hehe yeah, I have a subaru Outback, so I can just fold downt he back seats and they have TONS of room to hop around. Did that for the first time tonite, they loved it. Monkey, of course, had to rub her chin on everything.. silly bun thinks she owns the world.

Tomorrow morning I'm taking the two monsters for a car trip.. to the rabbit advocate outreach for their spa day I'm gonna keep em in the same carrier for the trip, and see how they do. Hubby will come pick them up after they've had their turn at the spa

Ooo is that your new car??

I'll just be taking my subaru... hubby's car is the fancy new one..lucky bastard... lol. But they'll get a nice ride in it back home while I'm at the outreach

Bunnies can get a spa day?

How did you get the names for both of your bunnies?

Well, Monkey was always a little monkey, she likes climbing on stuff and being up, so Monkey it was.

Moose.. well, we wanted to keep tot he animal theme, and somebunny on here suggested Moose, we tried it and hubby liked it, and he's kinda mellow and slow alot... so it fits

The rabbit rescue I volunteer for does a nail trimming and grooming day every month, so I take them in for their trims then It was a great time for a bonding session, car ride, plenty of stress... lots of grooming and snuggles occurred in the carrier

OK, is there a thread about the Petzy Cube? Is it just one cube? How big should I make it for one 12 lb rabbit and one 3 lb. rabbit? Halp?

I thought Monkeybun's bonding was the thread about the cube. We had posted about it all over... Size of Zinnia won't b a problem. She will really fill the cube though, like Deirdra did.

It was a tight fit for her. You need to set the cube for their bonding stages i.e. with different stressors. You can put the whole thing in your dry bathtub and let the faucet run into the drain for noise stress beside them. You can hang it up and swing it by threading a dog leash through the top (ziptie well) you can take it on car rides and put it in top of the washing machines. You can have it sitting on the floor when you are cooking... you can have your dog look at it with the lid closed... within reasoon you can put the cube in many different settings. It has the advantage of being see-through, rigid and escape-proof if ziptied properly.

SWING THEM FROM A DOG LEASH?!? Surely you aren't serious...lol

I am

The Petzy Cube™ is fantabulous, its been great for M&M. they are slowly getting better with each other, they do great in teh cube wherever we put it, although Moose still gets nippy when they are in a pen.. I figure we'll put mroe toys in the pen so that Moose has something to do besides chase and bite Monkey.

One step forward, 2 steps back... tried the pen again tonite. Mose played with the toys a bit.. but then just went for Monkey all out. she flopped, and he went for her tummy, poor baby girl. We're getting very frustrated with him. She is totally in love with him, will groom him, when he lets her near, flops for him, happily bounces around him.. and he just wants to bite now. He refused to groom today, went to bite her face instead.

...very discouraged in my moosie man today.

Even more downhill... cleaning their litter boxes tonite, doing my usual thing.. and Moose hops onto the second shelf of his cage and sniffs me.. and proceeds to claw at my face. First time he's done this.. he's associating me with these distasteful bonding sessions he has to go through.. not sure if I can handle this.

I think bonding shoud be re-termed "the-one-step-up-two-steps-back game with bunnies" -- only that is too long a phrase.
Take a little break, for yourself to chill out. Then, since you know Moose is the problem, focus on him: don't let him get away with his teethy advances. Spend this week's sessions sitting in their pen with them like you do (in red PJ's ) and really protect Monkey from him. You are going to play the Boss Bunny, a rabbit tyrant. Wear gloves. Let him feel that you are everywhere at all times protecting Monkey... then end the session in a forced snuggle on your lap.
The other thing that may help is if you transferred their bonding pen to a new spot.

Monkey, what sets Moosy off?

Monkey being near him.. lol. I don't know.. sometimes he seems fine, sometimes he just goes all out on her.. its frustrating. I'll move their sessions to the bathroom they haven't been in yet, see if that helps.

For a gross idea, try cleaning out her anal glands about 30 minutes before the bonding.

Monkey has never needed hers cleaned.. I'm hesitant to mess with them as there hasn't been any problem with them.

Isn't there some sort of calming herbal spray you can get for rabbits? Might want to rub both of them down with it. I don't remember the name though someone here probably does.

Rescue Remedy. I think it just makes them drunk. It has a high alcohol content.

Aww I am sorry about your setbacks! I'm sorry I can't give you more advice because I have never had nippy issues with my buns.

We might be going to my mom in laws this weekend for he day.. maybe i'll take M&M, the car ride and neutral space may do them good... not to mention a doggy for a stresser.

Rescue Remedy. I think it just makes them drunk. It has a high alcohol content.

Tehe. Well you can get a pet version now that's alcohol free...or you can dilute the normal one.

MB, that trip might be a good thing to switch things up a bit. With Monkey flopping, it might actually be a 'dominant' move or at least viewed as one by Moose. Sometimes they have flop wars too, "I'm more comfy and secure than you so Nah!" or her sort of "thumbing her nose" at him for not paying her due attention.   Still, it's not good he's reacting that way. Is he being a bit more edgy in general at the moment - outside of bonding sessions?

He does get a little more grumpy outside of the sessions when I go into his pen, like when I was cleaning his box. he seems to think every time I come in there, I'm gonna make him play with Monkey

Tonites session went decently, he tried nipping a bit, mostly when Monkey was demanding grooming, although towards the end I think he was getting tired of it and was chasing her more. Of course, that was after almost 2 hours in the pen. Monkey groomed him a ton, took her forever to get all of his ears lol. Was cute as heck too I did get a video, I'll post it tomorrow after I upload...

All in all, a much better session tonite. Probably helped that I switched it up and put the pen in the living room, with fresh towels on the floor so it didn't smell the same. Put the litter box in too, so Moose didn't get cranky about needing to go potty and not having his box. They didn't fight over it at all.

Good day today Which was really good, being as today was the 1 year anniversary of the car in our wall lol.

Another session today.. they did really well. Moose flopped, Monkey flopped, not beside him tho. Moose nipped a bit, but only after Monkey got humpy really.

The big thing tonite was... Monkey binkied in the pen. Its was awesome. She was sitting there eating hay, then BINKY into the water dish lol. Moose wasn't sure what to think.

I also put them in the pen for a bit without me, I sat on the couch outside it watching them instead of sitting in it, went better than I had hoped

Yay! binky! thats good!! how much air did the little thing get

Monkey being a female will be complicated; there may always be times where she ticks Moose off and he in turn may resort to a nip. My rabbit Deirdra puts a chase on Lint or Neigey regularly, and it looks mean, but it isn't a problem. They just get out of her zone. This is why some bonded rabbits must have a bigger space.

They'll have the entire apartment once they are bonded, so space shouldn't be an issue

Another decent session, we started with the cube to encourage some snuggles, which happened. Snuggle bunnies rock Went to the pen after that, they were in the pen for a good hour... had a little nipping and chasing towards the end, so we popped em back int he cube to settle down. Back to snuggle buns The cube helps a bit when moose gets nippy it seems, so we'll keep putting them in the cube when he gets mean.

How nippy does Moose get? If it's not leading to a fight, you may soon want to think of moving them in together. After two and a half months of housing together, Neigey still nips Lint.