unbonded bunnies

[Mika77]

Hi everyone, I have not posted in a very long time but I would like an opinion. My rabbit, Clover, is around 8-10 years old and has always lived with other bunnies but became a singe bunny over a year ago. I was not going to get any more but even though Clover seemed fine I felt very guilty about forcing him to be on his own. He is a friendly bunny but not really interested in people and was more interested in the cat, but the cat has little interest in him, so I felt bad. So about a month ago I adopted a six year old female (my kids named her Mitty) and I thought this would make Clover very happy. Well I was wrong and after several attempts it is very obvious that they totally dislike each other (fighting breaks out at every opportunity). Because I live in a small house I have no choice but to keep their cages in the same room and alternate the out of the cage time. Sometimes they will have a little fight through the cage bars and some fur gets plucked but most of the time they are fine (even when I had bonded rabbits they sometimes had disagreements and fur got plucked).
I am not sure if it causes them stress to see each other since they do not really like each other or is seeing each other better for them then being with no other rabbit?

 

[lovelops]

Hi I'm in the same situation with Lady, Brooke, Chico and Chica. NONE of them are bonded. Wait, Chico and Chica are brother and sister and are bonded to each other but not to Brooke and Lady.

I am in a dollhouse, 830 square feet. At times they have thumped the heck out of the cages, but after a few minutes have calmed down and started eating and sleeping or grooming. I cover Chico and Chicas cages a bit since they like the dark. I have Brooke in a baby play pen on the floor.. I put Lady on the bed.. They haven't killed each other yet.
During out of cage time it's different.. Lady is in the kitchen, Brooke the porch to run around... etc..so I do the same thing about alternate cage time and right now Brooke is in the hall and Lady kitchen. Soon it will be Chico and Chica in the Hallway..

I feel your pain.. I wish like Rodney King they all could get along, but I'm still working on getting Brooke and Lady bonded.. but so far this is working out..

Vanessa

 

[Blue eyes]

Hmmm.. I can see what a predicament this can be. You'd probably be a better judge than us since you are the one seeing all the subtleties of their interactions.
Just from what you described, though, it seems like this is more of a stressful situation for both of them. I wouldn't think that being or seeing each other is any better (but could possibly be worse) than being single.

 

[Mika77]

There are times when they seem to be stressing each other out, but it does not last very long and most of the time they just seem to ignore each other, sometimes they seem to show interest in each other but that does no last long either. I know they are not friends, but a part of me feels like they still provide some companionship for each other. We have a dog and a cat who are friendly with the rabbits but they walk around the house and the rabbits are confined to one room. When Clover was alone I always felt bad that he spends too much time on his own, maybe I am wrong but I feel that with the two of them they are less lonely. Well I guess at this point even if they are worse off being in the same room there is nothing I can do about it, but I would still like to know what are peoples experiences with keeping un-bonded rabbits in the same room.

 

[Imbrium]

Ideally, you'd want to keep them where they can't see/smell each other for 3-4 weeks to "reboot" the bonding process so that you can try again, but of course that's not an option for you...

In your situation, I would recommend getting something like chicken wire or hardware cloth to line the lower parts of their cages to prevent fighting between the bars (just make sure any points from where it's cut are filed down or otherwise hidden from the rabbits); failing that, you could use cardboard or coroplast or something. They could seriously hurt each other through the bars, so you definitely need to do something to ensure that can't happen... plus, if they can't continue to physically fight, then they may eventually be able to get over their disagreements enough to be bonded even if you're unable to do a full separation.

Also, I've got a few questions (just to make sure there you're not overlooking anything that could be working against your bonding attempts)...
~ Are they both spayed/neutered?
~ Have you been trying to introduce/bond them on truly NEUTRAL territory?
~ During bonding sessions, how were you handling their fights? (IE how quickly did you break them up, what did you do to break them up, all of that good stuff)

 

[Mika77]

Thank you for the advice. I have been following "bunny bonding rules" and I have successfully bonded rabbits in the past. I am not saying that there is no chance of these two ever bonding but I do think the chances are slim and I do not think I will continue trying. Clover is old and Mitty is also not young plus she has cataracts in one eye, bonding attempts are stressing us all out. I guess part of the reason why I am asking if rabbits are better off as a single rabbit or living in the company of one which they are not bonded to, is that eventually I will once again have a single rabbit. At that point I do not know if I should risk adopting another rabbit or not since they might not bond and will have to live same as the two now are. Because in the past I had no trouble with bonding (well once I had some trouble but it was not too bad) so I just assumed things would go well, but now I am a lot more cautious. If having un-bonded rabbits living close to each other is really not recommended and they are happier with no rabbit around then I will just stick with one bunny.

 

[Imbrium]

*Nods* Sounds like you're making the right call in your situation to back-burner the bonding idea temporarily (and perhaps permanently)... I just thought I'd ask, as we've got bunny owners here ranging from total newbies to seasoned pros with decades of bunny experience, so it's *always* safer to ask for background info than to make assumptions!

When the future "one bunny" situation arises, you might find out if any shelters in your area allow bunny-dating (or at the very least, allow for a bunny to be returned if a bond just doesn't seem possible) - that's definitely the best way to go, and I know many shelters in the US allow you to bring in a pet rabbit (altered, of course) to meet potential companions.

If you can prevent fighting, I think in the vast majority of cases, bunnies can learn to accept being "neighbors" with a bunn they don't like enough to bond with... and when you think about it, even if the situation isn't 100% ideal, a bunny is certainly FAR better off with you than they would be at a shelter or something!

If it were me, I'd play it by ear and get a feel for your current bunns... when the time comes, you'll most likely have a good idea of how much stress is potentially placed on the surviving bunny when they have to co-exist with a bunny they're not bonded to. You know your rabbits far better than any of us ever could, and pretty much every rule has exceptions - there's no way we could say with certainty whether or not your rabbits would be "better off" if they didn't have another bunny around .