Bonding 2 neutered males- help, kind of urgent advice needed

We got a 6 month old male (neutered 5 weeks ago) for our 3 yr old neutered male, Oswald. Dating has been very slow going, sometimes it goes good sometimes it ends in obsessive mounting (first was the new bun but he stopped and now Ozzy is the one who does it) and the little guy getting frustrated and then chasing and nipping. We tried some stress dating in a laundry basket, the bathtub, and on our dining room table. Those all went pretty well. We also did some meeting outside in a small pen and it starts out good then always ended in mounting nipping and chasing. If I made the area smaller, it just stopped the chasing part.

We decided to just take it slow because they do seem interested in eachother and they live next to eachother and sniff eachother through the bars and lay near eachother.

Today we found the little bunny inside Oswald's cage! Now I don't know what to do. There's some hair tufts, we have no idea how long they've been together in there. The little bunny has "made himself at home" and is hopping all over the bottom floor. Ozzy is sitting on his corner ledge. He seems maybe a little mad, or maybe he is defeated up there and hiding from little bun?

I decided to give them pellets and see if they would eat together on the bottom floor. Little bun is happily munching away from his bowl and Ozzy didn't jump down from his ledge and when I put his bowl up there, he nibbled a few pellets and is not laying on his ledge. He is normally a PIGLET with his pellets so I think he isn't happy that the little bun is in his house. Little bunny just flopped on the floor and seems quite comfy.

What do I do? This cage isn't big enough, I split a larger C&C cage up to
Make two when we got the new guy and made a large pen with the intentions of using it for bonding and eventually to house them together in the whole room together. Should I just watch them? I think they will be more likely to scuffle cramped in Ozzy's house, but don't know if I should be messing with them or observing. The plan was to give them MUCH more space together.

What should I do?View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1437751629.599968.jpg
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Update: I took the little bunny out. They kept scuffling over the litterbox and I noticed Ozzy had a little blood on his ear. So is this hopeless now?

Also, the younger bunny sprayed all over in Ozzy's litterbox. I noticed when cleaning up Ozzy's cage after putting the little bunny back in his own pen. Then they layed down next to eachother through the bars. Do we keep trying or do they just not want to be friends? View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1437756890.533396.jpg

With some rabbits it takes time to bond them, and bonding is a very stressful process. I'd advise swapping the rabbits cages, so the new rabbit is in the old rabbits cage and the other way around, just so they get to know one another's smell. I wouldn't advise leaving them together in one of the cages just because it will smell strongly of one of the rabbits, and the rabbit who owns the cage could become very territorial. Bonding works well in a neutral zone that will smell nothing like either of the rabbits. I'd suggest a bathroom or kitchen (I personally prefer not to use something as small as the bathtub because the rabbit et stressed then I get stressed), and just let them hop around one another, and chasing and mounting is fine as long as it's not hurting the rabbit. They have to establish who the dominate rabbit is. I wouldn't give up just yet on the bonding. Try do an hour or a day, (or an hour in the morning and one at evening) to get them to bond.

It's been awhile since I've bonded rabbits, and my most recent one didn't work because the two rabbits weren't compatible, but sometimes these kind of things happen.

I'm sure there are loads of other people on here who will be able to help you!

I haven't given up yet! This weekend we changed the room around in preparation for swapping cages every day for a while. View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1438553020.435375.jpg Now they are right next to eachother and the cages are set up similar to make it easy to swap them. View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1438553063.148845.jpg I'm willing to keep trying because I really think they can be friends.

I just got my third bunny to bond with the other couple and it took a few months. When they were finally tolerating each other outside of their cage in a neutral space (cuddling/cleaning each other) I went in an deep cleaned where their cages were, put down new rugs, got new litter boxes and did absolutely everything I could to de-scent their previous space. I also set up their cage in a different spot so it when I finally put them back in, it was completely foreign to them.

This definitely helped and ended up working! There were a couple days where they grunted at each other but it was worth the hassle. Good luck and keep swapping them into each other's cages-this also helped!

Another thing to bear in mind is that the one male was just neutered 5 weeks ago. It can take up to 8 weeks for hormones to fully dissipate after neuter. So maybe they just need some more time apart so that hormones won't negatively affect the bonding attempt.

Blue eyes said:

Another thing to bear in mind is that the one male was just neutered 5 weeks ago. It can take up to 8 weeks for hormones to fully dissipate after neuter. So maybe they just need some more time apart so that hormones won't negatively affect the bonding attempt.

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Thanks for the reminder. It seems like it's been so much longer because his behavior has changed so drastically. He has stopped spraying and peeing outside the box, and he is calmer and more curious.

They seem to like being next to eachother with the bars between them. They eat together, lay together, and sniff eachother through the bars. The first cage swap went wonderful, both seemed slightly confused and sniffed and chinned everything but no spraying and not too much of a poop-fest so I'm hopeful. Within an hour both were flopped and relaxing.

Swapping them back into their original cages last night also went well. Ozzy went right for his beloved platform and then flopped on the floor underneath. The little bunny flopped in his usual spot in his cage immediately. They didn't seem concerned about eachother's scents at all. Just sort of relieved to be back in their own houses.