Need advice on bonding my girls!!

[luna21]

I just got a new little girl yesterday, she is a black and white mini rex and so very sweet and timid. Molly my older doe who is also a rex but much larger is not taking to her very well, she is very aggressive and keeps marking all around her cage I also think she is jealous. I really hope to get these two to get along, I've tried different things like letting the little one go into Molly's cage while I put Molly in the kitchen, but Molly seems to want to bite her and pee everywhere, Molly is not spayed yet but she will be going very soon!!! HELP!!!:colors:

 

[Mrpumpkinbunny]

I had trouble bonding mine.I personally would not recommend letting them into eachothers cage at first. Use a neutral territory to begin with. Also your new bun needs to feel safe and comfortable in her new home before you start introducing them to eachother, if she feel safe in her new home she will be less jumpy.

For our neutral territory, we changed it up. We used the basement, the car and the kitchen table. I think the kitchen table was what finally made the difference. Even in the car they were kind of aggressive, when DH would stop at a light. On the kitchen table they had just enough space to be away from each other, but also not so much that they didn't have to interact. They also were both a little nervous of the height. Don't do it without anohter person to help. It took almost two months and they could not get into eachothers cages without freaking our completely for over a month and a half. They would thump and run around like crazy flipping bowls and throwing litter.

They were always more aggressive after spending time in eachothers cages, so when I tried it the first time we backed off and waiting about 2.5 more weeks or neutral territory.

Good Luck and hopefully it won't take as long for you. Do you have the House Rabbit Handbook? It has great bonding info. http://www.rabbit.org/care/drollery.html

Another thought I had is possibly see if you can introduce them after Molly is fixed. It will go smoother and you won't have to reintroduce them after she has spent time recovering. It would certainly give the new little bun a chance to get to know you.

 

[luna21]

thanks so much for the advice, I will have to check out the houserabbit handbook!! I think that I will keep them seperate until Molly is fixed, I don't want the little one to get hurt, she is sort of shy right now!!

 

[Nadezhda]

The two best pieces of advice I can give you are:

1) Hormones
2) Patience


I would spay both buns and give them a couple weeks for all the hormones to go down. Hormones make them more aggresive.

Patience is needed! Don't move to fast in the bonding for your buns!

 

[Maureen Las]

Molly should be spayed first and then given time to recover from surgery. Your new bunny should be given time to adjust to his new environment and should also be be spayed and allowed time to recover..so we are talking about maybe months although you could house them next to each other. When they eventually are ready to be bonded it should be somewhere that is unfamilar to both bunnies. and even then it may take time.