Rabbit Bonding Help Northern Illinois

[acholke]

Hello! I am wondering if anyone has a bunny bonding bootcamp or something similar to recommend in the northern suburbs of Chicago? I have 2 neutered Male Holland lops. They have been in pens next to eachother for a while now and will sometimes have to chance to be together but the one rabbit will nonstop hump the other and pull his fur (I thought he would stop after a while but the bunny he jumps has maloclussion and I worry he wont be able to defend himself if needed). He will also spray to establish his dominance, is this something that will stop once they're fully bonded? He can be territorial with us when we go to give him food and water if we move too quickly (charge, growl). We recently moved so I thought being in a neutral space would help and I do want to put them in a larger pen together, so I'm looking for a little help with this

 

[Blue eyes]

How recent were their neuters? It can take as long as 8 weeks post neuter for hormones to fully dissipate.

This page describes 2 different bonding methods. I'd suggest reviewing them and deciding which you feel more comfortable with trying and go from there.

 

[Imbrium]

^ What Blue eyes asked. When I hear nonstop humping plus fur pulling AND urine spraying, that sounds like extremely hormonal behavior. Females, it only takes about a month... but males' hormones linger for up to 6-8 weeks (they can even potentially impregnate a female during that time!).

 

[acholke]

They are 4 and 3 years old and were both neutered around 6 months of age

 

[Imbrium]

That's... unusual. Fair warning, M/M bonds are probably the toughest to forge. This is just my opinion and certainly doesn't mean your rabbits are unbondable... but I've gotta say, it doesn't sound promising at all given the one rabbit's extreme territorial issues. They are clearly off on the wrong foot and I recommend "resetting" them before you continue to try to bond them. This means a minimum of 4-6 weeks where they can't see or smell each other (so separate rooms, if at all possible).

As for what to do during/post separation, that depends on your answers to a number of questions:
Does the humpee just sit there and take it or does he get upset about the aggressive behavior?
Was the problem bunny cage-aggressive prior to your move? If so, did it get worse when you moved?
What have you been doing so far to try to bond them? Do they each have their "own" (non-neutral) space to go to between bonding sessions?
How long have the bonding sessions been?

Pretty much, the more backstory you can give me on the rabbits and what you've done so far to try to bond them, the better. I love bonding, including trio bonding (and right now, working on an eventual quad) and have worked with some... difficult... personalities, lol. There's no cookie-cutter solution to bonding; so much of it is in interpreting rabbits' behavior and other "bunny whisperer" type nuances. The more you know your rabbits, the better. One thing I can tell you for sure, though, is that we need to see about getting to the root of the aggression (since it's not just towards the other rabbit) before you try to bond them again.