Totally stunned. After reading other posts, I built my 3-box 'bonder' and tried it out tonight. Not that I was thinking of bonding my two bad tempered divas, just try to defuse this territorial poo war and fighting through the bars. I'm posting a lot of photos in hopes that you guys with experience can tell me what you think is gong on.

Put both in the cage to look at each other a bit. After a glance they gave each other butt.

I dropped them into the center cube and was ready for a fight, I had the squirt bottle, a towel and put them side by side and started petting hard. They squirmed around until they had their heads in the corner. No fighting, no nipping, no humping, nothing but Lola trying to squeeze under Pringles. I was shocked to say the least.

I slacked off on the petting to see what they would do, after a couple of minutes they shifted even closer together.

I pretty much stopped petting and after a few minutes they shifted to turn into a head/tail with Lola still trying to gently push under Pringles and hide. I didn't really touch them because I wanted to see if they would try to get away from each other, hump, whatever.

The little suckers stayed like this for almost 20 minutes with me just talking to them. I would have taken a video, but they didn't move, but they were  both breathing fast the whole time. Lola was kinda bunched up, but petting Pringles for a second put her into a loaf. (eyes pop out)

After 20 minutes, Pringles sat up briefy and washed her face and groomed a bit, settled back down, and then Lola did the same thing. The whole thing lasted nearly 45 minutes, mostly with me sitting beside them on the bed going What The Heck?

I'd appreciate all you bonders opinions and suggestions for next time. The way these two carry on the bunny room I figured it was gong to be a bloodbath, the only one who got hurt was me, Lola got in two hickies while I was carrying her.

I am totally stunned and baffled at this point.

What is Neigey doing at your house? Lola looks so much like him!

That is a great start into bonding, a 45 min session with relaxing and face-washing. It shows how different rabbits act outside their territories. (This is why many bunny-dates look promising at shelters but then turn into harder bonds sometimes at home. )

Now Lola and Pringles have a place where they get along! This will be a remedial tool in their bonding; like Monkeybun had the cube always ready when things got tough between her two, you can always keep this 'bonder' at hand, too.

You won't need stressors at this point. I would not move on from the bonder setup too soon, but have a weeks's worth of sessions in it, and then transfer to a larger neutral area.

What do you think would happen if I switched the condos? Put Pringles/Toby into Lola/Daisy's??????

Petzy, I'm curious about the Pringles/ Daisy/ Lola/Toby outcome. Pringles was first bonded with Daisy for 6 months. When I brought Toby home to foster, Pringles shamelessly abandoned Daisy for Toby. Daisy was so depressed he nearly starved to death until we got Lola. This is starting to sound like Desperate Housewives!

On the other hand. Daisy is an obsessive groomer and I think Pringles misses that. Poor Toby with his dental problems just gives her a half hearted lick every now and again, although she asks constantly. So the lovely Ms. Pringles might get the best of both worlds if  she plays her cards right!

Some bonds are just not meant to be...

...some bonds are meant to be. My Deirdra/Mops bond was one like that, and it did break up my previous Lint-Mops bond to a degree.

In the end the rabbits just shift their relationships around. Herds are flexible entities.

I would like to bond Lola to Neigey

Lint&Neigey

They're so beautiful, I get jealous when I see your photos!

Monday Boys Night:

Second verse, same as the first.

Popped Daisy (dutch) in with Toby. Nothing. Sat next to each other just like I set them down, not looking at each other. Petted them for a few mintutes then just sat on the bed beside them.

After a few minutes they looked each other over and settled back down with Daisy snuggled in toward the back of Toby. They sat like that for an entire half hour of Pickers.

The second half they got a bit more active sitting up and looking around, moving around the cube a bit, but staying together. I saw Toby lick Daisy's head twice.  Daisy's doing his trademark frozen pose below. He had short periods of doing that, then snapping back with us. I sometimes wonder if he has absence seizures....

The last 10 minutes of the hour, Toby started grooming himself all over, then Daisy started and they groomed leaning on each other. You can't see it because Toby's so black, but he's washing his face.

I put some greens in and fed them a few raisins, no competition at all, each waited his turn. When Toby dropped his because his teeth are a bit long, Daisy just sat there and didn't try to steal it.

Again, baffled and totally pleased. To think that I've been through such hoops to make sure they never got together, they must really laugh at me in bunny.


As a sidenote, after I put Daisy back with Lola, I closed but didn't latch the door because I was coming right back with greens. Charlie was out and about and he jumped up on the box they use to get in and out of the condos, pulled the door open and hopped right in. I heard all the running and found Charlie laying out inside the little wooden box in the condo that doubles as Daisy's hidey box and a step up to the upper floor. Daisy and Lola were on the box looking like people who are scared of a mouse! They all ran together when I reached for Charlie, but there was no fighting.

Silly bunnies.

What do you think of the boys? They were much more laid back and relaxed than the girls.
 

Thanks for all the encouragement!

The bunny room is 12'x18', with nic condos lining three walls. The short free wall has boxes so they can climb up and look out the window, a really big hay box and carpet and rugs to run on. I didn't like them getting under the condos and peeing so I blocked them but put the concrete tubes running through them, they can run under the condos but only through the tubes and they love it.

I guess when the day comes to put them all together I need to totally change the room? I know I'll dismantle the condos, except for the piggies and Charlie. Should I start over with strange new rugs and toys? Now that I've been paying attention to the details, they are only vicious about the condos, if someone comes close to them. Will making them totally disappear and putting several hidey boxes around the room take care of most of this maybe? I know for piggies you need to have one more box than you do pigs.

I am really excited about how this is going. I may try a Lola/Toby tonight and see what happens. He's at the vet getting his teeth done today so he'll be in a mellow mood after the girls spoil him all day.

This is what the room looked like back when I first got Simba, it's even more crowded with condos now!