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Bonding - 3rd time lucky or is she trying to tell me something

Bitzy-B

Mama Doe
Hi all, long time not posting on here although I do follow the Facebook group. Hope everyone and their bunnies are ok.

I'm after some advice re my little Hollie-bobs. We sadly lost Rascalchops last April and Hollie was beside herself (as were we) so we decided to adopt another bunny so she had a friend .... long story short she's now had 2 failed bonds and understandably the rescue don't want to try again as there is the possibility of injury. First bond failed as soon as they were put in the outside enclosure. Second bond failed after about a month.

Problem is, she's still sad and I don't know what to do. I've tried her as a house bunny but she hates it. I spend as much time as I can with her but I work full time so it's not long enough - she's on her own all day. She has the option of a run round the garden twice a day but if she does come out it's only for a few minutes then she goes back in the enclosure. She lives in an aviary style enclosure with several levels and she has plenty of toys.

Any ideas what I can do? I think she's very territorial but we changed the layout each time she went for bonding so that it was different when she got back. I just don't know whether to try bonding her one more time or try something different to keep her entertained. Any ideas? Tia xx
 
Hi Tia,

I think personally I would try everything to find her a friend, just because I’ve had rabbits alone and in a group and they always seemed much happier as a pair or in a group, specially if she’s an outdoor bunny. Seeing my bunnies snuggle up together eventhough it’s 40 degrees outside just makes me happy they’ve got each other. Also I heard that rabbits living in pairs tend to have a much lower rate of having things like eye infections as they tend to groom each other much often, and it’s easier for another rabbit to reach areas like the eyes. Obv there are single rabbits that do fine by themselves but I think their mainly indoor ones.

Maybe if she’s recently been out to be bonded you could give her a few months by herself before trying again, I would have thought she might be more willing after spending time by herself as rabbits like company of other rabbits so maybe she’ll miss it? Also when I last bonded a pair I left them both living next to each other for a few months, so they could see each other and sort of interact through their separators but couldn’t touch/fight, afterwards I slowly started having shorter supervised dates without the barrier and then longer ones before I let them live together, so it was a very slow introduction but it did work. So you could somehow maybe separate your rabbit enclosure or put one right next to it and let her live next to another bunny so she’s in close proximity and they can see/smell each other, it might give her time to get use to the idea of another rabbit that’s not her original mate.

This could be wrong, but I heard that older rabbits tend to be little less aggresive to younger rabbits like when their still sort of babies, but can live away from mum, as they know that it’s a baby rabbit and also baby rabbits are suppose to be more cautious around bigger ones? Idk but you could try bonding her to a younger rabbit not yet set in their ways and young enough not to try and be the dominant one? This bit I’ve never confirmed it but it’s just something that someone told me.

I am not all that experienced but I hope this sort of helps...lol this became a much longer reply than I thought sorry!
 
Sorry to hear you lost Rascalchops :cry:

Sorry the bonding is not working out :cry: Did you clean and neutralise (vinegar/water) the enclosure outside before they went into it? Did you restrict the space outdoors when they went into her set up? Had they been in the same place prior to that for a while, at least a week without any issues before moving them outside?

If the rescue don’t want to try again, thats a shame because it might be that the 2 bunnies in the previous attempts might not have been suited to her. Had they been neutered at least 4-6 weeks previously?

I can heartily recommend BARC (bunnymadhouse) on here, Angie really knows her bunnies and is excellent at matching up ideal bunnies to people and other bunnies, it might be worth dropping her a PM as I know they adopt nationally.
 
Thanks very much for your replies.

I do have the option of putting a bunny next door to Hollie for a slow bond as when we lost Rascal she was very spooked so we made the enclosure smaller and she seemed to settle down. The other half is currently being used as storage but can easily be refitted for a bunny with a hutch and ramps etc. I was just worried about being left with 2 single bunnies if it doesn't work out.

Last 2 bonds both bunnies were neutered and they were at the rescue for 3 or 4 days then indoors here in a pen for a week or so whilst we completely changed the outdoor set up .... new ramps, new lino, new carpet, repainted, neutralised etc.

With the second bond once they went outside I put them in a pen in the enclosure and increased their space slowly over a week or so but Hollie wouldn't let Brian in certain areas of the enclosure - she'd chase him off.

I'll PM Angie, thanks for the info

xx
 
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