Hi all. A bit of a back story, we have two lops - a grey and white female called Poppins and a brown and ginger male called Bert.
Bert came to us in February, he is neutered and poppins spayed. They have been living side by side/swapping areas for 6 months until we decided to bond them properly in August. The bonding process on the whole went really well. Day 1, Bert mounted poppins and she let him and then they ate greens side by side and took a nap next to one another. amazing for attempt number 1. Day 2 he tried to mount her again and she nipped him and a fight ensued. We took them back to living side by side for a few more days after that and then by attempt number 3 Poppins was grooming the life out of Bert and they have been living together fully ever since. We presumed this meant Bert was the dominant and Pops the submissive.
They appear inseparable & spend time sitting together, playing together and they constantly flop into one another’s sides and nap squished/cuddled up with one another. It’s been 6 weeks of this now and so I really thought this meant they were bonded.
However today I caught this exchange on my bunny cam and not to sound dramatic but it’s broken my heart. Tried to post the video here but can’t figure out how so I’ll describe instead. Bert attempts to mount Poppins aggressively several times for no apparent reason, she keeps running away and he chases her every time and mounts her rather violently right on top of her head. She seems frightened and has barely been near him since.
We have had no mounting behaviours from Bert since that first day and I can’t see anything on the camera to indicate why he felt he needed to today. The only thing I can think of is that whilst Poppins will groom Bert everytime he asks, she will also then ask him to groom her in return several times a day and he will never groom her back. Could she have asked one time to many and it’s annoyed him?
And does this exchange mean their bond has broken? Should I go back to no longer leaving them alone? Please give me advice as I really dont know where to go from here
Bert came to us in February, he is neutered and poppins spayed. They have been living side by side/swapping areas for 6 months until we decided to bond them properly in August. The bonding process on the whole went really well. Day 1, Bert mounted poppins and she let him and then they ate greens side by side and took a nap next to one another. amazing for attempt number 1. Day 2 he tried to mount her again and she nipped him and a fight ensued. We took them back to living side by side for a few more days after that and then by attempt number 3 Poppins was grooming the life out of Bert and they have been living together fully ever since. We presumed this meant Bert was the dominant and Pops the submissive.
They appear inseparable & spend time sitting together, playing together and they constantly flop into one another’s sides and nap squished/cuddled up with one another. It’s been 6 weeks of this now and so I really thought this meant they were bonded.
However today I caught this exchange on my bunny cam and not to sound dramatic but it’s broken my heart. Tried to post the video here but can’t figure out how so I’ll describe instead. Bert attempts to mount Poppins aggressively several times for no apparent reason, she keeps running away and he chases her every time and mounts her rather violently right on top of her head. She seems frightened and has barely been near him since.
We have had no mounting behaviours from Bert since that first day and I can’t see anything on the camera to indicate why he felt he needed to today. The only thing I can think of is that whilst Poppins will groom Bert everytime he asks, she will also then ask him to groom her in return several times a day and he will never groom her back. Could she have asked one time to many and it’s annoyed him?
And does this exchange mean their bond has broken? Should I go back to no longer leaving them alone? Please give me advice as I really dont know where to go from here
