Bonding Behavior female with female

[SimplyBritt]

I received my Willa from a pet store as a present from my boyfriend. Unfortunately the pet store couldn't tell me how old she was so I have NO IDEA how old she possibly could be other than she is young. Everything was going well, she was adjusting to our family life. She was showing signs of being a very happy bunny, binking around the house, coming to us and begging for attention and treats, she would sit and lay with us on the floor. Well she started becoming less active and would just lay under my daughter's bed and just acted like no matter how much we tried to play with her or show her attention it just wasn't enough. So we got 10 week old Belle. Willa became very interested in her but wasn't showing aggression. She just would not stop mounting her day one. Day two she started smelling her and would nip at her a bit like she was tasting something but so far not really showing aggression towards her just nipping. I put their cages together since day one and swith cages often and Willa will lay beside her and smell her through the cages. It's now day three they seem to be getting along very well, Willa lays beside her eats with her, doesn't want to be away from her more than a couple minutes, no more mounting from Willa no aggression but now it seems that Willa is trying to groom Belle but when she starts she'll groom her a minute then dig into her. Baby Belle of course does not appreciate this and gets up to run away which seems to be the only thing that bothers Belle. Can anyone provide me insight on this? Everything I look up is male and female. Any tips on unspayed female to female bonding would be great too!

Oh I've also tried A LOT of toys to keep Willa occupied but she has no interest in any toy I buy her.

 

[whiskylollipop]

Female to female bonding can absolutely be achieved, people just think male to female is the easiest type to bond. However, to bond any bunnies at all, both MUST be desexed at least a month prior. Unspayed females may learn to get along by staying out of each other's way, but if you want then to bond and be friends, they both have to be spayed.

 

[SimplyBritt]

Well things have changed unfortunately We had a hard time telling the sex and I'm new with this bunny thing so after further examination she turned into he. Willa is now Sir William until further notice and bonding has been called off until he is altered. I was already planning on getting them altered just waiting until they was old enough. I was mainly concerned about him digging into Belle and hurting her accidently or something.
Thanks for responding!

 

[Morning_Snow]

Oh and you talked about Sir William mounting her! You might end up with accidental baby buns! Even if Belle is young, it can still happen. You might want to read into rabbit pregnancy and kits.

 

[SimplyBritt]

Thanks for the advice! The people I got her from said she was 8-12 weeks old so I was worried about accidental babies. I've looked into pregnancy and how to take care of a young bunny with babied. I wish I would have checked him again before I tried bonding them but I read that sometimes the males can retract their testicles so I don't feel as bad but it was still my mistake. I'm taking her to the vet soon anyways because she has a lump on her hindquarter I'm really worried about so hopefully the vet might be able to tell me if she's pregnant or not. Maybe it's to early to tell.

 

[MyJuneAngel]

I realize this is no longer relevant to you as Willa is now known to be William, but I wanted to say that I have two unaltered bonded females. Mine, however, are litter mates. They have been together since birth and bonded long before we started homing the kits. They are roughly 3 years old now and the best of friends. I knew nothing about bonding. The kits were a huge surprise actually. We thought we had two male bunnies. My daughter let them have a play date and we were blessed with kits. Anyway, we had decided to keep one as she was sick (abscess that would not go away). It just happened that we found homes for all the rest except the buddy of the one we were keeping. At that point we verified that she was female and decided to keep her as well. We housed them together without a second thought.