When to intervene? {rabbit bonding}

[Apollo’s Slave]

I’d usually rather send the bunnies off to be bonded by someone who knows what they’re doing, but that’s not in the cards for us today.

I did 5 days of about 12 hours per day in a 1 by 1 xpen sort of thing.

Both bunnies will just ignore each other most of the time and i’ve had no grooming or anything.

I feel like I am intervening in their little spats too soon but at the same time don’t want them to get hurt.

For those who have bonded before, what behaviours do you allow and what behaviours do you not?

 

[Hermelin]

I don’t allow small circles, biting down hard, fighting with front paws, tornado

I allow stomping and I will step in if the other bunny dosen’t listen after awhile. Chasing are okay but I stop it if it go on for too long, nips and fur pulling are okay as long it’s not near the face.

The fur pulling from nips and chasing can look really scary. It won’t happen all the time. I will also step in if one of the bunnies seem stressed.

I will allow humping but no humps in the face. Because the other bunny being humped can snap or nip wrong things.

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

I don’t allow small circles, biting down hard, fighting with front paws, tornado

I allow stomping and I will step in if the other bunny dosen’t listen after awhile. Chasing are okay but I stop it if it go on for too long, nips and fur pulling are okay as long it’s not near the face.

The fur pulling from nips and chasing can look really scary. It won’t happen all the time. I will also step in if one of the bunnies seem stressed.

I will allow humping but no humps in the face. Because the other bunny being humped can snap or nip wrong things.

Thanks!

 

[JBun]

I'll intervene in circling immediately, as it more often than not, will escalate into something worse.

https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html
http://cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information/bonding-bunnies/
https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bonding_rabbits_together

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

Thank you! I’ve moved them back to step one and also made it smaller.

 

[Catlyn]

I didn't allow circling and tornadoing for my buns, nor any that seemed like furious chasing and all-out fights. I also tried limiting the amount of nips by looking at buns' language- tail sticking out and slightly up with neck craned/scoping forward and ears widened sightly forward and/or visible mouth opening meant that a nip was most likely coming. Most others wouldn't stop light nips, but due to my bondees' specifics (a top hard biter and bottom bun with really, really thin skin) i didn't allow it. The second pairing went so smooth that i don't even step in for the few light nips.
I would also skip on the toilet bit and just have a few stacks of hay in places, and push buns side to side for head rubs. That seemed to work.

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

I’ve had my first round of grooming today. Started by putting mashed pellets on both buns heads, Otis happily ate it and started voluntarily grooming Apollo. Apollo took a while but eventually ate the pellets off of Otis’ head, though no voluntary grooming. Forcing both buns to interact by giving them no space to do anything else has been working well. They’ll be separate tomorrow as i’m out but I’ll likely expand to a square on the weekend