Bonding rabbits

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Lucy699

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I have a 12 week old, and just got a 9 week old bunny. We’re keeping them separate for a bit because 12 week old has just had her rhd2 vaccine and she will be in the all clear on Monday. And 9 week old won’t hace vaccines until Wednesday. But how can we bond them? I showed the new one to my bunny from a distance and she looked so pissed and is now sulking and hiding away!
 
Babies don't bond. Any appearance of bonding is just temporary until hormones kick in. Once they are both spayed and had time to heal, they can begin the bonding process. No guarantee that they will bond at all.

If you aren't fully committed to the brand new 9 week old, the ideal would be to return her, wait until your older rabbit is spayed, and then introduce your older, fixed rabbit to other already-fixed rabbits to pre-screen for potential compatibility. Rescues work with you to ensure you wind up with a compatible pair (some in the UK will actually do the bonding for you). But rabbits need to be fixed first before being bonded.

Here is more on bonding:
https://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information/bonding-bunnies/
 
So what do I do now with the two babies? Just keep them separated until they’ve been fixed
 
General advice is to keep them separate, so they can’t see or even smell each other. I’d recommend washing your hands every time you touch them and go to the other one - I was bitten a couple times when I didn’t do that! Zelda absolutely HATED the smell of another female we kept on the other side of the house. We failed to bond these two unfortunately, they’d fight to death (bitten nose and chipped ears :( ) I really regret we didn’t know at the time there is a bonding specialist in the country...

Anyway, with Linky, younger sibling of Zelda, I ignored the advice to keep him in a different room cos she didn’t mind his smell at all. They only stayed at separate enclosures until Linky was well 6 weeks after getting fixed. The bonding was really tricky, but they are inseparable now.

The worst was waiting. First for the little fella to grow up to be fixed, then for his hormones to calm down. I had 3 unbonded bunnies at that time and I was going mental with changing 3 potties daily, maintaining cleanliness in 3 enclosures and making sure each of the buns gets their fair amount of time with me, all 3 separately o_O My life quality got much better after the siblings bonded and the third girl found her new dream home:)

So it’s worth the wait!!!:p:)
 
General advice is to keep them separate, so they can’t see or even smell each other. I’d recommend washing your hands every time you touch them and go to the other one - I was bitten a couple times when I didn’t do that! Zelda absolutely HATED the smell of another female we kept on the other side of the house. We failed to bond these two unfortunately, they’d fight to death (bitten nose and chipped ears :( ) I really regret we didn’t know at the time there is a bonding specialist in the country...

Anyway, with Linky, younger sibling of Zelda, I ignored the advice to keep him in a different room cos she didn’t mind his smell at all. They only stayed at separate enclosures until Linky was well 6 weeks after getting fixed. The bonding was really tricky, but they are inseparable now.

The worst was waiting. First for the little fella to grow up to be fixed, then for his hormones to calm down. I had 3 unbonded bunnies at that time and I was going mental with changing 3 potties daily, maintaining cleanliness in 3 enclosures and making sure each of the buns gets their fair amount of time with me, all 3 separately o_O My life quality got much better after the siblings bonded and the third girl found her new dream home:)

So it’s worth the wait!!!:p:)


That’s good! They’ve been kept separate since last night in different rooms, earlier today I showed my 12 week old from a distance, the new bunny and she was so mad! She has been sulking in the corner, giving me stares and I tried to pick her up and she kicked until I put her down, then she smeared poop over her toy!

We won’t be putting them together until next week anyway because ours isn’t in the clear from the rhvd2 vaccine until then and dont want her to get it If the new one has it. But I don’t think it’s going to go well based on that reaction
 
That’s good! They’ve been kept separate since last night in different rooms, earlier today I showed my 12 week old from a distance, the new bunny and she was so mad! She has been sulking in the corner, giving me stares and I tried to pick her up and she kicked until I put her down, then she smeared poop over her toy!

We won’t be putting them together until next week anyway because ours isn’t in the clear from the rhvd2 vaccine until then and dont want her to get it If the new one has it. But I don’t think it’s going to go well based on that reaction

Oh dear, she’s very jealous! :oops:
Good job for keeping them separate before they’re both vaccinated :)
If you wanna try bonding them anyway, and it’s not going great (which I hope won’t be the case), I’d recommend to try contact a bonding specialist, if you have any nearby and if you feel you’d like to do it. Fingers crossed they’ll bond easily with just your help!
 
Oh dear, she’s very jealous! :oops:
Good job for keeping them separate before they’re both vaccinated :)
If you wanna try bonding them anyway, and it’s not going great (which I hope won’t be the case), I’d recommend to try contact a bonding specialist, if you have any nearby and if you feel you’d like to do it. Fingers crossed they’ll bond easily with just your help!


Thank you I will! Do you know how I find bunny specialist? I tried a quick google search but didn’t really come up with much
 
Thank you I will! Do you know how I find bunny specialist? I tried a quick google search but didn’t really come up with much
Sorry, I won’t be of much help here :( I live in Ireland and my fiancé came across one in Dublin totally accidentally on Facebook. I am pretty sure there should be such people in the UK. I read that rabbits are 3rd most popular pets right after dogs and cats in the UK :)
 

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