Using NIC cubes in bonding

Hello all,

After two incredibly easy bonds with previous pairs I’ve hit my first difficult bond. I’m introducing my new laid back male to my quite highly strung existing female. She’s not adapting very well to him in neutral territory meetings so I’m going to scale back and go more slowly with them as her nervousness leads her to try and get a blow in first ‘just in case’ despite no signs of aggression from him.

After a couple of meetings in neutral territory I’ve decided that moving straight to being together in a space, however small, is not going to end well so I’ve bought some NIC style cubes so that I can build a pen where they can be side by side but separated by a dividing wall to see how that goes during supervised sessions. My question is how can I use this set up most effectively? I’m wondering whether I should start with the largest divided configuration of the cubes and work down as they get more comfortable to the smallest configuration (2 x 1) and then remove the wall at that smaller size and work my way back up? This would give them the space to be away from each other in the early days and get them used to being in closer proximity before the wall comes down. It makes sense to me, but I don’t know if this makes good rabbit sense!

Any thoughts appreciated. My previous bun was always so grateful I’d bought a new bun wife home he was happy to let them move in and be in charge. Efa is not quite so accommodating of Dylan!

Many thanks

Boys generally will accept a female more easily into their territory. Girls are not so easy. Is the neutral space as far away as possible from space she is accustomed to? Female rabbits can be so territorial. You will have to be very sure they are bonded before returning them to an area the girl is accustomed to or her territorialness could flare up. Maybe you could provide new housing so her scent won't be on it.

Hi, many thanks for your thoughts. Yes the space possibly is too close to her room I hadn’t thought of that. I can move them upstairs for bonding sessions so I will try that when I think she’s ready to give it another go. If I had to, I could move them upstairs permanently, but I’m waiting for delivery of a new rabbit fort/tunnel set up. If they get to a point where I can introduce Dylan to ‘her’ room, maybe being able to construct a completely new set up would be enough of a change of scenery for her not to be too attached to anything. But we’re quite a way from that yet!