So this afternoon, Jay (who is virtually uneducated about bunny bonding aside from my occasional off-hand explanatory comment but is a bit of a born bunny-whisperer) volunteered his take on the current situation.
Norm is penned in the hallway/bathroom area; blocking the doorway into the living room is one of my 1x2 and screen "thwartation" doors - meaning the bunnies have been able to smell each other and see each other for quite a while now (their pen stops 3-4' away from the screen door). You can't see all of one bunny area from the other, so they're often not in view of each other, but they *are* able to interact from a distance somewhat.
He told me he sees them communicating across the gap to some extent (as do I - I often spot them at the gate to the pen/Norm at the screen door, all looking across at each other and appearing to exchange some casual thoughts).
According to him, Normie looks like he's outright desperate to be with the other bunnies instead of being isolated... the girls give off more of a "curious" vibe but are willing to wait and see how things pan out. He also mentioned that whenever Norm gets through the screen door into the living room (because it was left ajar for a moment), he usually goes straight to the pen and if the girls are nearby, the three of them will greet/sniff/etc. through the bars.
He then informed me that "It kinda seems like they're all waiting on
you."
I had been stalling to wait out Norman's hormones and trying to dismiss the "What's the hold up, mom, why aren't we being bonded? We're ready, damn it!" vibe I've been getting from all three bunnies... as well as Normie's longing, almost desperate gazes out into the girls' pen like he's convinced he belongs there... but after Jay pointed out everything I'd been thinking to myself the last few days, I decided to go ahead and give bonding a try.
I have a fold-up baby crib (minus a mattress and two of the four legs are missing casters) that I scavenged from the parking lot a while back and periodically use as a sawhorse and/or for temporary storage that's inaccessible to cats/bunnies, so I decided to try using that with a shower curtain liner over the bottom to protect the wood bottom from pee/spray bottle water.
I left the crib where it happened to be at the moment - in the living room, just outside the girls' pen - and hoped that was far enough from their territory to be neutral. I put Norm and Gaz in first. He didn't get around to humping her quite as quickly this time, but was still very adamant once he got started. It was difficult to get him to stop - and stay stopped - for more than a couple seconds; however, it was still possible (an improvement over last time). Once I actually derailed the humping, they'd sit there and ignore each other for 10-20 seconds before he got into being humpy again. Like last time, Gaz didn't seem to care.
I attempted to interrupt the humping after it had gone on for a reasonable length of time with a water bottle so that I wouldn't have to get in the middle of things (noise making was off-limits because Jay was asleep and I somehow totally forgot about my original plan of shaking the crap out of the crib to startle them). Normie cares far more about humping than he does about getting wet, heh - the water only got his attention if I inadvertently got him in the eye with it. Poor guy. The whole top of his head was wet by the end of the bonding session - what a stubborn little bunn!
Because he was still quite hump-happy, I was going to hold off on introducing him to Nala officially... she had been watching us from the pen the entire time, though, and looked quite sad about being left out. I decided it was best not to feed that negative emotion by failing to include her.
I had planned to do a 1-on-1 with him and Nala when they first met face to face; however, I had also planned to wait out his hormones. Since I was deciding to jump the gun, I decided it might also be best to add Nala without removing Gaz so that Normie's humping would be split between two potential targets.
I picked Nala up, then realized I didn't know exactly where I'd put my heavy work gloves, so I had to rummage around for them while holding her and then get them on (while still holding her). Fun times. I was half-expecting the worst, though, and I really didn't want to take a full-force bite!
I put Nala in with the other two, and that's when my girls decided to throw me off *completely*!
I set her in there and she thumped as Normie came up to sniff her... however, I determined based on subsequent thumps that the first one wasn't about Norm - it was about being in the crib. Norm sniffed her while she looked for an exit, then he started to hump her. I was astounded when she ignored it! I interrupted him after a few seconds, by which time she seemed mildly annoyed but not inclined to do anything about it. He turned his attention to Gazzles while Nala periscoped and sniffed for an exit.
I can't help wondering if Nala's presence played a significant role in Gaz's change of behavior - suddenly Gaz was trying to get away from Norm's humping. The big shock was when Norm turned his attention back towards Nala and all of a sudden Gaz mounted him and starting humping him voraciously!
Thankfully, Norm didn't mind... I was a bit concerned with how adamantly Gaz was trying to make that point about dominance, though.
I broke that up and got them back to neutral positions. Nala proceeded to work on seeing if she could get her head stuck between the crib bars; I kept a worried eye on that while simultaneously making sure the hump-fight between the other two stayed under control.
At some point, there was a 3-way-hump - Nala was facing a corner, looking for that exit, when Norm started humping her and Gaz promptly started humping him! I got right on splitting that up, heh... and as I was separating them, Nala finally succeeded in squeezing between the crib bars and escaping to the floor. I let the other two discuss who was going to be on top while I rounded her up.
Nala had obviously had her fill, so I put her back and let Norm and Gaz have a little more time together. Even with Nala gone, Gaz was still on her role-reversal kick... after a couple minutes, the fact that Norm was politely requesting to be the humpER instead of the humpEE looked like it was suddenly about to piss Gazzles off something fierce - she had that angry, I'm gonna bite someone look in her eye - so I quickly pulled them apart, pet them both until they melted a bit and then returned everyone to their pens.
So... yeah. I thought I knew what to expect, but I was about as wrong as could be. I'm starting to get a little concerned about this whole thing - I didn't realize Gaz was so desperate for an opportunity to prove her ability to be dominant over someone. Norm may very well be on board with that once his hormones are gone but at the same time, I feel like (based on "conversations" from their respective pens, not tonight's meet-and-hump) Normie and Nala really connect on an intellectual level in a way that Nala and Gaz just don't. Nala truly seems to have a genius-level IQ and mindset - more often than not, you can tell by looking at her that her mind is going a mile a minute, pondering the universe or whatever it is that bunnies ponder. Her mind is rarely idle. Gazzles prefers to keep things simple for the most part - she'll loaf it up and zone out, content with what she's got. I've always suspected that Nala tires of Gazzle's simplicity from time to time; I think Normie is exactly what she's been needing - a companion with a few philosophical musings to offer when he's not doing the usual naughty, destructive bunny stuff... I just worry that Gaz could feel left out and cause problems over it, though. Hopefully I'm over-thinking it all!
I'll play it by ear tomorrow, but I'm inclined to wait out Norm's hormones a little longer unless the bunnies give me a reason not to. Perhaps if he's not trying to hump everyone, Gaz won't insist on humping him to put him in his place. I think there's a good chance that they can figure out a nice group dynamic where no one feels left out.
Also, it seems I need to figure out a new "neutral territory" set-up or invest in some chicken wire or something - now that Nala knows she can get out of the crib, she'll go right for that exit every time unless I thwart her.
