Bonding?

[ChocolateBunny]

I was just curious about bonding.
If I was to want to get another bunny for Baizel to have a friend would I need another neutered/spayed bunny? Baizel is neutered, so could I bond him with an un-fixed bunny, or would that not work?

 

[ChocolateBunny]

oh, and age too..would it be best to bond a baby or adult to Baizel? He is around 7 months old now

 

[Rosemarie]

We have 9 rabbits & unfortunately I don't see any of ours ever being able to be bonded to another rabbit. None of them get along. However in our hopping club there are 2 other girls who have bunnies and for the most part, they all seem to get along together with no problems. I don't know what their secret is, but it works for them.

We just have all of them in separate cages but can see each other. So they have the company, just not the close contact.

We recently took in 3 that lived together pretty much all their lives and we've re homed one for them, but the other two are mother and daughter, so have been together all along. They seemed to get along fine, but then today it was apparent something changed as the one was charging the other.

It always makes me curious to know how do you know if they can be truly bonded & will never cause injury each other. Vet bills for rabbits who fight can be costly.

Good luck.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

A spayed female would be best, but a neutered male could also work. The age does not matter, I have a 5.5 year old male who is bonded with a 1 year old female, but has been bonded to 2 other females (at different times) who have been older. You might want to consider getting one about the same age, but don't rule out ones that are older. I would avoid ones that are much younger as they would probably not be fixed and could change with the hormones.
The rabbit should be fixed. While it is possible to one intact rabbits, it can be rough for them as one will want to mate and the other doesn't.

Bonding can take a while. You need to be 100% confident that they will get along before you put them in the cage. While they will need to decide who is the boss bunny, there should not be any fighting. Some chasing and humping is normal, but it should not be all the time.

It is better if you can let him choose who he wants to be with. Many shelters will let you take him in for 'dates' so he can meet other rabbits. Hopefully the volunteers know about bonding and can tell if it could work or will not. If you just bring in a rabbit, there is a chance that they will not get along.

I have not had issues with my bonded rabbits. There can be a bit of humping and chasing (usually after the humping as one it not too impressed with it), but there is no aggression. My angoras do not get along at all and there have been some fights, so I have to make sure they are kept separate and the cage is secure.

 

[MiniLopHop]

I am in the process of bonding my bunnies. Both are spayed females. One is a 2 year old mini lop and the other is a 4 year old siamese. I took the mini lop to the shelter for mini dates and she picked the siamese over the boys we tried. You never know what the bunny may pick.

They had one fight early on, but now they are doing much better. I have them seperated by a fence but they will rub noses through the fence. On Saturday they are going to spend the day in the kitchen with me (neutral territory) as a test run for a long length of time.

 

[Yield]

[align=center]Age and size do not matter =)

Generally the easy factor goes like this:
malexfemale
malexmale
femalexfemale

But it depends on the bunny =)

I feel like younger bunnies are easier to influence which was one of the reasons I picked Sabriel to bond to Solara (and the fact he was super sweet and cute- and he licked me. it was fate! he's been great!). Sabriel and Solara are like 17 days apart. But they get along pretty well with my 2 year old male flemish giant (they are not bonded though).

 

[ChocolateBunny]

Do you think an unspayed 3 month old female would bond with Baizel?

 

[Yield]

[align=center]Well, Baizel is neutered right? I think it is POSSIBLE. I would try a bunny date before you get her and see how they act. The only problem is the terrible "teens" at like 6-7 months when they go through puberty... =P

 

[ChocolateBunny]

Yes, he is. I really hope they'd get along

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

He might bond with a young intact doe, but that doesn't mean they will stay bonded. As she gets older, her personality will become more apparent and she will hit puberty. These can mean that they will fight and the bond will break.
I would say that it is not a good idea to try to bond them at that age. It would be better to wait until she is older (6 months and up) so you can see what her personality is like and if they will get along as adults. It is also better to get her spayed around then too.

When I bonded Korr and Amelia, she was still intact but was about 9 or 10 months when they started to live together. I had had her since she was almost 7 months and they had been in the same room since then. Even though they did get along, I still wanted to get her spayed so that their relationship can be more about being friends rather than her wanting to mate (and boy did she want to mate).