Bonding issues

Apologies for the long message, please bare with me!

My wife and I have a 2 year old buck called Gimli. We've had him since he was about 10 weeks, and since we've had him we've tried to bond him with two does, both of who sadly passed away.

Not wanting him to be lonely, we've recently got a 15 month old non-spayed doe, Bramble, that we're currently trying to bond with him.

We got Bramble from a very experienced rabbit breeder who advised that it wasn't essential that she was spayed. Our last doe died on the operating table and our first doe had major trouble after her operation, so we've been trying to avoid spaying if at all possible.

Gimli tends to live in our garage for about 90% of the time. When we got Bramble, we gave her her own hutch and small bit of space next to Gimli's space, but with bars between them so they could see each other but not get to each other.

For the first few days, we let them see each other through the bars, but didn't let them out and interact.

Since then, we've given them a good half an hour each day to interact with each other. At first it was fairly normal, ignoring each other, touching noses then running away, a few nips here and there, but no humping.

Then they started fighting. We split them up and separated them each time they did this. This happened for the first four to five days, but the couple of days after that they started grooming each other and really seemed to get on, with no aggression whatsoever.

We thought they were ready to be left alone, but as soon as we were about to leave them they started fighting again. We've had about five bonding sessions since, and each time they've had a fight, sometimes more aggressive than others.

We're a little bit stuck with what to do now. Do we persevere with them? Is there a different approach we can take?

Admittedly, the space we have been trying to bond them in is more Gimli's, so we're not sure if this may have escalated tensions somewhat.

We wanted to try and bond them in a neutral space, but he is so hard to catch we've struggled with this (he hates being picked up!).

We're desperate for Gimli to have a partner, but don't want to keep forcing different does onto him in the hope he finds a mate

Which one seems to be starting the fights? If it's the female then spaying would calm her down. I know you have had a couple of bad experiences but maybe your Vet isn't all that experienced with rabbits. You could try to find a Rabbit savvy vet near where you live, if you post asking for one in your area, someone will recommend one. The other method you could try which is one a lot of people use is the small space method, this means you would have to catch your male bunny and put him in a puppy pen or similar with the female. You would obviously have to stay there and monitor them, or could you take them indoors in a puppy pen? Was the Doe used for breeding? If so, how long ago did she have her last litter, as this could be affecting her behaviour as her hormones will be all up and down. Being the male's territory shouldn't be making that much difference as the boys aren't that territorial.

It does seem to be the doe that is starting the fights. We're considering getting her spayed and seeing if that helps. Naturally, we're a little nervous to see if she makes it through the procedure.

The doe was used for breeding, but she's very small and lost her litter, and since then wasn't interested in breeding at all (so we've been told), hence why she was sold as a pet.

We're not 100% sure, but we think her last litter was over 6 months ago.

That's thrown some light on this situation. She is possibly starting the fights because she is scared of something. She probably thinks your boy wants to mate with her and she doesn't want that. No-one can give you an answer to this but I would think she needs time to settle in, time to get used to your male, then she will start to feel less threatened. I would make sure your Vet is experienced with rabbits because some are not, then consider having her spayed. I have had lots of females neutered with no problems really. Start a new thread asking for recommendations for Rabbit savvy vet in your area. At least your boy has rabbit company now, if not together.

I echo what Tonibun said: Make sure you find a rabbit-savvy vet and arrange to have her spayed. The health implications of leaving her un-neutered far outweigh the risk of having the procedure - and she would be happier and more willing to bond with your male.


Just re-read and ........ What I mean, of course (!) is have your rabbit spayed, not the rabbit-savvy vet. :roll::lol: