Bonding my bunnies - please help to understand their behaviour!

[Chii]

I am currently trying to bond my 1y 9m old neutered male mini lop Muffin and about 5-7 month old spayed girl Miffy.
Muffin lived with me since he were a baby and we adopted Miffy about a month ago. Muffin is very gentle, calm and lazy, laid back bunny and Miffy is nervous, very curious and energetic. Muffin is free range, without a cage and Miffy for now lives in a large cage on the shelf.
Prior to bonding I switched they plush toys and put each other's fur in their cages. Bunnies saw each other during supervised play time in separate parts of large room.
Today was our first bonding session. I chose bathroom as nobunny ever been there and placed a towel on a floor and fresh parsley. I put Miffy on the towel and after few moments, added Muffin. I petted them both, wearing big cooking glow. Both bunnies just sat there near to each other and then at some point Miffy started humping Muffin both from the back and from the face. I gently pushed her away from his face as I was scared she will hurt his eyes with paws or hi would bite her in a tummy. Muffin sat there with an unhappy face, but didn't say much. She digged at him and tried to sniffle (I guess) his tummy and bite him few times in a neck - very fast. Muffin growled and shacked a bit and turned away, but there were no broken fur or blood. Is biting okay?
So that continued for about 10 mins - bunnies sat closely together and from time to time Miffy were digging and humping Muffin and he just sat there. He was completely ignoring her! After one of the humping I petted them both for few minutes and then took Miffy to her cage and let Muffin back to room. Both received treats.
Is it a good start or bad? Does this mean that Miffy will be the boss now? Should I try the 10 minute date again every evening now?
And also, will bonded bunnies hump? It looked a bit wrong a Muffin looked so upset
I will keep this thread as a bonding diary and will update it with news.
Please advice! Thank you in advance!:carrot

 

[stevesmum]

Awww I think it's a pretty normal start. Good job ending the date on a positive note, that's very important. I think you should stick with it as for the humping, well my Steve still humps Cali and he's not the boss, and she lets him do it, and they've been bonded for a couple of years now. I don't let it go on too long, yes it's weird at first but soon you will find it cute and funny, I do anyways. Good luck, I think you're doing a great job so far!

 

[Chii]

stevesmum,
Thank you for your reply! Nice to hear that's this is not a rough start.. I am very worried whether bunnies are gonna get along. Muffin now flopped near the couch and Miffy is sleepy in her cage - I guess I am worrying more than they

Is biting normal during bonding? Not like the rough grooming, but fast and precise neck bites (I checked - no bite marks!)
Was bonding your rabbits easy or hard? How long did it took?

My husband took a picture of bunnies when they were calm. Their first picture together! <3

 

[stevesmum]

If it's just a nip, that's not so bad. But if it's more serious or either rabbit looks pretty stressed then it's time for a break. Of course you can also try stress bonding them, such as putting them in the same carrier for a car ride, running a vacuum around them in their bonding enclosure, or something like that. I didn't have any biting during bonding sessions, but I was lucky. I would say it took a few weeks until my two could safely move in together. But some take longer and others not so long, every bond is different. It's is definitely more stressful for us than them, a lot of the time haha. But take it slow and you will know when you see progress.

 

[Chii]

stevesmum, I guess it is a very rough nips, Muffin clearly dislikes them a lot, but skin or fur are not broken..

Bonding Day 2: Morning
Today I made about 15min long date. I setup everything the same. In the beginning I petted them both for some time. When I stopped, Miffy started nipping Muffin and I tried to make loud noise and she backed up. There were were about same amount of humping from her. Then she left him alone and started eating greens and Muffin was washing his face. Unfortunately, this lasted for about 10-15 seconds. Then unexpected happened - during humping, Muffin growled and nipped Miffy and pressed her firmly down. He humped her for a while and she didn't look stressed and didn't do anything. He groomed her head and nipped a bit her ears, but she were still.
Muffin left her alone and she tried to nip him, there were a brief moment of circling and nipping from both sides and I stopped it with noise. Then they sat there for a moment, without doing anything I thought it was a good moment to end session - I petted them again for few moment and took Muffin away. I petted Miffy and returned her into her cage, too.

After this session both bunnies got treats.

Questions:
- Is eating and washing in each others presence a good sign? Even if it was so brief?
- Is progress so far good?


About car rides - I was thinking about stress bonding them at some point. Miffy is very nervous and scared of pretty much every noise, but Muffin flops during car rides, loves playing with vacuum cleaner and clearly doesn't care about the noise. I am not sure how to provide stress environment for them.

 

[Azerane]

Eating and washing is a good sign, however rabbits circling each other is not, it's good that you stopped it quickly.