Bonding a male Netherland Dwarf and female lop. Advice greatly appreciated

[Hoops88]

Hi all.

I have a medium sized, 3 yr old female lop bunny and a 1 yr old male Netherland Dwarf, both of which were neutered long ago. We have been trying to bond them for about 9 month (on and off) to no avail. The first bout had to be stopped due to out illness so that kind of broke that routine. We bond in the bathroom, where neither has access. We see little interest for friendly behaviour from either, and a boxing fight will ensue. Nevertheless, we continue to take them in to the neutral space every day. Recently, we’ve started leaving them in their cages in one of their territories (kitchen) or living room just so they spend elongated time together.

Our lop is very cuddly and friendly, until she gets in the space with the other bun. The dwarf is quite friendly too but less so than our lop.

We are at our wits end at what we should do next and how we can progress and have them living in the same quarters and most importantly, have them be best buddies! Has anyone been through this before with these two kinds of rabbits with success?

 

[joey&boo]

Mmmmm, difficult one. So when you take them for bonding, how is the bathroom set up? Aside from the boxing are you seeing an positive or neutral behaviours? Basically, as you'll know, you are hoping your bunnies will learn to trust each other. are they tense all the time? Will they eat during bonding? How long are your sessions?





I've got to say i admire your patience - 9 months is a long time to be putting yourself through such stress though I can see why its so important

 

[zuzcho]

It took us four weeks to bond our three-year-old doe, who had lost her previous partner, with a rescued two-year-old buck. In her former relationship, she was the submissive one, but introducing the buck into her territory prompted her to growl, asserting her dominance.

We began by dividing our bedroom into two sections (we slept on sofaved for a month as we had to move our bed to make room for the pens), alternating them between pens for about a 2 weeks, allowing each to become familiar with the other's scent without altering the setup. Then, we set up a bonding space in the bathroom with only a toilet, hay, and water, covering the floor with blankets. We had a dustpan ready to intervene the fight and there was one or two. I spent time with them there, sitting beside them and offering cuddles. Initially, I kept these sessions to half an hour, gradually extending to one hour, then two, and eventually up to five hours, trading off with my partner.

Whenever they approached each other and tension arose, I would soothe them until they relaxed and lay down. Cuddling them together helped create a sense of comfort. After each bathroom session, they returned to their swapped pens. A clear sign that they wanted to be together was when they began lying next to each other in their separate pens. At that point, we opened up their spaces, allowing them to interact freely. The dominant one would place her head under the other’s chest, seeking grooming. Giving them equal attention and plenty of reassurance without showing any favoritism was key. This approach worked well for us.

 

[Hoops88]

Mmmmm, difficult one. So when you take them for bonding, how is the bathroom set up? Aside from the boxing are you seeing an positive or neutral behaviours? Basically, as you'll know, you are hoping your bunnies will learn to trust each other. are they tense all the time? Will they eat during bonding? How long are your sessions?





I've got to say i admire your patience - 9 months is a long time to be putting yourself through such stress though I can see why its so important

We use barriers to block off half the bathroom and we give them biscuits for a while initially. They do eat in front of each other no problem, and sometimes very close together but it will often escalate which makes me feel that they just don’t trust each other. They are definately tense at all times and on edge. The first time we bonded them (before we took a short break), we got to a point where the big female lop stopped being tense and was more willing to explore the wee one but he was terrified and broke a lot. We haven’t seen that this time around, she’s generally angry at him. Our sessions last about 15 mins and we don’t tend to do it more than once a day. We did used to do it twice a day for short periods. In terms of neutral behaviour, there is a bit of standing around, frozen. There’s a lot been some nose to nose sniffing which hasn’t resulted in a fight but I feel that was more prevalent when we started them bonding again.

It defos felt feels like a long time and patience is wearing thin but I hate to think that one or the other is lonely.

 

[Hoops88]

It took us four weeks to bond our three-year-old doe, who had lost her previous partner, with a rescued two-year-old buck. In her former relationship, she was the submissive one, but introducing the buck into her territory prompted her to growl, asserting her dominance.

We began by dividing our bedroom into two sections (we slept on sofaved for a month as we had to move our bed to make room for the pens), alternating them between pens for about a 2 weeks, allowing each to become familiar with the other's scent without altering the setup. Then, we set up a bonding space in the bathroom with only a toilet, hay, and water, covering the floor with blankets. We had a dustpan ready to intervene the fight and there was one or two. I spent time with them there, sitting beside them and offering cuddles. Initially, I kept these sessions to half an hour, gradually extending to one hour, then two, and eventually up to five hours, trading off with my partner.

Whenever they approached each other and tension arose, I would soothe them until they relaxed and lay down. Cuddling them together helped create a sense of comfort. After each bathroom session, they returned to their swapped pens. A clear sign that they wanted to be together was when they began lying next to each other in their separate pens. At that point, we opened up their spaces, allowing them to interact freely. The dominant one would place her head under the other’s chest, seeking grooming. Giving them equal attention and plenty of reassurance without showing any favoritism was key. This approach worked well for us.

I would love to sit down with them for a while but there is a chance that the fights could turn into mad scuffles where you can’t even identify which bun is which. I’m usually good at intervening even before there is bun to bun contact but they’ve scuffled before and one has bitten a chunk out of my leg(only a few weeks ago). When I hear about your experience, it makes me think that my buns are not compatible at all, though I know of a lady in Dumfries who has 100% success rate in bonding pairs and much larger groups and believes that all buns are bondable. I’ve enquired about this woman but I think the waiting list is like 2 years.

 

[InspectorMorse]

believes that all buns are bondable.

Just not necessarily to each other.