Bonding my girls.

I am planning on bonding my girls, I have to wait till 27th December, that gives Peanut just over 6 weeks to recover from being spayed. (May was spayed in June) also gives me time to deal with guest over christmas and then gives me a quite house to do this! My question to you is my bunnies are outdoor girls, they have their full winter coats so surely bringing them in doors to a warm house for how ever long it takes to bond them together is not a good thing?! There is not a room in my house that is cool! There is no spare room to do this and i was planning on doing this in my dining room which is a joining the front room so i can camp out with them for as long as needed! They will be returning to their joint outdoor accommodation if all goes well, if not then back to their individual setups and their new large accommodation will be split to accommodate them both. so can i bring them into a WARM house ( with winter fur coats) to bond and then return them to the cold outdoors without any problems? What do you think?

I think they will be fine, if not grateful for the extra warmth of being in your house

You do need to be very careful of sudden temperature changes. I would only bring them in if you can turn off the radiator in that room, and open a window beforehand to cool things off more, so that it's a similar temperature to outside

As you say they have a new joint accommodation to move into then you could use this for bonding them in. If you start very early in the morning that will give you all day to monitor how they are getting along. If you are not confident about leaving them overnight for the first night then pop them back into their original set-ups and repeat the next day. With a new place and lots of things to investigate you stand a very good chance of a successful bond.

Zoobec said:

You do need to be very careful of sudden temperature changes. I would only bring them in if you can turn off the radiator in that room, and open a window beforehand to cool things off more, so that it's a similar temperature to outside

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The sudden temperature change worries me! its very warm in our house and I know the girls will not cope with this (they have super thick coats). There is no room upstairs to do this unless I vacate one of my sons from their bedrooms:shock: This would not go down well. and downstairs is quite open plan so opening windows is not going to work! I do have a garage/utility room that is pretty much the same temperature as outside so maybe this could work? Thick clothing at the ready!!

tonibun said:

As you say they have a new joint accommodation to move into then you could use this for bonding them in. If you start very early in the morning that will give you all day to monitor how they are getting along. If you are not confident about leaving them overnight for the first night then pop them back into their original set-ups and repeat the next day. With a new place and lots of things to investigate you stand a very good chance of a successful bond.

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I didn't think of using their new setup! I'm in the process of insulating their new 8x8ft shed and having it kitted out with ramps up to the windows etc. So do I let them have the whole shed area? or do I corner off a suitable area? I will obviously close off the runaround door so they can't gain access to their new run, if i do corner off a bit of the shed how big a space should I give them? bearing in mind that Peanut is a conti and May is a french lop! So very big girls

Personally I would let them have it all. As it doesn't belong to either then neither of them will behave territorially and with lots of new area to nvestigate they will be more interested in that than the other rabbit. If you would rather just let them have 1/2 of the shed then do it that way. As you no doubt know, from other bonding threads, 2 females is really the hardest bond to do so from this aspect, the more space and things to do would seem the best way to introduce them.

tonibun said:

Personally I would let them have it all. As it doesn't belong to either then neither of them will behave territorially and with lots of new area to nvestigate they will be more interested in that than the other rabbit. If you would rather just let them have 1/2 of the shed then do it that way. As you no doubt know, from other bonding threads, 2 females is really the hardest bond to do so from this aspect, the more space and things to do would seem the best way to introduce them.

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Well having bought Peanut who I was told by the breeder was most certainly a boy turned out to be a girl!!!! so I have to go with it! I just want to give them the best chance of it working out. They have lived side by side for the last 4 months and seem to enjoy each others company. May more so then Peanut I think. Peanut is quite a diva and May is a very quite, affectionate bunny. If this doesn't work out then the new shed and run will be split down the middle and they will both have their own side to live on. I think there may even be room to adopt two husbuns?!?! 8x8ft shed connected by what would be 2 - 12ft runaround tubes into a 15ftx6ft x6.6ft run. But I think your right I will give them the whole shed with lots to do and I will camp out with them (so wish it was summer!) Fingers crossed it works out...