Aggression in Bonding

[PancakePeter]

I have been doing a lot of research over methods to bond rabbits and I think there are two major mindsets:

1 - Avoid aggression and fights at all costs. Separate rabbits and/or discourage any aggression.

2 - Allow minor fights, since this is how rabbits work out their differences. If you separate or prevent every little fight, they may not work out their problems.

I really dont know which method is right, since I keep seeing these two different methods popping up and usually the person suggesting one method rejects the other.

Here's my situation: I have a male and female rabbit, both fixed. Female was fixed in January and male was fixed in early June. I tried putting them together in a small pen to begin bonding two weeks after his surgery, at the recommendation of many sites, and he was too eager to meet her and she was not eager at all to meet him. So, I waited another 6 weeks or so and let them live side by side.

This week I finally tried again and have been doing daily sessions ranging from 30 min to 2 hours depending on their moods. Now, the male puts his ears back any time she is near him and looks ready to attack. He stops if I tell him to be nice. The female usually bows her head anytime she is near him - I really dont know if this is submission or a dominant rabbit asking to be groomed. However, if he approaches her too suddenly or approaches from behind, she will box him, nip, or minor chase. I have had ZERO humping attempts from either rabbit, which I think may be part of their problem. This entire time, I have been using approach #1.

Today, I decided to try #2. I still discouraged fights, but allowed one that started to continue so I could watch their behavior. It lasted about 10 seconds before I decided to separate them, but it seemed to be unsuccessful circle-mount-chasing and both were very worked up afterwards. I separated them for a few minutes for cuddles and put them back together and another fight started shortly after that looked the same - I separated them again after about 10 seconds. No one got hurt in either fight and im thinking this type of fighting might be necessary for this pair to estabish dominance.

I'm looking for some bonding pros to tell me which approach they think is best for my particular situation. What do you think and do you have any other tips for me?

 

[Aki]

Bowing her head is definitely a dominant behavior. She's right: warrens are matriarchy, she's definitely queen - your male just has to get used to it ^^.
I think there is no 'right' approach, you are the one who knows your rabbits best and who can judge the degree of violence of the interaction. I think you have to let minor scuffles and humping run their course because the rabbits need to establish a hierarchy. As long as no leader is decided upon, your rabbits will continue to be uneasy and to fight. A bit of fur flying is OK in my book (especially since fur has a tendancy to detach itself easily when the rabbit is stressed), biting or cornering is not. When you look at them you have to try to see what is mostly posturing and what could escalade into real violence and real wounds.
Some rabbits don't speak rabbit very well and don't have the right codes when it comes to hierarchy which makes the process more complicated. For example, I have a very dominant doe, who lived first with a male who understood that very well and complied to the grooming and submissive behavior perfectly. But when he died, I took another rabbit who is just plain lazy. He doesn't care about hierarchy and thus ignored her everytime she asked for grooming which enraged her as she took it as him challenging her authority. It took a long time for her to get that he wasn't trying to be king, he just doesn't groom (he barely grooms himself). And it took him the same amount of time to understand that a quick lick on her head once in a while was ensuring peace.
They really like each other now, but the first 6 months were very hard and I was really scared they never would get along.
Is the pen in a completely neutral area? If the pen is really small it might not help, because sometimes they might want to isolate themselves - your doe might just really like her personal space. Maybe try in a completely unfamiliar and unsettling space, like a bathroom or a kitchen. What do you do to occupy them when you put them together? I always bond rabbits by giving them a big pile of their favorite food (lots of vegetables so it occupies them longer and because things like celery have a very strong smell which stays on the fur, thus making the rabbits smell mostly the same - a big tree branch with leaves is also good), to associate them meeting with good things, like 'Look what Thumper brought with him! He brought you CARROTS!" XD
Don't get discouraged, it generally works out in the end . Your male is probably not complying well enough to the doe's demands which is offending her. He'll probably get it after a while.

 

[PancakePeter]

Thanks for your advice!

To answer your questions - the rabbits bond in a 4ft diameter plastic baby pool with a play pen fencing it in. The pool is slippery, so that they cant escalate fights too well. They have hay in there and a few toys that have been rotated through each of their cages. Sometimes they eat dinner together in there, but I keep the two piles of lettuce a foot apart (the female is bigger than the male and is a big eater). The pool is in a neutral space and I plan to clean it every few days to keep it smelling neutral. Prior to this, I was setting up a small playpen 4x4 ft in our bathrooms and tile hallways.

One question I have is, should I maybe try carpet instead of pool/tile? Also, might a bigger playpen work better? I see you suggested that but im worried they may ignore each other, since that's mostly what they already do.

Final question - how do I know when a fight gets too violent? During fights, they are definitely pulling little pieces of fur from each other with nips. No blood, no injuries, no noises. They generally lunge at each other after I separate them and then calm down quickly with pets. So far, ive just been using time. If a fight is lasting more than 10 seconds, I separate them with a dustpan.

 

[Aki]

Ignoring is not a problem, it's better than agression. I'm no expert and I might be wrong, I've only bonded a few rabbits during the past ten years and even if it always turned out well I might have been lucky, but the problem I see with your approach is that you are putting two rabbits who are strangers almost on top of each other and don't give them anything exciting to redirect them or make it a fun experience. Except if your rabbits are very unusual, toys won't hold a lot of interest for them. Except for Crau Hay, hay is not really exciting either - if presented with something else, rabbits will easily abandon it. Lettuce is like the least interesting vegetable on earth and it has no strong smell - it's the thing my rabbits will eat last if you give them a pile of vegetables. And, after making the space neutral, you are making two piles of vegetables thus separating the territory in two and encouraging the rabbits to not do something together. Having a slippery floor will unsettle them and it indeed makes it harder for them to fight which is certainly a plus. Stress bonding is also a thing - some people bond by taking the rabbits together for a car ride or putting them in a bathtub so that they are so scared they forget to fight. I don't really advocate this as I'd rather make the bonding a positive experience if I can to associate their new friend with something nice and not risk the bond breaking when put into a normal environment. If I were you, I would give them a whole room, just blocking small spaces where they could slip and get cornered. I would give them a huge pile of exciting vegetables. And I would let them have their space if they need it - if they want to ignore each other, it's fine. Don't rush things, just hanging out in the same room while getting used to the other's presence and with no fighting is progress. I would do that in a place where you can like look at a movie on your laptop or something so that you are occupied yourself and not scrutinizing their every move... keeping a spray bottle filled with water on hand so you can spray the rabbits and stop them if they decide to fight.
Pulling fur is normal. I don't know if you've noticed but rabbits tend to have lose fur when they are stressed - one of my rabbits is having an episode of GI stasis right now (she's doing better tonight, luckily, but she gave me a real scare yesterday ^^) and everytime I take her to give her her meds, her fur is flying everywhere and there are clumps of it all over my clothes. I think you are right not to let the fight last for too long though. Mounting is OK and productive, a little chasing is OK and normal. If they lunge at each other strongly and that they don't desist quickly or that you hear grunting, don't let it escalate, spray water - the hierarchy needs to be established, but better be safe than sorry and I wouldn't let my rabbits the chance to seriously hurt each other either.
I don't know if you tried that but people sometimes put a drop of perfume on each of the rabbit's nose before the meeting so that they don't identify the other's smell as foreign. Maybe it can help. It's a trial and error process and it can sometimes take a few weeks to get it right.

 

[mark]

Wow, great info Aki! Good luck to you Peter!

 

[PancakePeter]

Really helpful advice, Aki! Tonight we gave them a large new bathroom to explore, a nice pile of fun veggies, and boxes to explore. Whever one would approach the pile of veggies, the other would run away to avoid a fight. Once food was done, though, I think my female decided the entire bathroom was hers and gave him a sliver of the space along an entire wall. If he left that spot, she would chase him and he would thump and huff after. No biting, just what seemed like territorial chasing. So, i'll try a NEW spot tomorrow since now the bathroom is apparently her's too! I can tell she makes my male nervous but I know that will eventually fade in time once she calms down!

Here are pictures of the two bunnies you are helping out! Pancake is my female, the white one, and Pete is my male, the little brown dude.

 

[Blue eyes]

You might find it helpful to see a few videos from a rabbit rescue that shows some of their bonds in progress. It shows some easy, some difficult and some that won't work. I found this most informative in helping me to determine when "enough is enough" as far as scuffles go.

http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/matchups.asp

(On a side note, I'd suggest ignoring any youtube posted bunny bonding videos from individual owners. The ones I have seen are not typical and give a wrong impression of bonding and so end up being discouraging to you.)

You can see from the rescue's videos how they use a board or similar (even cardboard can work) to separate the rabbits that are getting too rough. I think this is a good method. (I agree with almost all of Aki's suggestions but don't like the idea of a water squirt bottle. Also perfume on a rabbit's nose could harm bunny's sensitive respiratory system - especially strong perfumes. What might be better, would be to pet one rabbit with one hand repeatedly then use that hand to pet the other rabbit. That can transfer the first bunny's scent to the other rabbit so that the first rabbit smells herself on the other rabbit.)

Females can be notoriously territorial. She sounds particularly so. I had one like that. Hopefully your male will be willing to be submissive to her (and before you run out of neutral space!).