Bonding with a new bunny

[jfinner1]

This is more of a future question, but I figured I'd ask now to get some insight. I have a 3 yr old Dwarf-Mini Rex mix, male, working on getting him neutered. He used to have a friend, (supervised only, since he's not neutered, but he never showed any aggression, and they did play and snuggle together), but Patrick died last year at the ripe old age of 14. (I think that's old for a Mini-Rex, right?) Anyways, after I get him neutered, and build a bigger cage, I would like to look at getting another bunny. But I'd really like them to be bonded, and I'm not sure how to pick a bunny that he will bond with. Is there anything I can do to make bonding easier? What do I do if they don't bond? Would a female or another male be better? I would like to adopt from a rescue, so should I look for a young bunny, an old bunny, or one about his age? Is it possible that they will never bond, and if so, what do I do if that happens? Sorry, lots of questions. I guess that's why I'm asking so far in advance.

 

[elrohwen]

Typically female-male bonds are easiest, but in my experience females are bossy and dominant, so a bond with a mellow male could be easier. As a very experienced bonding friend of mine says "Nothing is ever easy when a girl is involved!" Haha. But males can be territorial against each other and are less likely to be territorial against a female.

For the best bet of finding a bun who will bond with him, I recommend finding a shelter and going bunny dating. The shelter will show you which buns would get along with him best and will allow the rabbits to meet for a time and see how they do. An experienced bonder will be able to tell a lot by the first meeting. Basically you're looking for something that isn't fighting or chasing. Ignoring is perfectly fine - it means that they don't want to fight. The next best step is eating hay together, or self-grooming, because it means they are comfortable in the other bun's presence. The best thing you'll see is grooming the other bun, but this is rare on the first meeting so don't be disappointed if they don't groom. Some humping is also normal, but you want the bun being humped to be calm about it - if the bun being humped tries to fight back it's not a good sign.

A shelter bun will be already spayed, which is so so important in bonding. If you get a baby, you will have to wait until the baby is old enough to be spayed before you can tell if they will bond. Babies typically get along well with adults until they hit puberty, so many people get a baby and say "Look, they bonded isntantly!" only to have the bond break during puberty - then the bunnies have to be re-bonded after surgery. This might not be a problem for a more experienced bonder, but for your first time bunny dating is really the way to go, I think.

There are plenty of bonding threads that will give you idea for effective methods to get them together once you bring your new bunny home. The key is to do it in a neutral area (bathtubs are good) and starting with short sessions and building up to longer ones.