Is this going ok?

[Luvmyzoocrew]

Belle and Sooty have been bonding for the last 6 weeks. They have been at the point of being out together all day long every day. At first Sooty was the "humper" now he is the "humped"
She holds on till the point that when he gets up to get the heck away from her she has a mouth full of hair. Of course i said that this is the week that they were going to be spending nights together, but Sooty has started thumping his foot at her. Is this a bad sign? She will hump him, he will run away , she will follow him and it looks like she is nipping at his back as she is following him, then she will mount him again and he will thump his foot at her and then run away again. Is this not a good sign for the bonding? is it not time to put them together at night?

i have had my reservations because i am scared that if a fight :duelwas to b reak out i am not there to stand there in a panic and scream at them and cry:laugh:.

would you hold off the over night visits?
Should i be worried that they are not bonded?
Will she ever stop mounting him?
does it mean that the dominence is not established?

i figured that when they are bonded there is very little mounting, is this true?

i swear rabbits are more difficult than a new born,lol

 

[aurora369]

I had a switch of dominance between Baxter and Zeke. For a long time Baxter was the one humping, and Zeke would just take it. Then, Zeke started wanting to be top bun and has started humping and chasing Baxter.

I've seen the same behaviour as you, the humping, chasing while nipping at the behind, and thumping from Baxter. I never saw any fights. I think Baxter is acknowledging Zeke's dominance by thumping, he's saying "Geesh, I get it, stop it, I understand that your the dominant one now!"

You can wait out a bit longer with day dates, and see if the chasing/nipping stops. Try distracting them when that behaviour starts, don't let them become obsessive about it.

When you start leaving them together at night, I would try to sleep next to their pen/cage for the first couple nights.

--Dawn

 

[Flashy]

I've recently battled with some bonding, I was attempting to make two trios of two unspayed females and a neutered male.

I started as you, getting them together during the day and progressing longer and longer and longer until they could be together all day.

I found with mine that the way they felt about each other showed more at dusk (they are most active at dusk and dawn, but I'm never up at dawn so they were only with each other at dusk).

So to progress my bonding further I would allow them to be together through dusk and for a couple of hours after. One trio fought, and fought nastily and I abandoned that bonding, and the other trio were more feisty with each other and there was more humping, but they were generally ok and now live as a happy threesome (for those that know my buns, these are the Dopeys and Cloud).

So my advice would be to try them all day and then through dusk and out the other side too because that would show their emotions and feelings for each other at the time when they are most active and the time they are most likely (in my experience) to fight.

If they argue or disagree, it does not mean that it is a futile attempt, it just means it needs more work and time at that time of the day so keep at it.

If it does work fine, then maybe do this for a while every day, and then progress to over night? You could maybe look at a baby monitor for their first nights together so that if anything goes wrong you will hear it and can go cry at them .

I've never come across thumping but he is probably warning her off, so it wwill probably show at dusk whether or not he is angry at her and might lunge for her, or whether it is him being fed up and stuff in which case he might be more running away, or humping her or more stamping.

You sound like you're doing everything right, so hang in there and keep going