• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Bonding Help!

bunmom831

New Kit
Hello bunny friends, I need some help.


I have a 9 month old spayed female holland lop (Piper) She was bonded with no trouble to a male holland lop when they were both babies. He sadly passed away at 5 months due to a congenital liver problem. Our vet told us after observing Piper that she was very social and needed another bonded buddy. We adopted a male Holland lop (Theodore). He is 8 weeks old. They were living next to each other for a few days and all was calm. My husband and I decided to try to bond them using our tub. As soon as we let them loose there was a lot of fur pulling from both. The little one will not submit to Piper. She gets very upset by this and demands he submit to her. I never would have thought that this little baby would be so feisty. He is the sweetest little thing to us. Any suggestions?
 
It sounds like though he is still a baby he does not want to submit to your female, and why should he? He would also be retaliating which is a good sign also. Your female will need to submit to him really later on when he is older. When your 2 rabbits were together, the hierarchy would have been sorted out while still with Mum. My advice is to wait until the boy is older and neutered otherwise he will start to pester the female which will lead to fights. When he is neutered and recovered you will need to bond them in a neutral space. Quite often when you put baby rabbits with an older one, the older rabbit attacks the baby. Rabbits soon mature so you won't have very long to wait and the patience will pay off when they are eventually happy together.
 
Back
Top