Bonding Question/Dilemma...

[Jenk]

I'd like any thoughts or suggestions from those who've successfully bonded bunnies.

My two girls were fully bonded until shortly prior to their spay surgeries, at which time they wereseparated by a divider (and remain as such). Theyvisit together each night in our kitchen. When together for 1-2 hours, they do relatively fine:they eat, groom, and rest together.

The tricky part: Zoe tries to be dominant about grooming (forching her snout under Emma's);Emma tries to be dominant by mounting Zoe. Emma's mountingbehavior (or either girl's attempt to shove her nose up the other one's backside) can still leadto circling behavior. Distracting thembrings the issue to a close at the time; so at least they needn't be completely separated afterward.

My hubby and I are setting up a nice NIC cage area in another room; we'd like for the girls to share the entire floor space. But since they're not above circling (and likely fighting as a result), I can't just throw them together. But if I put them in separate NIC cages (and allow them "shared" space in the middle of the room), both are cheated from a much larger floor space. Also,keeping them separated means that they maynever be willing to share a single caged area again, since each one would likely then feel territorial over "her" side of the room ("her" specific NIC caged area).

Thank you,

Jenk

 

[bunslave]

Hi Jenk,

keeping your two girls seperate does not mean they will never be able to share space. My two girls are sisters. They did fine together until about 5 months old and then it began. Chasing, humping and circling. They moved into seperate quarters but still exercised together in a large area. After spaying it took about 60 days to rebond them and introduce Dudley. I combined both houses and made several exits it case of emergencies. You will be able to tell quickly when they can live together. It takes a while but it is worth it to see them finally snuggling and loving each other. I would be glad to give you any tips as this was quite a process in our household. If your two are playing together sometimes peacefully you are halfway there already. Are your two girls spayed? That is half the battle.

 

[Jenk]

bunslave wrote:

...It takes a while but it is worth it to see them finally snuggling and loving each other. I would be glad to give you any tips as this was quite a process in our household. If your two are playing together sometimes peacefully you are halfway there already. Are your two girls spayed? That is half the battle.

My girls are sisters, too. They shared living space very well until one week prior to their spay surgeries. (Wouldn't that figure? :?)

Here are my biggest hurdles at the present time:

1) We want to move them into a spare bedroom, so that they have extra space to roam 24/7.

2) Weplan to havea group of people over in late Aug. and would like to have the girls moved out of our dining room area by then.

3) Again, I don't want to move them into the spare room only to have to separate them; that would alloweach girl to become territorial over "her" side of the room.

 

[bunslave]

Sounds like the spare bedroom is a neutral place. If it has been at least 30 days since their spay you could do it by August. I would introduce them together in the spare room and allow them to exercise together in there as much as possible. If they live in the spare room are they going to be cage free all the time? If yes, that should make your job easier. I would introduce them in the spare room together. Make one big litter box so they share. If you have one bunny that wont groom the other try rubbing a little banana on the head of the bunny you want the other bunny to groom. I was constantly putting something new on the floor to catch them off guard and distracted. I like those little pop up cat tents. Just go ahead and allow one bunny to dominate. It is part of their instinct. If one bunny chases the other the most important thing to watch for is if the fleeing bunny runs or turns to confront. One running is a better thing. If the running bunny turns to confront it will take you longer but can still be done. I allowed a small amount of scraping but would step in if too much circling was happening. I kept a water bottle handy and would give them a squirt if they got too rowdy. I think it is going to work out for your girls. Just dont let bunnies mount backwards. This can cause serious bites and grudges are hard to break.

 

[Spring]

If it was me personally, I would put them in another neutral area before bringing them into the spare room. A bit of mounting/circling is fine, sometimes they need to have a bit of tension to work out dominance issues. Unless it leads to a major fight t or one is getting really picked on, I usually leave them to figure it out and only intervene if I absolutely have to. Once they are quite familiar with each other (not in the beginning of bonding) they will usually work things out by themselves, as long as no major fights break out. Sounds like you are on the right track!

Once they've lived together for a few days, then I'd move them to the spare room, which will be easy since it's both territory that's neutral.