Bonding questions

[Patrick&Olivia]

Hi Everyone! I hope someone can give me some advice. I have a 7yr old male rabbit named Pat who generally is a pretty tame little guy. We just adopted a year and a half old lop named Olivia who was not spayed. We introduced them and of course biology took over and Pat tried mating. We've kept them in close proximity to each other so they could get used to each other but not touch.

Olivia was spayed this past Monday and has pretty much healed. We tried letting them out together yesterday. They sniffed around each other for a few moments then Pat tried to hump her again. He is clearly trying to mate. We separated them and when they approached each other they sniffed each other and then it looked like Olivia was trying to groom Pat's face but then she nipped pretty hard. Hard enough to make Pat hide behind me for a minute. At that point, bonding was done for the evening.

I guess my question is, are we complete fools for trying to bond these two? Pat can't get neutered as he's too old for the anesthesia. Do we let him hump Olivia and get it over with? What do we do if she nips like that again? Typically Olivia is kept in her cage/pen and Patrick comes out and tries to sniff her and thump to get her attention. She'll interact with him for a bit and then will just flop on the floor and relax.

This came out way longer than i wanted it to, so I'm sorry! Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

-Sylvia

:?

 

[agnesthelion]

I have no personal experience yet with bonding but ironically I am looking for a husbun for Agnes so have been doing LOTS of research on this.

From what I understand the chances of a successful bond with an unfixed bun is not too high. I would imagine your male constantly try to mate and your female won't take too kindly to that.

With that being said, humping is very normal part of bonding. Even fixed buns will do it and even bonded buns may do it now and again.

Hopefully someone else can comment for you and give you some insight but my thoughts are that a bond won't work since he isn't neutered but maybe someone has a scenario where it has and can give you some tips.

Good luck!

 

[katherine at sacred stories]

:yeahthat:

 

[caustin4]

I recently brought home an unfixed male who had 2 weeks till his nueter appointment and he could not be around any of my spayed females without mounting them. Even now after the nueter it's taking time for the hormones to calm down. He was so bad that if he smelled a spayed female in the room, but didn't have access to her he would go after our Yorkie. I don't see anyway you could ever bond them because she will eventually get tired and angry of his antics and a fight will ensue.

 

[caustin4]

I recently brought home an unfixed male who had 2 weeks till his nueter appointment and he could not be around any of my spayed females without mounting them. Even now after the nueter it's taking time for the hormones to calm down. He was so bad that if he smelled a spayed female in the room, but didn't have access to her he would go after our Yorkie. I don't see anyway you could ever bond them because she will eventually get tired and angry of his antics and a fight will ensue.

 

[Blue eyes]

:yeahthat:

I've been bonding spayed/neutered buns. That can be difficult enough. But this one site has been most helpful to me. It's Cotton Tails Rabbit Rescue.

This is a quote from that site:
Pairing an unneutered male with a neutered female is only suitable in the rare event of the male not showing much sexual behaviour towards his partner. Males that repeatedly try to mount and/or spray the female long-term will often break the temper of their partner and a serious fight will likely ensue. Not only that, but it is not pleasant for owners to have to deal with a permanently sticky, smelly and yellow-tinged rabbit!

 

[Patrick&Olivia]

Thanks for all the responses all! He's not aggressive when he gets free range time while she's in her pen. He tries to get her attention for a bit and when he realize she can't come out he'll just lay by her. I'm hoping that a stuffed "humping buddy" will help alleviate his urges. I think I'm going to give it a couple more weeks of bonding dates once Olivia has healed for more than a week. If we don't have any signs of positive progress then I'll discuss neutering Pat with my vet.

Thanks again!