Bonding

[hunnybunny63]

Ive just started to bond my two rescue rabbits together. A male whos around a year or so, and a female about 7 monthd old. Both have been done already.

Firstly how often should they have meetings?

Using my kitchen as a neutral ground and they get on pretty well in there. The boy defiantly is the dominant one, but hes excepting of her and has washed her. I tried once in their own run, but he was a bit nippy snd chasing. Gone back to the kitchen as I think they need more time.

 

[lovelops]

I'm still working on this with Brooke and Lady. When we tried Friday at the vets office, Brooke silently like a snake snuck up to Lady to bite her on the side. The vet alerted me to it to shoo her away which we did..

I saw on another rabbit web site about taking a stuffed animal and keeping it with the rabbit so it has the scent, then taking some snips of the rabbits hair and sewing it or placing it inside the stuffed animal and then placing it with the dominant rabbit to see how it will act. If it beats the devil out of it, you know they still have a long way to go, or after a few days or humping it and beating it it starts cleaning it, you know they are close to bonding..

Vanessa

 

[hunnybunny63]

Hes now just spent 5 minutes trying to hump her, then she hops off and he tries to chase. So I've stopped him chasing, then hes come back to hump her again. I've called it a day now as shes not happy.

 

[hunnybunny63]

I'm swapping them between the hutches every day so they are used to each others scents. They have just one set of bars between then, and often come over to each other to sniff.

Any recomendations how often they should see each other properly, is once a day enough? Or should it be more?

 

[Imbrium]

I *highly* recommend reading all the bonding articles on this site (the link is to search results that display all of them).

 

[hunnybunny63]

Read most of thatbsite already, and already following most of their tips before I'd read it. Just a bit unsure of how often, havent seen that mentioned. They suggest short sessions, but not how often.

 

[Imbrium]

Actually, one of the articles talked about "marathon" bonding sessions ... as for how often, I don't think you can overdo it if they're not getting into bad fights or something. I'd definitely have a session with them daily or at least every other day (depending on what you've got time for). If you have time for more than one a day, I say go for it unless it seems to be hurting more than helping.

When you get right down to it, bonding is more of an art than a science - every bunny, every pair, every owner is different. You just have to learn to read your rabbits as best as you can.

 

[hunnybunny63]

Ok thank you. Im doing one a day at the moment for about half hour, so will keep that up. Thanks.