my male bun got nervous on Gentle Bonding

[Happy Hopping]

here's an update:

the kitchen bonding, the male bun tries to nip the other one as always, and I don't feel there is progress

So I switch back to bath tub stress bonding:



I put them separate by a laundry basket for 20 min. first, so the male gets the stress from the bath tub. The female is not stress at the bath tub. Then I remove the basket, and do the petting of their foreheads.

They were face to face w/o incident at the 1st session, but did try to nip each other tonight. Although it isn't any aggressive nip. It's not like the kitchen bonding that they try to kill each other

It's quite tame, even including the nip, as they face each other for a while before they nip

I Put my hand to block each nip, there is no injury on my hand, so either they know it's my hand, or the nip was not meant to be hard

quick question: only the male is in stress. The female seems just mildly annoyed in the bath tub. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for bonding that the female is not stress?

[Zoobec]

Personally I prefer neither are stressed when bonding, as I think it’s harder for them to learn to trust each other when they are stressed. Have you tried putting them together and leave them together in a small neutral area, and watching them? I sleep next to the bonding pen for a few days normally. That might progress things forward.

[Happy Hopping]

that would be the kitchen trick last week. In which there is a fight. I don't have mesh wire fence. But I can put 1 of them in a upside down laundry basket in the kitchen, and put the other one outside the basket. I just think of this trick, what do you think?

[Happy Hopping]

Update:

So I have a question: the gentle kitchen bonding doesn't really work. All my male bun did, is trying to cross the "aisle" and try to nip the female bun. So in the past weeks, I go back to the bath tub stress bonding, in which there is also 1 fight.

Now, just prior to the fight, they do what they normally do, they sniff each other with their nose

then about 1 or 2 seconds later, they begin to fight

My question is, what is the best moment in time to separate them?

a) Let them sniff each other but hold them so they can't bite each other

b) or let them sniff each other and stop them about 2 seconds later when their fight would have start out

any other advice would be very useful, as I hate to have them separate during the upcoming Xmas season

[BattleKat]

If no blood is being drawn I would let them scrap a little.

[Shimmer]

At some point you are just going to have to let them get on with getting to know each other. Chasing, nipping, fur pilling is often all part of the process. If you separate them every time they have a sniff of each other, they will find it very difficult to bond as you are physically stopping them from getting on with it. As Battlekat said, if no blood is being drawn, leave them to it.

[Happy Hopping]

And that's what I did in the past. But the outcome is unknown from every fight. I can't hope for a non injury fight and be done with it. Look at my other thread where is a mild injury near my male bun's eye, and we have to go to the vet and do that eye exam

[Happy Hopping]

So after all these months, here's an update:

There was 2 fights a no. of months ago. The 1st one is somewhat unpreventable, my bun Fudgie was mildly injured and life goes on.

THe 2nd fight is my fault. My bun downstair manges to move the box blocking the stairwell, and as such, she hops up and my gate opens as she hops up, so the 2 have a small fight. This time, my bun Andi slightly injured her antenna.

Since the months when my bun healed from the 2nd fight, I have been doing bath tub bonding. It's smooth sailing. As of today, my male bun Fudgie is fully committed and has lick Andi on occasion. But on Andi's side, she still tries to nip Fudgie as recent as today. But after she nips him, Fudgie still moves forward and rest his head next to Andi

However, knowing my bun Fudgie is willing to go with Andi, he still marks his territory by peeing and pooing at the bath room. I don't entire understand this, if he's willing to put up w/ his future partner, why is he still marking the territory?

[Happy Hopping]

I need some new bonding advice:

Part 1) 2 days ago:
So after a few months of bath tub bonding, there is a bunny bonding plateau: nothing have changed in weeks. My bun Fudgie has been yielding to Andi, he grooms her, but even as of today, Andi still tries to nip Fudgie.

Andi is a very tame rabbit, in fact, she's the only bun who let me hold her on my bed for 30 min. Other buns would only do that when I spent many years with them. So this bonding should be very simple, and yet it's not.

The other problem that I don't know how to fix is, during the 1 hr. bath tub bonding, about 75% of the time, Fudgie is grooming my arm. I'm trying to get him to groom Andi more. But I don't know how.

In the past 13+ year of rabbit bonding, I just let my other buns chase each other at the backyard, and separate them when there is fur all over the place. But Fudgie is already willing to bond w/ Andi at all these bath tub session, so I don't want to create a side track.

Part 2: Kitchen bonding (just now for 1 hr.)

I just completed a 1 hr. of kitchen bonding. This is the 2nd time they met each other in the kitchen since 2019. Last summer, when I try to bond them in the kitchen, there is a noticeable fight, but I put a stop to it after 15 sec. of it.

The behaviour of my 2 bun's tonight is totally unexpected:

1) my male bun Fudgie tries to fight or nip my female bun Andi. I don't know if that would turn out to be a fight, or just a nip, but both side did get somewhat aggressive for 2 sec., so I put a stop to it

2) Fudgie sits at a corner mostly within that hr., and did try to sniff Andi a few times, but surprisingly, Andi is afraid of him

3) Andi just sits next to me for that whole hr. She never try to approach Fudgie. So it looks a lot like a total role reversal. I can't understand why Fudgie suddenly get somewhat aggressive, as even as of 24 hr. earlier, Fudgie is grooming Andi at the bath tub.

I'm totally green when it comes to bunny bonding, any help is good