Rabbit nipping kitten

[HoneyBry]

Afternoon all.
I have read through lots of your threads on this but I’d like a bit of advice. We have a 5 year old continental giant who is very docile and neutered. We recently rescued a kitten who is socialised around rabbits. We’ve been doing very slow introductions of scent swapping for a few days, then feeding either side of a mesh barrier, then feeding either side of a Perspex barrier until today and yesterday we are socialising very monitored in the same room. Alan the rabbit is getting on pretty well but every so often he charges at her and if he corners her he nips her butt. He’s definitely the dominant one because if he looks at her she runs away. She’s never clawed him and she doesn’t seem too scared of him she just very much knows her place is below him.

is there anything we can do to stop the nipping and charging? They have never been together unsupervised and we’re doing small meets at the moment and separating if he gets too chargy

thanks

Bry

 

[JBun]

Time, for him to get used to her presence, closely supervised so no injuries occur. It might also be that you'll need to wait for your kitten to get older and bigger for this to work.

Rabbit bonding can be very complex and no guarantees that it will work. Especially when dealing with a different species match altogether. Rabbits and cats have different body language communication. So a lot of this working out or not, is if the two of them can figure out how to communicate and understand one another.

https://rabbit.org/category/behavior/other-pets/
You can try looking over these rabbit bonding links as well, to see if any tips might be helpful.

https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html
http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bonding_rabbits_together
When having cats and rabbits together, it's also very important to remember that cat bites and scratches contain bacteria that can prove fatal to a rabbit very quickly. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[HoneyBry]

Hey! Thanks for taking the time to get back to me. I’ll definitely have a read of the links you’ve sent.

we did another supervised session this evening and his approach to her was definitely more playful than territorial. He ended up lying down stretched out whilst she played in the background so I definitely think it’s progress.

I’ll keep in mind the risks of having her around him and they will never be unsupervised together

thank you