Bonding tips?

[magicicada]

Hello! I’m a new user and adopted my rabbits recently! My first bunny is Fargo, she’s under a year, spayed, dwarf lion head mix. I adopted her in October from a co-worker’s sister and she and I have really hit it off. About a month ago, I adopted an unaltered male (Californian I think? He was rescued by someone else from a butcher, and was transferred to me), also under a year old and named Figaro (Fig for short). Today he is getting neutered. I really want them to bond but I am having troubles with my female bunny getting along with him. I think I made a mistake early by putting his pen within “her room” so she became threatened (I have since learned how territorial rabbits can be, especially female ones,) and began tearing out his fur on his head. She fought him a bit and while I immediately separated them, it seems like only she has a problem and he doesn't want to fight or bite her at all. After that, I kept them in separate rooms and each would have time to play in the common area of the house, although all each would want to do is sniff from under the door, and the female would try to bite him from under there. After a few weeks, I demoted “her room” to a pen within that room and moved him into a separate pen within that room. They are ok being near each other, but separate. Each of them have gotten out of said pen over the night (only one at a time, on different nights) and will go up to the others pen, where I have found pieces or his fur on the ground.
Does anyone have any tips on a hard bonding? I know there are a bunch of things I could have done differently to make this bond easier, but as I said I am a new rabbit owner. Neither rabbit has been hurt bad either, she doesn’t seem to want to kill him and he doesn’t seem to want to fight at all. I think his hormones really pissed my female bunny off, and currently he is at the vet being neutered.
Related pic is the rabbits, in their own pen for reference. White and Grey is the female, her name is Fargo. White with brown points is the male, his name is Fig (Figaro)

 

[Blue eyes]

There's still hope. It is after he's healed from his neuter that the process can begin. Any attempt at bonding while he's still intact is futile. Before neutering, even any appearance of bonding success is meaningless. (Though if they had serious fights, that can set back the bonding process.)

Since they've had their altercations already and since he will still be hormonal for a while after his neuter (takes time for hormones to dissipate fully), I'd suggest keeping them totally separate (separate rooms if possible so they can't see or smell each other) for 8 weeks. It can take a full 6-8 weeks after a neuter for those hormones to fully dissipate.

Once they've had their time of separation, hopefully that will have allowed them the time to forget that they hadn't gotten along before.

The next step would be to have them in side-by-side (but not touching) pens or cages for several weeks so they get used to each other's presence.

After that, the face-to-face bonding begins. There are a couple options for that. Either the gradual method of frequent daily bonding sessions or the immersion approach. You can read more about these here:
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html