tell me about your bonding experiences.

:wave: Tell me about your bonding experiences. All the positives and the negatives. What the hardest bits and the behaviours from your buns?

I've only done the one bond, 2 pairs into a quad, the thread is here http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...ter-Bonding-a-quad&highlight=Zoobec+quad+bond sadly all four of them are at the bridge now though they did live happily ever after though.

I've done a handful of successful bonds: two trios and a pair.

I tried bonding Elphie and Galinda back together many years ago, and it was a disaster that ended in circling, nipping, and me being bitten. As I hadn't read up on bonding properly at that point, I was quickly discouraged and gave up too soon.

My next unsuccessful bond was Elphie and Athena. They stuck in a loose bond after a few days, but fell out a month later... over a satsuma. Elphie was seriously upset about it and I had to separate them permanently.

My first successful bond was a trio: Elphie, Galinda, and Archimedes. I was more determined to make it through the does need for dominance, and it turned out that dear Artie was a calming presence that made Elphie and Galinda settle down with one another. Quickly, the girls became devoted to one another, which was such a joy to see after they had been separate for so long. Sadly, Archimedes died a month later from age. Galinda since passed two weeks ago yesterday and Elphie was seriously heartbroken.

My next successful bond was Athena and Apollo. They took properly after about three to four days, with their bond strengthening properly once they were outside. Apollo is not what you'd necessarily call a placid bun, but he eventually learned to submit to Athena, who is a larger-than-life-itself bun. They adore each other now, but when travelling, Athena will try and use poor little Polly as a pillow! :lol:

My next unsuccessful bond was 2 weeks ago - trying to integrate Elphie in with Athena and Apollo. There were moments when I thought it would take, but the girls quickly let it be known they were very unhappy living together. Apollo kept trying to hide away from the girls (very difficult in a dog crate) as they kept trying to have it out as to see who would be dominant bun. When they had their worst fight after half an hour of calm, I promptly separated Elphie from Athena and Apollo again. Despite the fact Elphie was seriously mourning for Galinda, I didn't want to risk breaking Athena and Polly's bond by introducing Elphie to the mix.

The fastest successful bond I've had was also 2 weeks ago - and a trio. I acquired two adult rexes from somebody who "accidentally" bred them and wanted to get rid of all the rabbits. They were a buck and doe, a bonded pair, where the buck was neutered and the doe was not. Despite everything being against the bond with these statistics, they bonded within ONE HOUR. Helios (the buck) and Selene (the doe) spent all their time grooming Miss Elphie and she has since perked up to being her usual cheerful self. However, I've had to separate Selene for a while because I feared she might have become pregnant after the old owner reintroduced Helios almost immediately after his neuter. I'm hoping to reunite them soon - still undecided as to whether or not this will happen before or after Selene's spay. After might be more practical. I just hope they take her back as quickly. But the two rexes are so placid, that I'm hoping it won't be a problem at all.

I have only experienced two bonds. The first one, DeeDee and Ben took place at the local rescue centre, and was love at first sight. Ben apparently ran over to her immediately, humped her, sprayed urine everywhere (AAH how romantic!) - and that was it. They were home within two days and never had any problems.

The second bond couldn't have been more different. Ben died suddenly and we chose Fred, a Lionhead, as Deedee's new husbun. They were not too keen on each other at first (well he wasn't too bad, but she didn't want to know) and after a couple of days they had quite a big fight. The rescue centre said that they had sorted out their differences and things quietened down. After 4-5 days the rescue centre thought they were ready to come home.

Here is where it went wrong! We had cleaned everywhere out with white vinegar to remove Ben's smell. However, the rabbits have a room to themselves with various tunnels, cage which is always open, and what we call the roof terrace which is on top of the cage. (as well as two sofas which we all use!). On the roof terrace is a log tunnel which is just big enough for one rabbit. Unfortunately she ran straight into it (probably to calm herself down after all the stress) and Fred thought it might be fun to join her........ Oops. All hell broke loose (females I understand now are very territorial) and there was fur everywhere. Fortunately neither of them were hurt but we were really shocked. We rang the rescue centre and they told us to bring them straight back. We tried again a couple of days later, but in a very restricted space, i.e just the cage with a small barrier in front to allow them enough space to hop on the carpet a bit. They were fairly OK with this, although there was a bit of nipping and fur pulling. He would wash her, and then push his head under her chin for her to reciprocate, which she never did, which seemed to wind him up!

After a few days we gradually increased the space until after 10 days they had the whole room to themselves. Everything was going well so we got them some treats which neither of them had had before, which was basically a bag of herbs etc (it looked like pot pourri) The following day after eating these there was the biggest fight ever! They both ended up at the vets, him with a bite on his side, and her with a wrenched shoulder. Very miserable bunnies. Very miserable people. When we told the rescue centre they advised that this had happened before with other bonds, apparently when they are just bonding, they are very sensitive to changes in smell and if one of them had eaten more of one herb than another their urine would smell differently causing them to be suspicious of each other again! Nightmare!

After that we would come down to a room full of both colours of fur (black and white) maybe once every couple of weeks, but most of the time they would tolerate each other, occassionally grooming etc.

I would say it took about 3 months for them to be fully bonded and now, after 6 months they are very fond of each other, grooming each other and cuddling together.
It's been very stressful but ultimately worth it. Good luck with your bonding!

I've only bonded once and it was at the beginning of November I think. I didn't do the long bond and dating technique - instead I put them in a dog crate and spent the next week sleeping next to them! Before this though they played in separate runs which they could see each other through for about 2 months. This probably helped as they were already used to being near each other. But bonding was not what I expected! It was stressful and in the first hour I felt like crying! They kept on fighting for the first hour, but as they are both dwarfs they were very easy to separate and keep apart with my hands (protected by thick gloves). Things went quite well after that and the next couple of days they snuggled together and would eat hay together. They didn't react when I introduced litter boxes or a bowl to share food from. The next time we had an issue was when i tried introducing veggies and one took some from the mouth of the other and then they had a small scrap. And then the same thing happened when they had a gnawing toy so they obviously hadn't learnt to share at this point! After about 2 weeks they moved into their shared hutch. They aren't the most affectionate couple but they enjoy having each other around. They still struggle with sharing food, so veggies have to be hand fed and supervised. I think that although they are officially bonded and living together they still need to properly fall in love yet. Maybe they won't ever fall in love and they are better as friends! But the stress and worry was worth it when i see them running around together and flopping next to each other

My first bunny Angel (f) I bonded to Ralph (m). Angel got to choose Ralph as the rescue offered speed dating. The date was very positive. Back home I knew nothing of various bonding theories / strategies. Angel was a free range house bunny & I'd never heard of steam cleaning, neutralising etc. There was never any problems, they remained a devoted mischievous couple from the moment they met until the day Angel died.

My second bond was Ralph to Kitty. They had no prior introductions. She was a feisty bunny (I rescued her from a house full of lads who fed her pepperoni pizza). They fought (I don't recall any injuries) a few times during bonding but had sorted everything out in a few days. They never fought again but weren't that close/affectionate.

My next bunnies were sisters & already bonded. They were so affectionate. When Myrtle died we had to find a friend for Noodle. Noodle was introduced to a few bunnies at RSPCA premises. We chose Joey to try with her (as I like buns that look like wildies) & he was really gentle. He was a little disinterested in her back home but she followed him round like a puppy & within a few hours they were grooming. They never fought & it was very rare Joey got frisky with her. So Joey & Noodle were also brought to the females territory with no preparation.

Noodle died & Joey was sad so we got Boo from the Rspca. They met once - she was the only female bunny available. It was fairly positive for the date, Boo binkied, rolled over & friendly chased ...Joey hid by my legs :lol: Post homecheck we introduced them on the bathroom floor. By this point I'd obviously heard about neutral areas. Joey tried to escape a lot and then made various growling noises, he humped then foot stomped for a good hour then groomed then foot stomped. No aggression just warnings. Boo was really submissive (this is not Boo's character ) & lay flat. Joey even made her eat her poo. 6 hours later we put them in the spare room where I slept, they ignored each other less and less. I was confident about moving them to the main areas of the house within 24 hours. There is a little food aggression with these two but they are very loving.

Then I join here & start obsessing about a trio :lol: And then I found Mouseon Camp Nibbles website. This was possibly a really stupid thing to do but I decided to brave it. They had an initial meeting at Camp Nibble where Boo was a little testy but no scraps & it was obvious Joey & Mouse liked each other. Boo is deaf which made bonding her difficult...she was oblivious to shrieks & loud noises which scared poor Mouse. We had to be careful not to stress Mouse with bonding too because of her EC.

I tried them first in a smaller space but Mouse (who never fought back) couldn't escape Boo who was very lungey & nippy. In a big space Boo couldn't bagsy everything & gradually they learnt to share the same space. Mouse as a bigger bunny could easily run away from Boo without getting caught. By week 3 Boo groomed Mouse but it was very intermittent & there was regular chasing & fur pulling too. Mouse was really good at taking it in her stride. She had Joe throughout too. It took 7 months for them to move through hate to tolerance to love. They are forever cuddling, faces squashed together. So that was my only difficult bond, but far & away the most rewarding.

I get the feeling Joey would bond to any bunny...OH reckons Joey just likes the ladies

I've been lucky in that bondings always worked out in the end & they've never fallen out after

I've done a few and I'll shortly be doing another as sadly we lost Scooby last week so I have a lonely girl.

I always use a bonding pen and I monitor them continuously until I am confident that they are OK with each other. The bonds that I have done have involved 1 or 2 nights of sleeping on the floor or sofa and then we set up a camera so I can go to bed and watch them on my laptop, I usually wake up every couple of hours to check the laptop and see what they are up to, just for peace of mind. It really does depend on the rabbits and the personalities involved, some bunnies might take only one night of continuous monitoring whereas others might take several sleepless nights. Neutral territory is very important, both for the temporary bonding area and their eventual permanent accommodation.

The only real failure I had was trying to integrate my conti Bentley with my trio of sisters. Initially it all went amazingly well, but after two weeks, Poppy & Pansy took issue with each other and had a huge fight. Poppy ended up needing stitches to a wound on her tummy. Luckily I was there when the fight broke out. I went to feed them and noticed that there was a fair bit of fluff in the playhouse and as I stood there wondering whose it was, Poppy & Pansy suddenly started fighting. Bentley became involved, but I don't think he meant to as he was just panicking, but running around in a panic when you are 7kg doesn't really help things. :roll: Daisy was the only one with any sense, she hid in the hay tray and kept a low profile. I had to wade into the 3-way scrap and separate them. None of the girls had any problem with Bentley, they all loved him, but adding him into the mix upset the hierarchy between the 3 girls. I had to rebond the 3 girls, which thankfully wasn't too difficult, and I adopted another rabbit, Minnie, as a friend for Bentley. It has completely put me off integrating a single rabbit into an existing pair/group, just because I've seen how easy it is to upset an established hierarchy, but I know there are others who have successfully bonded groups,it all depends on the personalities involved.

Bonding Bentley and Minnie was the easiest ever. It was true love at first sight and they remained completely devoted to each other. I doubt I will ever see such devotion between two bunnies again.

Sugar and Roo was a little more difficult due to Roo having poor eyesight. They did the usual chasing, and a few times it escalated into a small scuffle mainly because Roo became confused and panicky. I only had to intervene once, but stupidly I panicked and went straight in with bare hands to separate them, Roo thought he was being attacked and he bit me, he had locked on so when I pulled my hand away Roo came with it, I had him dangling from my finger. :shock: He let go and all was then calm between him and Sugar, which was good as my finger was pouring with blood so it gave me time to go and sort it out. My finger still bears the scar of this bonding. :lol: The moral of this story is, wear gloves!

Minnie and Scooby was another easy bond, but I think that was down to the personalities involved, Minnie had lost her Bentley, she was lonely and grieving, and Scooby was a very sociable and friendly lad. They just went together very easily with no problem at all.

When Scooby lost his girl Minnie, we took on our little half-wildie Rachel. I had to monitor this bond from a distance due to Rachel's fear of humans. I would never do this with 'normal' pet rabbits, but with Rachel it was the only way because if I am anywhere nearby she will bolt and hide. Scooby's friendly personality and Rachel's relief at having one of her own kind as a friend meant that this was another easy bond. It was stressful for me as it involved a huge amount of trust on my part, I had to monitor them from the house with binoculars and be ready to dash outside if anything kicked off, which thankfully it didn't. They took to each other straight away. Sadly Scooby passed away last week, so after only 5 weeks of having a friend, poor Rachel is alone again. She is missing her Scooby, so I do need to find her a new friend.

I've also had to reintegrate a boy back in with his sisters after he was neutered. I took on a quad of siblings when they were orphaned at 4 weeks old. At about 10 weeks old I separated Pepper from his three sisters and had to keep him alone until he had been neutered. He was separated from his 3 sisters for about 2 months. The girls accepted him back really quickly, I don't know if they would have all remembered each other or not. They did a lot of chasing, but I didn't worry too much about that as they chased each other at 4 weeks old and they still chase each other now at 5 years old, it's just how they are...they are completely bonkers.

I find bonding very stressful, although I don't get quite so anxious about it now as when I did my first one, but as others have said it is so worth it when you see them so happy together. For me the hardest bit is holding back from intervening too soon. To some extent you need to let them get on with it and do the chasing etc as it is all part of them establishing dominance, but you do need to know when it is going too far so that you can intervene before it turns nasty. Good luck with your bonding, I hope it goes smoothly.