Trust Issues and Bonding Problems

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bluuzu

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I have two problems with my bunnies and I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could maybe help me out :)

We have two rabbits:
Bee is a Dutch Rabbit, 1 year old and has been living with us for 10 months now. She has a friendly and active personality. She is also spayed.
Snickers is a mix breed rabbit, 8 months old, not spayed yet (although she is going to get spayed this week), and has been living with us for 6 months.

The first problem is that Snickers, who's been with us for half a year still doesn't seem to trust us (Bee was very comfortable with us by that time). I've been trying to spend multiple hours with her every day in an area with little distractions. During this time, I allow her to sniff me and try to get comfortable, while I read or work on the computer. Although often it seems like she is getting more comfortable with me, small things like standing up still seem to startle her and she won't let me touch her and grunts and runs away when I try to do so. Also when I reach into her cage to lay down hay for her, she always attacks my hand by scratching it.
What can I do to facilitate her trust?

The second problem has to do with bonding the two rabbits together. Since we've gotten Snickers we have been following our vet's advice to put their cages together and allow them to get used to each other. He claimed that after a week of having their cages together, we could put them in a neutral territory and they would be fine. But Bee, who usually seems very friendly, started attacking Snickers and we had to separate them. Although we tried to put them together again once after that, the situation didn't seem to get better. We've been afraid to put them in the same place, as even when they are in their separate cages next to each other, they try to bite and scratch each other through the bars. We realise that Snicker's aggression may be because she has not been spayed yet, however, Bee has been spayed and still displays aggression towards Snickers.
What can we do to make them bond?
 
The first thing I would do with Snickers is to get her spayed. A lot of the grunting, biting and lunging are all due to hormones. Once Snickers is spayed, I would try the bonding again. I have not had experience in bonding a female/female pair, but from what I hear it's one of the more difficult pairs to bond. AND of course, it depends on your rabbits. The reason why Bee is still showing aggression is because she can smell Snickers hormones. Rabbits have a flap at the back of their noses they use to smell hormones. You can de-sex your rabbit, but the flap stays.

Get Snickers spayed, wait for 4-8 weeks for the hormones to go away and try bonding again in a neutral area, but until she is spayed I would keep them separate.
 
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