bonding bunnies... thumping at each other's smell?

[alexis philippot]

Hi there! i recently brought a second bunny home (neutered male) to bond with my spayed female, the resident bunny. I have been trying to go as slow as possible to ensure a successful bond. The new bunny is being housed in our spare bedroom, and the resident female is free roam in almost our entire apartment. I started by swapping out toys, blankets, food bowls etc for a couple days. Today, we did a full room swap (the resident female is now in the spare room). I noticed that when she smells him, for example when she entered the spare room (he was already gone obviously) she started thumping like crazy. Is this a bad sign? Or could she just be unsure if he was in the room or not and was nervous (my thought)?

 

[Madelyn L.]

It means that she is most likely not comfortable with him yet and she may feel a little scared or nervous. However, don’t worry too much, bonding is a lengthy process usually.

 

[alexis philippot]

Hi again! We have moved onto side by side pens so they can finally see each other (about 6 inches apart). Currently on day 2. I'm really nervous as my female has been showing signs of aggression towards the new bunny (ears back, shoving her face through the bars, tail up, grunting). Has anyone else dealt with it? She's also usually free-roam which I think is contributing to her anger as she does not like being in her pen. I let her out once last night but she just wanted to hop up to the males pen. I'm scared she will try and grab him, but I want them both to have some exercise time.