Hello Bunny-friends,
We are first timers in terms of trying to bond two bunnies… We have our boy (neutered, 4,5 years old), who has been with us since he was a baby…he was not around other bunnies in his life), and now we adopted a little girly, who has been around other bunnies… The introduction went perfectly fine, the girly seemed to be interested, she showed her dominance, our boy was fine with it… And thus the bonding process began..when they are next to each other in separate cages, they are relaxed, even from 2 inches away from each other, they flop, eat, etc… when one of them is outside, our boy really doesn't like it, he makes sudden movements towards the hutch, etc… after about 2 weeks we started the actual bonding in a neutral environment (my office).. At first everything goes as it should, they ignore each other, these sniff around, and then they have a little running session, not too harsh, not too violent, some nipping, nothing serious..she is smaller, and more agile, so she is always jumping away from him easily…
And here is the thing, she seems to be terrified of him. whenever he wants to hop closer to investigate, she thumps her feet and runs away to the other side of the bonding area.. every…time.. at one point, when we tried a much smaller space she did show dominance again with the humping movements, and nothing violent happened, but she seems to be scared just as much afterwards…. It is like she doesn't want to forgive the way he acts when they are at home…. It is so strange to see, I am very confused by the signals… she dominated him, yet she seems to be afraid.
Based on your experience, can this improve? He does't have a chance to show interest and gentle intentions, because she immediately runs away, looking scared.
Any thoughts?
We are first timers in terms of trying to bond two bunnies… We have our boy (neutered, 4,5 years old), who has been with us since he was a baby…he was not around other bunnies in his life), and now we adopted a little girly, who has been around other bunnies… The introduction went perfectly fine, the girly seemed to be interested, she showed her dominance, our boy was fine with it… And thus the bonding process began..when they are next to each other in separate cages, they are relaxed, even from 2 inches away from each other, they flop, eat, etc… when one of them is outside, our boy really doesn't like it, he makes sudden movements towards the hutch, etc… after about 2 weeks we started the actual bonding in a neutral environment (my office).. At first everything goes as it should, they ignore each other, these sniff around, and then they have a little running session, not too harsh, not too violent, some nipping, nothing serious..she is smaller, and more agile, so she is always jumping away from him easily…
And here is the thing, she seems to be terrified of him. whenever he wants to hop closer to investigate, she thumps her feet and runs away to the other side of the bonding area.. every…time.. at one point, when we tried a much smaller space she did show dominance again with the humping movements, and nothing violent happened, but she seems to be scared just as much afterwards…. It is like she doesn't want to forgive the way he acts when they are at home…. It is so strange to see, I am very confused by the signals… she dominated him, yet she seems to be afraid.
Based on your experience, can this improve? He does't have a chance to show interest and gentle intentions, because she immediately runs away, looking scared.
Any thoughts?
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