Advice on Bonding 5 yo spayed female and 4 month old male

[Shiloshi]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and am here to get advice on bonding my bunnies. A little history on my babies:

- Shiloh is my 5 year old female who is spayed. She has an entire bedroom in my apartment to herself and is litter trained. She is a rex bunny who is very comfortable with me but has always lived alone and I finally am in a position to add a new member of the family.

- Yoshi is my new bunny who is 4 months old and not yet neutered. I have an appointment to get him neutered coming up so that is definitely part of the plan. He is currently living in my second bathroom and we are working on litter training lol. He pees in the box but has not learned about pooping in the box. He is a lop bunny and right now we are working on bonding to each other and he is figuring out his space.

So, my plan is to keep them in their separate rooms until he is fully healed from neutering. Once he is ready, I will begin the bonding process. This is where my question comes in. How do you suggest doing this? I have read about stress bonding, short daily interactions, box bonding, etc.

When I first brought him home, I brought Shiloh into his bathroom and introduced them with a barrier between them. They were both very curious and it went well. Then I tried putting Yoshi in an ex pen in Shilohs room and she was NOT happy. She bit his head and charged around the pen trying to get to him. I immediately pulled his pen out of the room and abandoned that method.

Then, I bought two seperate small dog crates and put them each in their own crate next to each other with an inch apart. Yoshi could care less about Shiloh but Shiloh was visibly stressed by his presence and even tried to nip at him through the bars. I have the feeling he will be completely unbothered by this process and she will be the one I have to convince.

How do you suggest starting the bonding process in a few weeks when Yoshi is healed from neutering? Thank you so much in advance!!

 

[tonibun]

It could take some time for Shiloh to get used to a new Bunny as she has been on her own for a few years. My advice would be to take it very slowly. Your new Bunny is very young and needs to mature more as he could get bullied. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

[Shiloshi]

Thank you so much for the reply! I think I will spend a long time using crates next to each other until her stress levels calm down being near Yoshi. Also, I will swap toys and stuff between their rooms so they get used to each others scents

 

[Omi]

Hello :wave:

I would wait until Yoshi is 6 weeks post neuter, to give his hormones time to calm down. Although it does seem that the issue you will have is that Shiloh will be territorial.

I would never use stress bonding as a method, as I think it's cruel. Short daily interactions are one way forward, but the key to successful bonding is to get each rabbit to trust the other. If you keep putting them together and then separating, you will probably find that each time they will start from scratch again.

Have you got somewhere neutral where neither rabbit has been previously? That would be where I would try them together. I would put them in a small space to start off, possibly one of the dog crates. It would be best not to have anything with them in the crate apart from a large pile of forage or leafy greens as a distraction. Obviously you will need to be on hand ready to separate them if necessary with your hands protected with thick gloves. Some chasing is normal, usually from the male, but if there is aggression from either side then I would separate and try again once things are calmed down.

 

[Shiloshi]

You're thinking that once Yoshi has settled down from his neuter, I will just place them in a crate together with nothing separating them? The idea scares me because I feel like bunnies can do so much damage in a short window of time if I can't grab one of them or separate fast enough

 

[Omi]

You're thinking that once Yoshi has settled down from his neuter, I will just place them in a crate together with nothing separating them? The idea scares me because I feel like bunnies can do so much damage in a short window of time if I can't grab one of them or separate fast enough

Yes, that's right. If you are close to them in the pen, you should be able to separate them in time. Obviously you would not leave them alone at any time.

You might find it useful to have a look at the threads and videos here http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?462494-Old-Useful-Topics-Bonding

 

[tonibun]

I forgot to mention that female Rabbits are very territorial so any introductions will need to be in an area which Shiloh isn't too familiar with.

 

[Orenoko]

You're thinking that once Yoshi has settled down from his neuter, I will just place them in a crate together with nothing separating them? The idea scares me because I feel like bunnies can do so much damage in a short window of time if I can't grab one of them or separate fast enough

Perhaps use an x-pen or something that you can get easier access to than a dog crate as if the worst does happen a dog crate can be very difficult to get into in order to separate them.

Female rabbits are more territorial, when I introduced my male to my female she hated him and acted in a similar way to Shiloh. I did some side by side stuff and swapping them into each other's area's so that they could get used to each other's smells. Then I took the plunge with some short dates with food, these inevitably caused some scuffles but they started to get used to each other. I had to wait until I had some time off work to put them together permanently, I started with a small pen and then slowly increased the space they had - this is important as too much space can cause arguments.

My bonding method wasn't 100% ideal but I had to do it that way so that I could supervise the entire bonding process.

 

[Shiloshi]

I appreciate your response Orenoko,

I am relieved to find someone who has a similar pairing to me, because I am so nervous to introduce them because I don't want anyone to get hurt. Do you mind sharing the steps you took to bond your bunnies? How long did it end up taking? How long did they have dates before they were more relaxed around each other?