Bonding behaviour

[SamwiseFoxington]

I have a newly bonded/in progress bonding pair. They have spent a week bonding at his rescue before I brought them home (she recently lost her brother). They seem to be getting on well, there are just a couple of weird behaviours that I was curious if anyone has encountered.

She will stick her head right under his tummy from the side. I have seen this 3 times, the 1st and 3rd times he waited a few moments and then hopped away, the 2nd time she pulled back after a few moments (I don't think she could get her nose out the other side that time, so she had to back off in order to breathe).

The other slightly weird one is, they have mostly both ignored each others requests to be groomed, but I saw her grooming his ears earlier (without being asked). He was still for this. She then moved on to grooming his back and as soon as she did he stamped his foot. She stopped, then started again and he stamped his foot again (this may have happened 3 or 4 times before he hopped away or she stopped, I can't remember). He has been dropping his head asking to be groomed (although not at this particular point), so it seems an odd response.

Otherwise they are sharing litter trays eating beside each other, playing a bit of tug or war with a cauliflower leaf and laying down very near each other. There has been no chasing or mounting it nipping, so I'm not worried about their developing bond, just curious what the above behaviours might indicate.

 

[InspectorMorse]

Without being able to actually see the interactions it is hard to give you definitive answers as observing the body language of the Rabbits is necessary in order to fully assess what is going on.

Usually when a Rabbit wants to be seen as ‘the boss’ they can use ‘groom me’ demanding behaviour, which can include shoving their head under the other Rabbit.

Head grooming is what is expected by a dominant Rabbit. They can object if the Rabbit doing the grooming moves on to other areas, especially the lower back/bum. This is more likely to be an issue with a relatively new bond. As long as the Rabbit doing the grooming respects being told ‘no’ by ’the boss’ there’s no need to intervene.

 

[SamwiseFoxington]

Thank you, that makes sense.

Things have moved on a bit and he is now chasing her. Initially I wasn't concerned, as I know it is a normal part of bonding but then after a few days she seemed a bit stressed by it and I hadn't seen her laid relaxed for a few days and I was thinking I was going to have to give up on them. Just as I decided that she groomed him and flopped down all relaxed (contrary creatures).

The resuce suggested that the small bonding space might be making things more tense so I have tried letting them roam the whole room. We are on the second evening of this. Yesterday they were so busy looking around that they didn't pay much attention to each other, although she didn't seem bothered when he zoomed past her and binkyied in her face. After an hour or so of roaming they went back in their space and she laid down and he laid next to her, so I was feeling more optimistic.
Tonight he is chasing again and I found a tuft of her tail hair (no skin, no injury). There is no hair in their pen, so pulling can't be a regular occurrence. However, any time he comes close she dashes away, like she is expecting something bad. She will go up to him so long as he is already laid down or otherwise busy, they will share a bowl of pellets, but he will scare her away from toys where food is available. Sometimes I think her mad dash away from his is what actually starts the chase.


TL;DR - some chasing, sometimes she seems a bit stressed by it but sometimes they are absolutely fine. Do they just need more time or is trouble brewing?

Thank you for any advice, I'm so sad we lost her brother as this is a whole level of stress I didn't think I'd have to manage!