I need ideas..

[sborkowicz]

Hi, I am new here but I went looking for advice.

I have a 3 1/2 rescue bunny named Shamrock, she is named that because we just so happen to get her on St. Patty's Day. She is fantastic. We have had her a little over a year now and she is very nice. She had free roam of the family room, and workout area. Plus she has her cage which was always left open and she just roamed and hung out with us. She didn't even mind our loud dogs, she was just indifferent, our dogs were curious but after one bite one of their noses they decided she wasn't worth the effort. (She is never alone with our dogs and usually there is a gate between them) Well we don't get to spend as much time as we think she needs with her and she was alone too much. So we decided we should bond her.

We went back to the rescue place where we got her and had some speed dating. Twelve speed dates later she was only tolerant of three of them and was only nice to two but was very interested in Clover, who we brought home. We renamed her so we would have Shamrock and Clover. If I had to guess I would say Shamrock is a polish/dutch mix and for sure Clover is a Flemish giant mix.

Clover is super sweet, loves to be in your business and wants constant treats and pets. She is very young only 4.5 months. She is already the same size as Shamrock so I am not sure how big she will get, she might be adult size already.

Bonding went great in the bathtub, we moved to a bigger area after 2 weeks and again went great. This week we moved to an even bigger neutral area and they started fighting. I don't know what changed.

So my questions....

1. Should I start over?
2. Did I move them too fast?
3. Where do I go from here?

Side note, when they are in their cages close to each other but not touching they are always laying in the corners closest to each other. Is this a good sign?

I attached a picture.

Thanks for any advice!
Steph

 

[Blue eyes]

Is Clover spayed?

 

[sborkowicz]

Yes. They are both spayed.

 

[Imbrium]

The more info you can give us, the more helpful we can be. Who instigated the fight? Is the area truly 100% neutral? How big is the new area relative to the previous bonding area? Is there anything in particular that led up to the fighting (for my 4 bunns, Alice is the firestarter and fights usually begin because her incessant demands for the others to groom her go ignored until she gets upset about it)? What is in the bonding area with them (food, water, litter box(es), toys, etc.) and is there a specific resource they fight over? Also, as a follow-up to Blue eyes' question... do you know how long ago Clover was spayed? It can take 3-4 weeks for a female's hormones to fully dissipate (6-8 wks for males).

Basically, something has clearly gone awry with bonding but we're not able to pinpoint what it might be based on the information provided .

 

[sborkowicz]

The area a put them in was about twice of the area before but it wasn't in as busy a part of the house as it was before. I am not really sure if it's completely neutral but I think so, I did clean everything really well but before we had Shamrock downstairs she was upstairs quite a bit, we just didn't want her roaming around with our dogs while we are gone and she got more space downstairs that's why we made that decision. But I dont think she ever spent time in that area, it was in my kitchen.

We've had it Clover for about a month and a half or so and I think she was spayed right before we got her, like the week before. I keep thinking maybe it's because she's so young and she's kind of a juvenile and just going through all of that and I might have to wait until she's older to bond them

AS far as instigating Shamrock seems very content to kind of ignore her most of the time and Clover kind of gets in her face sometimes and wants to be grooms and Shamrock doesn't seem to want to groom her she groomed her. Shamrock groomed her once. For the most part when they're together they basically just ignore each other there's a couple chases they have groomed each other before when we were still in the bath tub I feel like every time they get more space they get further apart. Obviously though they cant live in my bathrub lol.

I also wanna say that they will eat by each other, they flop a lot, they're completely relaxed and this was the 1st time I seen them fight. There was a little nipping before but I haven't seen them fight before this. I don't know if it's the area if it's too big, if I moving too fast, if I need to backup it just totally took me back and I got kind of sad I want them to be friends.

Usually Clover puts her head down to try and get Shamrock to groom he . But Shamrock nips if Clover gets too insistent.

I feel like a marriage counselor lol