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Been a While

CarelessSquid07

CarelessSquid07

Mama Doe
It's been 3 years since I've done bonding and my memory is awful.

We've had Rodney and Blossom side by side for a week now.

We've been alternating their access to the exercise space due to our awkward house so they have been smelling each other in that and doing many territorial poos!

Can someone remind me what the good signs are at this point before moving on to swapping cages?

For the most part they ignore each other, we feed them either side of the barrier and it seems to be going fine.

Rodney will often flop down at the shared barrier of an afternoon and Blossom will muffin nearby with her bum to him.

They do a bit of oooh what you doing following each other about but not much.

The pic isnt too clear I'm afraid.
506bf7a8d60d028cde7c96e213903b3c.jpg


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If the boy was with you before the female it should be much easier to bond them as boys are not as territorial as girls. You could try putting them together in a pen or similar on neutral territory and see how it goes. The boys usually like to chase the girls for a day or so just to show them who is the boss.
 
Think there was lots of chasing last time. And Rodney used to pull fur a lot.


I think we might try a short date as they seem pretty chilled. Maybe at the sleepy time of day.

They're going to rage anyway as we're going to have to carry them upstairs for a neutral zone.

The guide the rescue gave me said to put the dominant bunny in the pen first. I guess that'll be Rodney?


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I never knew to put dominant bunny in first. I have been known to spend a considerable amount of energy rounding up the 3 / 4 beasts to be released at the same time :lol:
 
Going for first date this evening! We ended up doing a week of cage swapping every two days. An awful lot of chinning lol.

Fingers crossed things go ok.

There has been some jealousy over the exercise rota which is a worry. And some aggressive shoving at bars to get to each other.

I'm hoping it's more frustration at not having met yet.

We're going to try the kitchen for a neutral zone and hope it goes well.

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joey&boo said:
I never knew to put dominant bunny in first. I have been known to spend a considerable amount of energy rounding up the 3 / 4 beasts to be released at the same time :lol:
Click to expand...

Me neither! In fact, if anything I would have thought you would want to put the least dominant one in first :? Wouldn’t the most dominant one be likely to be the most territorial? I always put all of them in together, too, with similar scrabbling about to try to release 2 carriers with a pair in each :lol:
 
Well it could have gone worse.

We had a good few mins of ignoring each other and then he pulled her fur and she ran. He didnt persue.

Then some more ignoring each other.

She leant in to him very briefly and he snapped at her and got some dewlap fur.

A few more mins of ignoring each other and then he had a bit of a chase and she turned to stand up to him and it seemed like the start of circling so unfortunately we grabbed them and separated.

I think maybe we shouldve set them back down and tried for another few mins of ignoring. Im terrible for interfering too soon.

Blossom peed in the neutral zone so I'm guessing I should try and scent remove that for another try tomorrow?


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Second date last night was ok.

Rodney plonked himself in the middle of the area and was a bit stressed throughout. He did a tiny bit of exploring. He moved towards Blossom a little and she scarpered as fast as she could each time. He didnt persue this time.

After about 15 mins she relaxed and started munching and peeing pooping all over my feet [emoji25]

Each of them did a tiny groom of themselves but not in mirror to each other.

We gave them 30 mins and by the end they'd both eaten a tiny bit and seemed to be relaxing a bit.

Starting to wonder how to keep them together longer. Our neutral area in the kitchen isn't great as we need the space to eat etc as it's a galley style.

The lounge is a free roam area usually and they've both been in there. I was thinking of taking everything out of the centre, putting clean lino down and enclosing in a cage. Or would that not be neutral enough?

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Sending loads of bonding vibes. It’s an incredibly stressful period and a lot of the time you have to go with your gut.
I’m afraid I’ve not got any advice to help you further - having done 3 bonds myself I know his you feel.
You seem to be doing everything in the right way and with your rabbits welfare as paramount so I’m looking forward to updates and a successful bond.
Craig xx
 
I'm just so happy to see Blossoms first flop with us today!

Its virtual dnd night tonight so we have to take a night off dating.

I honestly come out of the sessions so stressed. But in actual fact it does seem better than last time I just need to keep reminding myself of that and that Rodney especially is picking up on my stress bless him.
c0652d7934e381629d0ef663a2c4cf88.jpg


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I did at first [emoji1787][emoji1787]

Rodney does neat little rolls and Primrose used to sort of neatly dive into a flop.

I'd never see mine do it. Luckily I've seen lots of the facebook bunnies in the playing dead pose otherwise she would've been poked.

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Dare night tonight!

We had some tentative sniffs of faces! Had almost an hour together.

Also a fur pull or two. We've shrunk the area used a bit as they were avoiding each other really well.

Blossom still thinks hiding on or behind my feet is her best option I'd like to step out but theres no way we could get to them in time if a fight broke out.

Think we're almost at the point of neutral cage for a good few hours now rather than just blocking off an area with boxes. Just gotta find someplace to put it.

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