pani
Bunny servant Lotte
Felix and Clementine had briefly met before, but not under proper bonding precautions - I just held her in his area and let them sniff a bit (although he did get a few humps in), or had her sitting outside of his play area.
Tonight I got my xpen and set it up in an area where neither of them had been before, popped down a blanket with some hay, and put them both in while sitting nearby to make sure I could intervene if necessary.
:whistling
I was pleasantly surprised with the two of them!! I expected Clementine to be a lot more timid and afraid, and expected Felix to be a lot more dominant and territorial. They spent the first ten minutes or so separately, wandering around the xpen, poking their noses through the bars and standing up to try and find a way out.
After a while they got more interested in each other. They did their fair share of sniffing. Clementine kept putting her head on the ground underneath Felix, which I could read as her demanding grooming (and being surprisingly dominant!), or placing her head on the ground as it was forced to be for her to sniff Felix in any particular spot. She'll often put her head to the ground if she gets pets on the head, so it may not have been meant in a dominant way. She kept doing it and definitely wasn't afraid of him, which is excellent!
Felix was pretty well-behaved! I expected him to go hump crazy as soon as he got in the pen, so I was surprised when he ignored her for the first few minutes. After a while when he got more curious, he sniffed her, pawed her a little, sniffed her a bit more... even when she was facing away from him and he had easy access, he'd walk around her and sniff at her face instead. He would often put his face against her body and I was concerned he might be biting her, but she showed no pain or discomfort and he did it a lot, and there were no marks left behind, so I assume he was either sniffing her or maybe, possibly, hopefully(?!) grooming her.
They proceeded to sniff and snuggle next to each other for the next 20 minutes or so. After a while I guess Felix couldn't help it and did start to hump her a bit, but Clementine didn't seem to mind. She made no noises or attempts to move away, and when he stopped she didn't take the chance to escape, or anything. I also noticed that unlike their first meeting, he didn't 'make contact' - does that mean this humping was more likely to be for dominance, rather than sexual? He was neutered around two weeks ago so I wasn't expecting his hormones to have dropped too much yet, which is why I was so shocked he didn't hump her ASAP.
After he started humping her I figured I'd let that bonding session finish, but didn't want to restrict either of them from playing further. Clementine had played on the couch earlier (and loved it, I'd never seen her more active!) so Felix had been in his cage unable to see her, but I didn't want to put her back so Felix could run around. I decided to see if Felix would tolerate Clementine being in 'his' area, with me sitting there to break up any unfortunate behaviour.
He was definitely more 'hump happy' this time. She mainly stayed in one spot on the couch, licking the condensation off her frozen water bottle, while he was running around and occasionally jumped up at her to hump a bit. The humping sessions were extremely short, only lasting for 5 seconds or less usually, and again he never 'made contact'. She also didn't seem to mind the humping - no unhappy noises, no trying to escape. A few times he did hump her face, which I immediately stopped, since I've read some horror stories of the humpee getting upset and biting the humper in their parts. :thud:
Eventually I popped Clementine back in her cage to give her a rest, since she began to look like she was getting fed up with his incessant humping! Overall I'm pleased with how it went - there was no aggression and the humping seemed to be taken well by Clementine. She seems okay with Felix establishing himself as the more dominant of the two right now.
I'd love to hear any thoughts, especially from those who have successfully bonded buns before. I may be misreading some of the signs since I'm still a really new bunny mama.
Tonight I got my xpen and set it up in an area where neither of them had been before, popped down a blanket with some hay, and put them both in while sitting nearby to make sure I could intervene if necessary.
:whistling
I was pleasantly surprised with the two of them!! I expected Clementine to be a lot more timid and afraid, and expected Felix to be a lot more dominant and territorial. They spent the first ten minutes or so separately, wandering around the xpen, poking their noses through the bars and standing up to try and find a way out.
After a while they got more interested in each other. They did their fair share of sniffing. Clementine kept putting her head on the ground underneath Felix, which I could read as her demanding grooming (and being surprisingly dominant!), or placing her head on the ground as it was forced to be for her to sniff Felix in any particular spot. She'll often put her head to the ground if she gets pets on the head, so it may not have been meant in a dominant way. She kept doing it and definitely wasn't afraid of him, which is excellent!
Felix was pretty well-behaved! I expected him to go hump crazy as soon as he got in the pen, so I was surprised when he ignored her for the first few minutes. After a while when he got more curious, he sniffed her, pawed her a little, sniffed her a bit more... even when she was facing away from him and he had easy access, he'd walk around her and sniff at her face instead. He would often put his face against her body and I was concerned he might be biting her, but she showed no pain or discomfort and he did it a lot, and there were no marks left behind, so I assume he was either sniffing her or maybe, possibly, hopefully(?!) grooming her.
They proceeded to sniff and snuggle next to each other for the next 20 minutes or so. After a while I guess Felix couldn't help it and did start to hump her a bit, but Clementine didn't seem to mind. She made no noises or attempts to move away, and when he stopped she didn't take the chance to escape, or anything. I also noticed that unlike their first meeting, he didn't 'make contact' - does that mean this humping was more likely to be for dominance, rather than sexual? He was neutered around two weeks ago so I wasn't expecting his hormones to have dropped too much yet, which is why I was so shocked he didn't hump her ASAP.
After he started humping her I figured I'd let that bonding session finish, but didn't want to restrict either of them from playing further. Clementine had played on the couch earlier (and loved it, I'd never seen her more active!) so Felix had been in his cage unable to see her, but I didn't want to put her back so Felix could run around. I decided to see if Felix would tolerate Clementine being in 'his' area, with me sitting there to break up any unfortunate behaviour.
He was definitely more 'hump happy' this time. She mainly stayed in one spot on the couch, licking the condensation off her frozen water bottle, while he was running around and occasionally jumped up at her to hump a bit. The humping sessions were extremely short, only lasting for 5 seconds or less usually, and again he never 'made contact'. She also didn't seem to mind the humping - no unhappy noises, no trying to escape. A few times he did hump her face, which I immediately stopped, since I've read some horror stories of the humpee getting upset and biting the humper in their parts. :thud:
Eventually I popped Clementine back in her cage to give her a rest, since she began to look like she was getting fed up with his incessant humping! Overall I'm pleased with how it went - there was no aggression and the humping seemed to be taken well by Clementine. She seems okay with Felix establishing himself as the more dominant of the two right now.
I'd love to hear any thoughts, especially from those who have successfully bonded buns before. I may be misreading some of the signs since I'm still a really new bunny mama.
