperated them and she seems to be really stressed out. At the moment she is in the pen and he is free range in the kitchen but won't leave the side of her pen constantly grunting running up and down. Also I'm worried that if I have to keep them in the house for much longer I won't be able to put them back in their shed because of the temperature change..HELP!

This is difficult. Are you sure she is spayed? The best idea I can think of is to make the indoor pen smaller so that you are forcing the 2 rabbits to be closer. This has worked for other folk. If this doesn't work then maybe she hasn't had time for hormone levels to drop so needs more time to settle. Normally when you put a boy and girl together the boy chases the girl and after a few days this subsides and in a few more days you have a bonded pair. Always put your male rabbit in first as the girls are more territorial than boys. Let us know if this has worked in a few days. Is your boy on antibiotics? Do you know when the female was spayed?

tonibun said:

This is difficult. Are you sure she is spayed? The best idea I can think of is to make the indoor pen smaller so that you are forcing the 2 rabbits to be closer. This has worked for other folk. If this doesn't work then maybe she hasn't had time for hormone levels to drop so needs more time to settle. Normally when you put a boy and girl together the boy chases the girl and after a few days this subsides and in a few more days you have a bonded pair. Always put your male rabbit in first as the girls are more territorial than boys. Let us know if this has worked in a few days. Is your boy on antibiotics? Do you know when the female was spayed?

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Thanks for replying. Yes she's definitely spayed (5 weeks ago). Vet put drops in but thinks it should now heal so no antibiotics. I wonder whether to give them more time in adjoining hutches and try again in spring. At least he's not alone in the shed. I would love to keep them indoors but we just have no room. I'm so disaappointed as I did so much research and felt confident I could bond them. Its taking up so much time and with 3 kids on half term its not easy!

Sorry, i'm not much help, just a bump up really x

Is it possible Rosie is just a bit timid for him? Maybe she is still getting used to her surroundings if you adopted her quite recently?

I would say leave it a while for her to grow more confident then try the whole process again however if Smokey is getting miserable obviously your going to have to put them together again soon, for fear of Smokey getting really depressed or angry.
Maybe you could try putting a divider through the run for a while, so they can live next to each other peacefully without any fighting or chances of getting hurt.

A first thought that came to mind when reading this is that you didn't leave them long enough fter the neuter to fully settle down.

Good luck and welcome to the forum, sorry you didn't get many replies :wave:

Thanks for your reply. I think you may be right I probably did try to bond too soon after rosies neuter and hadnt given her time to settle in her new home. I had to make the decision so I have put them back in outdoors seperately but with contact through their hutches. I am bringing them indoors for an hour a day for supervised play and things are going well but slowly. Smokey will offer his head to be groomed but rosies still not giving in and will try to nip him. I will persevere as I know it will be worth it in the end. Thanks again.