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Bonding troubles, lack of trust from lady bunny

Hi,

Having a bit of a bonding issue. I have two buns a neutered boy and spayed lady. Initially they were introduced in neutral surroundings but scrapped a lot. We have done slow bonding and the boy is the dominant rabbit or at least wants to be. The only problem, it's a big one I think, is that she doesn't trust him fully so he gets frustrated and nips/chases her. We clap/stamp to get him to stop which works, but this obviously doesn't help with the trust issues from her. She shows interest in him kind of sniffing his bum and grooming him, but he'll turn around or go near her bum and she runs away. He also seems to get territorial over things they share in neutral space. Although not all the time. Only once he's nipped/chased her and they can be fine for a while together sniffing and laying down she'll be happy in the house and he'll be eating or doing something else, but then he changes after trying to show an interest and she runs off. Is there anything you can suggest to help with trust building/bonding further as it's kind of stagnating. We have kept their hutch split, but swap them each night so their scent is in both and they're not too territorial over the space when we can join it up again.

Anything at all would be greatly appreciated as we love them both so much they just need to get along.
 
How long have you been doing the introductions for? It can take a few days for things to settle, but it doesn't sound like all is lost.
 
Hi!

It's been a few weeks now. They went into boarding last week which helped move things along a bit. They could now be put into a run together and share space without scrapping. The problem is that our boy is happy enough sharing the space for a while but after her sniffing him for a while and running off when he tries to go behind her and sitting in a house they share, he starts to nip and pull fur and chase her around. This is where we are at now and have been since last week.
We've taken to sitting next to the buns with them next to each other so she realises she can sit near him and nothing bad will happen, the only problem is that because he keeps chasing her and nipping, it kind of undoes the progress on the trust front each time.
 
Oh no! I hope this gets better for you! We'll be in the same situation in a few weeks. Our male is recovering from surgery and then we're introducing our new female to him.

The lady we adopted her from said taking them for car rides in the same carrier helps??? not sure if that's something you've already tried?
 
Hmm, I am not sure I'm afraid - I'm very new to bunnies myself...

When I re-bonded my rabbits after illness, they did something similar. I stopped with the dates in a neutral zone, and put them together for 24 hours in their combined home. It does mean being there for the whole time though, just in case of fighting. When they didn't fight, I extended it for another 24 hours and so on. It could work if you try it.

It might be that she hasn't fully given in to his dominance, and he's putting her in her place. I think that's what people suggested about our two.
 
I think that might be it. I've heard that before. She hasn't made any plays to be the dominant one so I don't think she's interested in it herself, but also not submitting fully, but I'm worried he might be starting to lose interest. I've requested a couple of days off work to sit with them in the run for the whole day then try them in the hutch together.

Fingers crossed I'm allowed the time and I'll just have to immerse myself in bunnyland for 48 hours =D

No bites or nips again today at least but we weren't really allowing it so she could get more comfy around him.
 
That's what we did, he got neutered then once healed properly we introduced the lady bunny.

I hope yours goes a bit more smoothly than ours! =)
 
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