Need Help Bonding

Pumpkin · Dec 10, 2024

So I'm trying to bond two rabbits and I figured I'd shoot a question in here. My situation is:
1. Pumpkin (5 years old) has lived free roam in my house for 5 years and never really met another rabbit before
2. Pebbles (2 years old) I just adopted yesterday lived her whole life at a rescue. Their playdate arranged by the rescue seemed to go very well so I took her in. She's living in a pen upstairs in my bedroom which Pumpkin has never had access to.
Today I set up another playdate in my upstairs bathroom (neutral space) hoping it would go as well as their first meeting. First I set them on a blanket on countertop and continously pet them both side by side but every time I paused he would lunge at her. I thought maybe it was just my presence so I set them in the bathtub and backed away but the same thing, all he wanted to do was bite her in the butt.

I know this is only their second day and bonding can take months. I know I need to have them live adjacent to each other and familiarize themselves (swap litterboxes, toys, etc) but Pumpkin after living free roam for so long absolutely despises pens so I feel couldn't keep him in a pen for that long period of time. Should I instead bring her pen downstairs into "his territory" and let him get accustomed to her that way? Will she hate that he gets to be free roamed and she doesn't?

Also I don't know how car ride stress bonding is going to turn out because I'm scared he will take out his stress on her and bite.

Thank you for reading I would really really appreciate any help or suggestions you have to offer. I really, really want this to work out, I want him to be bonded with a bunny friend before I begin college and have a lot less time to play with him.

Pumpkin · Dec 10, 2024

here is a picture of them two

Tms · Dec 11, 2024

Couple things, it’s probably best to give your new one pebbles some time to settle in before bonding, and especially before any face to face interaction. Being adopted is stressful enough, let alone being thrown the day after into a face to face bonding session with a rabbit they’ve only ever met once before and only temporarily.

Now, in terms of keeping them separate, what worked for me was to split up my freeroams bunnies “enclosure” (really just an office she was locked into of a night) in half and have them side by side through double barred x-pens. Swap them daily, swap their litterboxes and toys daily and overall this will get them used to eachothers scent and sight.

Then after a week or so, we started putting ours together in a neutral space for some dates, it took a few different spaces and a few different layouts till we found what was comfortable for our two. After a couple dates we bit the bullet and decided to keep them together, we then fully cleaned and sanitised the office, moved all the furniture around and then put them in to their new living space together, we slept the first night in with them, just incase any squabbles broke out, but thankfully they was ok and have been together ever since.

What I think I’m trying to say is, it seems as if you are really rushing the process, take a step back, let pebbles get settled in and then aim to house them side by side, plan in some dates and when they are getting along for a couple hours at a time keep them together for as long as possible, restarting the “dating” process can sometimes cause the rabbits to have to start again from square one.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Tms · Dec 11, 2024

Just to add to this, you can allow pumpkin to free roam still during the day and give pebbles some access to another room (seperate to pumpkins area) for some exercise daily aswell.

I found it worked to move our new one to the back end of the split up office which allowed our existing bunny access to the door and therefore access to free roam still. But also of a night they would be side-by-side.

healersheart · Dec 11, 2024

Tms said:
Couple things, it’s probably best to give your new one pebbles some time to settle in before bonding, and especially before any face to face interaction. Being adopted is stressful enough, let alone being thrown the day after into a face to face bonding session with a rabbit they’ve only ever met once before and only temporarily.

Now, in terms of keeping them separate, what worked for me was to split up my freeroams bunnies “enclosure” (really just an office she was locked into of a night) in half and have them side by side through double barred x-pens. Swap them daily, swap their litterboxes and toys daily and overall this will get them used to eachothers scent and sight.

Then after a week or so, we started putting ours together in a neutral space for some dates, it took a few different spaces and a few different layouts till we found what was comfortable for our two. After a couple dates we bit the bullet and decided to keep them together, we then fully cleaned and sanitised the office, moved all the furniture around and then put them in to their new living space together, we slept the first night in with them, just incase any squabbles broke out, but thankfully they was ok and have been together ever since.

What I think I’m trying to say is, it seems as if you are really rushing the process, take a step back, let pebbles get settled in and then aim to house them side by side, plan in some dates and when they are getting along for a couple hours at a time keep them together for as long as possible, restarting the “dating” process can sometimes cause the rabbits to have to start again from square one.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

This is exactly what we did with our two boys.

Pumpkin · Dec 11, 2024

Thank you!! That sounds good I'll let pebbles get accustomed to her life here first before introducing them again

She just had some really mooshy poops overnight (and not in her litterbox) and I figure it must be from the stress of the move so I think waiting will definitely be for the best for focusing on her health.

Pumpkin · Dec 11, 2024

Awesome that sounds Ike a great idea! I'll definitely be trying that out when Pebbles is ready

Tms · Dec 11, 2024

healersheart said:
This is exactly what we did with our two boys.

Benji & Peter!! Our boy that recently passed was called Peter and our new boy that we recently bonded to our female is called Benji, what a coincidence!

Pumpkin · Thursday at 6:01 PM

Update: Pebbles got much more comfortable in her pen in my room (eating and pooping normally, accepting pets, and flopping) so I moved her pen downstairs where Pumpkin free roams. When he first realized she was in his room he thumped and ran away. Then an hour later after many consoling pets he decided to come back over but every time they would boop noses through the bars he would take it as an opportunity to try to bite her. So I've set up C&C grids as a small buffer zone to prevent bites and now they've both been munching on hay together with no more aggression from Pumpkin

Pumpkin · Thursday at 6:30 PM

Here's a video if you care to watch. I've never seen her do binkies in my room before so she must really like him if shes doing it now. But he's being so unfriendly

JBun · Saturday at 2:47 PM

He probably just needs more time to get accustomed to there being another rabbit in the house. After he seems really settled and comfortable with her presence for a while, and you've done the swapping of scents and it doesn't cause a negative reaction, then would be time to consider starting the bonding process again. But don't rush into it before he seems ready. It's a common mistake. Some rabbits need that time and space to get used to another rabbit being around before any bonding is attempted.

Though I will say to also be aware if his behavior worsens with no improvement over several weeks, that their set up and whether bonding will work, will need to be reevaluated. It's not as common, but some rabbits respond poorly to the presence of other rabbits.

She seems quite happy and comfortable, so hopefully that positive energy will rub off on him and help put him more at ease with her presence.

Here are some good bonding links if you haven't already seen them.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bonding_rabbits_together

https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html

https://cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information-resource-centre/health-and-welfare/bonding-bunnies/

https://www.rabbitsonline.net/threads/when-to-intervene-rabbit-bonding.104770/

Pumpkin · 2024-12-22T23:47:15-0500

Thank you!! Yeah I'm really hoping he'll start mirroring her excitement. I've been having them eat all their meals right next to each other and gave been swapping scents, but I'll definitely be holding off on the bunny dates because turns out she came with ear mites and the vet has me treating both her and Pumpkin with selamectin (he doesn't have them yet but they suggested he also get it as a preventive measure)
I've got a lot more obstacles than i thought i would having to bond them

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