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Is this successful bonding?

Dinolauren

New Kit
Hi everyone!

I’ve been bonding my male/female pair of bunnies for about 2 weeks now. They’ve spent multiple occasions together for short bursts and that went so well (no fighting) that today and a couple of days ago they stayed together in a neutral area for several hours at a time. We had slight nipping by the male every now and again, the male dominantly grooming and one occasion of chasing but most of the time they either ignored each other, sat next to each other or played with the toys I put in the cage. today I fed them together. I fed them with their usual bowls that they eat in and they both allowed each other to share the bowls. They both had their heads in one bowl together with no sign of aggression at all just happy eating. In fact the male moved from eating in his separate bowl to eat with the female in her bowl. Is this a good sign?

I’m trying to work out when would be good to keep them together supervised for good. I don’t want to hinder the process by constantly putting them together and separating them. (They’re in adjasant cages) But I also don’t want to jump into anything in case it causes issues. One thing I am wondering about is the male is grooming the female (when she allows it) most of the time she runs away and when he grooms her he is being quite hard in pushing into her side and under her belly to groom. Is this normal behaviour? No mounting has happened yet and she has not yet groomed him.

Thanks for your help.
 
Welcome to the forum Dinolauren. I am sure that much wiser and more experienced rabbit owners will follow my post and you will quickly gain a balanced picture of your situation. From my seat, I would suggest that things are going in the right direction for your bond. There may be a thought that 2 weeks is a relatively quick time to achieve a solid bond but it's also fair to say that some rabbits can and do, bond quicker than others. Like humans, some rabbits can just 'click'. I'm a believer in patience and it took about 2-3 months for my two to bond but the female has deep emotional issues so she was very untrusting (still is of humans). But she is very settled with her hus-bun.
Males tend to grrom the female more - it's a heirachy thing with rabbits and the female tends to be the more dominant (from my own experience). With my pair, the female is considerably bigger than her husbun and he is a dwarf nethie. But he happily licks and grooms her all day long. females will come and 'demand' grooming - body language is the the female will submit and bow her head next to the male - it's rabbit speak for "groom me now".
The fact that they share food is also very positive. Food can be a trigger for fighting and you said they are happy sharing. This is a good positive.
I fully get where you are coming from about sepeating them then putting them together. It's a huge step to leave them unattended for long periods especially if you feel they are still a bit nervous of each other. The biggest step is the bedtime one when you leave them at night. In some ways, you need to be guided by 'what you feel'. You can see how they are together during the time they are together.
Alot depends on whether they have been neutered/spayed as this will also effect the dynamics. If the male was neutered, it would reduce some of the 'humping' urge although they still can 'hump' when they have been neutered.
All in all, I think your rabbits are showing extremely positive signs of being comfortable with each other and happy to be in each others company. Hopefully over the coming weeks, their bond will strengthen and you will end up with a very cosy husbun and wifebun.
 
Welcome to the forum Dinolauren. I am sure that much wiser and more experienced rabbit owners will follow my post and you will quickly gain a balanced picture of your situation. From my seat, I would suggest that things are going in the right direction for your bond. There may be a thought that 2 weeks is a relatively quick time to achieve a solid bond but it's also fair to say that some rabbits can and do, bond quicker than others. Like humans, some rabbits can just 'click'. I'm a believer in patience and it took about 2-3 months for my two to bond but the female has deep emotional issues so she was very untrusting (still is of humans). But she is very settled with her hus-bun.
Males tend to grrom the female more - it's a heirachy thing with rabbits and the female tends to be the more dominant (from my own experience). With my pair, the female is considerably bigger than her husbun and he is a dwarf nethie. But he happily licks and grooms her all day long. females will come and 'demand' grooming - body language is the the female will submit and bow her head next to the male - it's rabbit speak for "groom me now".
The fact that they share food is also very positive. Food can be a trigger for fighting and you said they are happy sharing. This is a good positive.
I fully get where you are coming from about sepeating them then putting them together. It's a huge step to leave them unattended for long periods especially if you feel they are still a bit nervous of each other. The biggest step is the bedtime one when you leave them at night. In some ways, you need to be guided by 'what you feel'. You can see how they are together during the time they are together.
Alot depends on whether they have been neutered/spayed as this will also effect the dynamics. If the male was neutered, it would reduce some of the 'humping' urge although they still can 'hump' when they have been neutered.
All in all, I think your rabbits are showing extremely positive signs of being comfortable with each other and happy to be in each others company. Hopefully over the coming weeks, their bond will strengthen and you will end up with a very cosy husbun and wifebun.

I agree with everything Craig has said. In fact my pair are very similar to Craig’s pair, I have a smaller male, and larger female, and she will demand to be groomed, he is more than happy to groom her frequently and for long periods, sometimes he does it without being asked. Fern does groom Frosty but not very often!

I think it sounds like you would be safe to bond them in a neutral area, and closely supervise them, and leave them together. I slept by the bonding pen for a couple of nights to ensure that they were ok, and I have a web cam also for added peace of mind, it meant I could watch them on my iPad or phone from anywhere in the house, sometimes I would think they were chasing but they were just binkying!
 
Thank you so much for the messages! It all sounds like good news to me from what you have both said about your own Buns. I will continue the sessions several hours at a time for a little longer. I also have a webcam already set up in the bunny’s room that they will eventually be in. One thing I have noticed though is that the male was nudging his head under the girl at times requesting the bonding. But she is having none of it. He is also aggressively grooming the girl which she sometimes allowes and other times runs from. I’m wondering if the male is trying to assert dominance here?
 
Thank you so much for the messages! It all sounds like good news to me from what you have both said about your own Buns. I will continue the sessions several hours at a time for a little longer. I also have a webcam already set up in the bunny’s room that they will eventually be in. One thing I have noticed though is that the male was nudging his head under the girl at times requesting the bonding. But she is having none of it. He is also aggressively grooming the girl which she sometimes allowes and other times runs from. I’m wondering if the male is trying to assert dominance here?

It's possible. They have to work out a heirachy themselves. Normally the dominant is the female. Are you bunnies neutered/spayed at all?
 
Hi :wave: Welcome to the forum :)

It's all sounding really positive to me :). The running away you've described by the female is what we've experienced recently when bonding our male/female pair. Our boy would frequently go over and she would instantly run away, over and over. It seemed like she was never going to let him get close to her, but eventually she stopped running away and would allow him to sit near her and eventually allow him to groom her. They have been happily bonded for a few weeks now.

If possible, I would suggest keeping them together now full time. Once I've started a bond I don't separate (unless they've given me cause to) and just keep a close eye on them. I'm no expert by any means, but I have done a few bonds.

Good luck x
 
Hi, thank you for you replies. Yes they are both neutered. He has been neutered for 2 years now, he lost his brother at the beginning of the year and she is younger than him but neutered too.

I think I will see how the next bonding session goes and think about keeping them together in the neutral area proving it goes well.
 
Hi :wave: Welcome to the forum :)

It's all sounding really positive to me :). The running away you've described by the female is what we've experienced recently when bonding our male/female pair. Our boy would frequently go over and she would instantly run away, over and over. It seemed like she was never going to let him get close to her, but eventually she stopped running away and would allow him to sit near her and eventually allow him to groom her. They have been happily bonded for a few weeks now.

If possible, I would suggest keeping them together now full time. Once I've started a bond I don't separate (unless they've given me cause to) and just keep a close eye on them. I'm no expert by any means, but I have done a few bonds.

Good luck x

I agree with this. It's quite normal for the female to run away for a few days then they start to settle down. Good luck!
 
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