Here are the bunnies getting bonded:

Ms. Rabbit the spayed, 1 year old, female agouti and Mr. Bunny the neutered, 2.5 year old, male REW

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Disturbing discovery of the day: Mr. Bunny loves being with humans...and loves bearing his teeth and claws with other bunnies!

Yesterday, I let the bunnies sniff eachother through cage bars. They seemed to like eachother, although Mr. Bunny seemed a little afraid of Ms. Rabbit.

Today, I brought Ms. Rabbit into Mr. Bunny's room in my arms. I was holding her the whole time. He seemed fine with her for a little while - he sniffed her and almost groomed her. But then, he put his head down and wanted licking. I pet him a little so that he wouldn't be disappointed. He nipped me pretty hard on my finger - thinking I was Ms. Rabbit - and hopped away.

A few minutes later, I carried Mr. Bunny into Ms. Rabbit's room. Ms. Rabbit didn't seem to mind him being there. After a few minutes, she came over to sniff Mr. Bunny. Mr. Bunny was still pissed from earlier. He lunged at her, but since he was in my arms, he couldn't get her. He started struggling in my arms. She got scared and nipped me gently on the leg.

Mr. Bunny seems to want the blood.

Later today or tomorrow, I'm thinking of trying a serious bonding session in a neutral room. Any suggestions?

Bonding session #1 went surprisingly well! I had the two bunnies in a giant blue bucket that had a thin layer of hay in the bottom. They were in a neutral room.

When I first put Mr. Bunny in the bucket with Ms. Rabbit, Ms. Rabbit tried to bite him. Mr. Bunny got scared and tried to bite back. I broke up the fight and started petting them. They were both very scared and just stared at eachother for the first few minutes. Eventually, Ms. Rabbit decided to try snuggling closer to Mr. Bunny. They got closer and closer until the end of the session, when they were happily snuggling with eachother. I decided to end the session then, on a very positive note.

Bonding session #2 went fairly well. When I first put Mr. Bunny in the big bucket with Ms. Rabbit, Ms. Rabbit got scared and tried biting Mr. Bunny. Mr. Bunny was spooked and started running in circles. I quickly broke up the fight (getting a bunch of nasty bites on my hand in the process...remind me to wear gloves!). After a few minutes, they started getting closer and closer to eachother and then snuggled like this for a long time:

Mr. Bunny started sniffing her back. He gave her a few licks, which surprised me:

After a while, Mr. Bunny started sniffing her butt. He looked like he was considering either biting her tail or humping her. Ms. Rabbit decided she had had enough and tried biting his face. He jumped back, and they started running in circles again. I broke up the fight again. They decided they wanted nothing to do with eachother:

I shook the bucket for a while to get them to get closer. Eventually, they got closer, and Mr. Bunny rested his head on her back:

I ran and got some raisins while they were like that. At this point, Mr. Bunny was very relaxed. He was watching me get the raisins and grooming himself. Ms. Rabbit, on the other hand, was very tense. She was breathing heavily, and her body language signalled that she was ready to bite at any moment.

I smeared some raisins on Ms. Rabbit's head so that Mr. Bunny would groom her. After a minute or so, he sniffed her head and started licking off the raisins. She very much enoyed that, and put her head down to get more licks. I decided to end the session then, on a good note.

Bonding session #3 was rather uneventful. As usual, when I put Mr. Bunny is the big bucket with Ms. Rabbit, Ms. Rabbit attacked him, and Mr. Bunny attacked back. I broke up the fight immediately. As usual, the bunnies gradually moved closer to eachother until they were in this position:

About 5 or 6 minutes later, they were still snuggling...

After a few more minutes of that, I smeared some raisin goop on both of their heads to get them moving. I encouraged Mr. Bunny to sniff Ms. Rabbit's head. He groomed her for a few seconds, which she enjoyed. After that, he started sniffing around the bottom of the bucket:

While he was doing that, Ms. Rabbit suddenly moved her head to see what he was doing. Mr. Bunny got scared and nipped her belly. I broke them up before another fight could break out. After just a few seconds, Mr. Bunny started sniffing her paws again:

Unfortunately, Ms. Rabbit thought that he was requesting to be groomed. She started attacking him, and it quickly turned into a fight. I broke up the fight again.

After a minute or two, Mr. Bunny decided that it would be fine to get back to snuggling. Ms. Rabbit, on the other hand, was ready to nip at any moment:

After that, I decided to end the session on a fairly positive note.
 

After the session, I decided to try out a trick that I was reading about yesterday. I put Mr. Bunny in Ms. Rabbit's room and Ms. Rabbit in Mr. Bunny's room.

Mr. Bunny was initially very confused as to why he was in a different room. He looked around for a few minutes until he noticed Ms. Rabbit on the other side of the cage bars. He stood on his hind legs for a few minutes, nervously watching Ms. Rabbit hop around his room. After a few minutes, he went around chinning (scent marking) every poop that Ms. Rabbit had left outside of the litterbox. He left a few of his own poops next to them. He then went around and chinned everywhere Ms. Rabbit likes to hang out.

Ms. Rabbit was very relaxed in Mr. Bunny's room. She played with his toys for a while and investigated his cardboard boxes. She ran from one side to the other side of the room as fast as her little legs would take her (I have a feeling that she'll love being in that room once they bond!). She went into Mr. Bunny's cage, ate some of his hay, sniffed his litterbox and then deposited some pee in his litterbox, all while he was watching.

Ms. Rabbit was a little upset that her room had been scent marked by another bunny, but other than that, neither rabbit seemed to mind the other bunny's smell.

But anyway...does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do next? Maybe I'm jumping the gun a tiny bit, but they aren't making much progress with stress bonding in the big bucket. I'm a little worried about possibly trying a slightly larger space, since sudden movements by either rabbit usually cause a fight to break out.

You're going great Fluffy, keep up the good work! Bathtub would be a good move. Maybe even do a walk around with them in the bucket first, then put them in the tub.  

 Maybe I'm jumping the gun a tiny bit, but they aren't making much progress with stress bonding in the big bucket.

It mightn't look like much progress but there is something happening. They're learning to trust one another and this is vital to success.

Bonding session #4 was fairly uneventful, but overall, quite good. I decided to do one last session in the bucket and then move them to a neutral hallway space for a bonding session tonight or tomorrow.

For once, they actually didn't have a fight at the start of the bonding session - in fact, although there was nipping, there weren't any two-sided fights. Throughout the session, Ms. Rabbit seemed to be slightly scared. She didn't seem like she wanted to nip Mr. Bunny. She stayed in the same position almost the whole time.

Mr. Bunny, on the other hand, was extremely active. He was constantly trying to nip Ms. Rabbit. He was climbing all over her, watching the humans, eating hay, trying to hop out, etc.

When I started the session, Mr. Bunny was repeatedly sniffing her butt and then trying to nip her:

After that, I grabbed Mr. Bunny and turned him around so that they were facing the same direction. They put their heads together while I pet them, and they both started snuggling. Unfortunately, while I was grabbing my phone to take a pic, Mr. Bunny nipped Ms. Rabbit on the face. I pulled them apart before she could nip back.

After a few minutes, they got a little closer to eachother again. Mr. Bunny tried to nip Ms. Rabbit again:

A few minutes passed. I took them for a little ride in the big bucket to get them moving. Both of them ignored eachother and tried to get out. Mr. Bunny crawled all over Ms. Rabbit:

I then put Mr. Bunny on top of Ms. Rabbit to see what he would do. He snuggled with her and licked her ears for a second, but right as I took this pic, he went down and nipped her face:

After a minute or two, I put Ms. Rabbit on top of Mr. Bunny. Mr. Bunny seemed to enjoy it, but Ms. Rabbit was unsure of what to do:

After that, they snuggled together for a few minutes. I decided to end the session then, since they seemed pretty happy.

I put Mr. Bunny in Ms. Rabbit's room and Ms. Rabbit in Mr. Bunny's room again.

Mr. Bunny explored her whole room. He chinned all of her favorite boxes and all the fresh poops she had left around.

Ms. Rabbit was very curious, like last time. She hopped all around Mr. Bunny's room and played with his toys. She didn't pee this time, but she chinned his cage like crazy.

I'll be doing a bonding session in a blocked off section of the downstairs hallway (totally neutral) tonight. They'll be eating together, so hopefully that'll stop the fighting a little. I'll post how it goes. 

Bonding session #5 went pretty badly. I put them in a blocked off section of a neutral hallway - the space was just a little bigger than the bucket. At first, they were doing pretty well - Mr. Bunny groomed Ms. Rabbit a little and both of them ate pellets. Ms. Rabbit tried attacking Mr. Bunny a few times, but those attacks were blocked with a broom. It all went bad when Mr. Bunny started sniffing Ms. Rabbit's belly.

Ms. Rabbit freaked out and nipped Mr. Bunny. Both bunnies started grunting loudly. I broke up the fight immediately. I tried petting them to calm them down. It seemed to be working until Mr. Bunny tried sniffing her again. Ms. Rabbit turned around and bit Mr. Bunny. Mr. Bunny started violently attacking Ms. Rabbit. I was on the floor with them, so I also got my share of really bad bites from bunnies attaching themselves to my legs (fortunately, though, neither rabbit was hurt - although a lot of fur was pulled out!). I started freaking out because they were both attached to eachother with their teeth and I almost couldn't seperate them. I immediately put both bunnies back in their rooms. Ms. Rabbit was scared to death from it all (I think she took the brunt of it), but Mr. Bunny was just sleepy.

I think I've determined what starts fights between the two. Mr. Bunny sniffs Ms. Rabbit's belly or tail. Ms. Rabbit gets freaked out by it and gives him a small nip to tell him that she's had enough. Mr. Bunny thinks that she's trying to fight and starts to attack her.

What should I do now? Could the bonding process be delayed by today's fight? Is fighting like this normal for bunnies?

Bonding session #6 went better than I thought it would. I decided to use the blue bucket again. I kept it really short - less than 10 minutes (probably more like 5).

When I first put the bunnies together, Ms. Rabbit was very scared and decided to keep her distance from Mr. Bunny. Mr. Bunny had just gotten his medicine, so he was a mix of tired and pissed off:

I shook the bucket for a while to get them moving. Mr. Bunny slowly moved his nose close to Ms. Rabbit's belly, but fortunately, I caught him in time and prevented a fight:

I shook the bucket a little more. Both bunnies tried to hop out at once, which was cute to watch. The bunnies settled down and snuggled together:

After petting them for a minute or so, I decided to end the session, figuring that was about as good as it would get.

They visited eachother's rooms after the session. Mr. Bunny chinned some of Ms. Rabbit's boxes, but besides that, the bunnies didn't seem quite as territorial as they were last time.

Tonight, something very, very unexpected happened...

When I went down to feed the bunnies a little while ago, I noticed that Mr. Bunny didn't rush up to see me. He had tufts of fur half-pulled out all over his body. While I was examining him, I noticed a little moving brown spot in the corner of my eye. Ms. Rabbit had gotten into Mr. Bunny's room!

Ms. Rabbit was flopping. She had left a pile of pee and poop next to her. Mr. Bunny was keeping his distance from her. They seemed so peaceful, I fed them their veggies together in Mr. Bunny's room. For a few minutes, they seemed almost like bonded bunnies.

There was bunny fur, pulled out if huge tufts, scattered around the room. It looks like they had an epic battle all over the room. Although Mr. Bunny has a few small bald spots (not unusual, he has a skin condition) and a couple of very small cuts from the ordeal, neither rabbit seems injured. Ms. Rabbit was limping slightly, but it doesn't seem serious - I suspect that she just caught it on something while she made the 2.5 foot jump up onto her carrier and over the barrier.

The bunnies were still nipping at eachother a little, so I seperated them. Both bunnies seemed slightly shocked and exausted from the whole ordeal, so I figure it happened no more than 15-20 minutes before I fed them.

This encounter showed me two important things:

1. The bunnies might fight, but they won't kill eachother

2. Mr. Bunny isn't as territorial as he was for the first few days that she was here (if he was, she'd be seriously injured/dead)

Needless to say, I'll never be putting her carrier next to the barrier between the rooms again.

What impact do you think this will have on their bonding? What should my next step be for their bonding?

For bonding session #7, all I can say is...

WOW!  And that's in a good way!

Apparently, they settled all of their issues in their giant fight last night.

When I put them in the blue bucket, I was expecting them to fight again. Instead, they sniffed eachother and then laid down and snuggled. For the whole 15-minute session, all they did was snuggle. They seemed incredibly happy to see eachother. Every time one of them changed positions, the other one moved over and snuggled again. Mr. Bunny came close to grooming Ms. Rabbit.They both requested licks a few times, but they seemed to be satisfied with the other bunny just nuzzling their ears. If I didn't know better, I'd think they're long-time bonded bunnies!

After the session, when I put them in eachother's room, the change in their behavior was amazing. There was no more scent marking, and both bunnies were relaxing and binkying.

I know that they still have a ways to go before they can live together, but I certainly wasn't expecting the fight to cause this much progress! I didn't even do anything to get them this far! They did so well today, I'm going to try putting them in the hallway tonight. Hopefully, they'll be just as nice tonight as they were earlier.

These pics explain it all...

hehehe! Has Ms Rabbit put Mr Bunny in his place? That's normally the way it goes before peace reigns.

Bonding session #8 went fairly well. I put the bunnies in a blocked-off section of the hallway. Since my phone is charging, I can't upload the pics I took right now, but I'll edit them in tomorrow.

For the first few minutes, the bunnies had a staring contest. Eventually, both bunnies started exploring the space and ignoring eachother. Mr. Bunny put his ears back (body language for a tense, angry bunny) and tried attacking Ms. Rabbit a few times, but other than that, at least for the first 10 minutes or so, the bunnies weren't fighting.

After a litlle while of that, Ms. Rabbit tried snuggling with Mr. Bunny. Every time that she settled down next to him, he'd play along just until she closed her eyes and then bite her on the face. Fortunately, Ms. Rabbit no longer seems to want to have fights, but Mr. Bunny did almost trigger a big fight at one point - which I broke up immediately.

Eventually, I seperated the bunnies after they had laid together for a minute to get head pets.

I did another bonding session about 6 or 7 hours later. They were in the blue bucket this time, and there was a loud TV nearby. Bonding session #9 showed me that the fight's effects seem to have worn off for Mr. Bunny, but caused Ms. Rabbit to continue to really love him. The whole time they were together, Mr. Bunny was just waiting for Ms. Rabbit to snuggle next to her, and then as soon as she was vulnerable and had her eyes closed, he attacked her. I seperated them after about 10 minutes.

The bunnies have also been nipping each other through the bars of the cage all day (I found a few cuts on Ms. Rabbit's face), so even though they wanted to sleep next to eachother yesterday, I had to mostly block them from touching noses today.

The bunnies have also been nipping each other through the bars of the cage all day (I found a few cuts on Ms. Rabbit's face), so even though they wanted to sleep next to eachother yesterday, I had to mostly block them from touching noses today.

Sorry about the dark pics.

Bonding session #11 went quite well. This time, after a quick bucket session, I gave them most of the neutral hallway to hop around in. They seem to do pretty well in a slightly larger space.

When I first put them in the hallway together, they both just explored:

After a few minutes of that, they hopped next to eachother and had a staring contest:

I stopped Mr. Bunny from getting too close to her belly/paws/tail a few times. I think he's starting to get the idea, since he didn't keep coming back to try sniffing her belly again like he used to.

Ms. Rabbit kept requesting licks. Fortunately, she was satisfied by some petting from the human:

After a little while, Mr. Bunny hopped away and explored the room again:

Ms. Rabbit took advantage Mr. Bunny turning his back to her. She put her ears back and started charging at him full-speed. Fortunately, I was able to catch her before she could reach him. I put her back in the center of the room:

I pet Ms. Rabbit for a few minutes while Mr. Bunny hopped around the room. After a while, Mr. Bunny hopped over. The two bunnies started touching noses. I was worried Mr. Bunny would bite Ms. Rabbit , but they seemed to be happy just rubbing noses. They laid next to eachother and took a quick nap:

Both bunnies started grooming themselves, before laying down and taking another nap:

After a couple of minutes, I decided to end the session - on a positive note.

They've definitely made progress over the last few days. They used to have a huge fight any time I put them in a space any larger than the bucket.

Just realized that I never posted about yesterday's session.

Bonding session #12 went well. It was about a 45 minute session. The bunnies were in the hallway. They spent the first few minutes exploring the room. After that, they approached eachother and relaxed with their noses touching. Eventually, they hopped away from eachother. Mr. Bunny seemed particularly interested in Ms. Rabbit's butt, and I had to keep him from sniffing it a few times. Ms. Rabbit hid in the box for about 10 minutes. She wandered off into the bathroom a few times. The rest of the session was about the same. I eventually seperated them after they had been sleeping next to eachother for about 5 minutes.

Bonding session #13 went alright. The session lasted about 25 minutes. The bunnies were in the hallway.

As usual, they spent the first few minutes exploring the room:

After a few minutes, the bunnies put their heads down with their noses touching, as usual:

I gently pet Ms. Rabbit on the head and covered her eyes, while letting Mr. Bunny sniff her over. He carefully sniffed her nose, and then gave her some nibbly grooms on the forehead. He then hopped away.

Ms. Rabbit hopped off and started to wander into the bathroom:

Mr. Bunny chased her, and I barely managed to keep a fight from breaking out. Ms. Rabbit got scared and went in the bathroom, where she thumped like crazy.

After the bunnies calmed down a little, Ms. Rabbit hopped over to Mr. Bunny and they sat with noses almost touching again:

This time, I pet Mr. Bunny and covered his eyes to see what Ms. Rabbit would do. Ms. Rabbit decided that it would be a great opportunity to bite Mr. Bunny (hard!) on the nose. The bunnies both started freaking out and grunting. They had already started fighting before I could grab the broom. Fortunately, I managed to break it up before anybun got hurt.

Mr. Bunny groomed himself and looked pissed off for awhile before finally just giving up and eating pellets. Ms. Rabbit hid in her box and thumped:

Mr. Bunny stared at the box and waited for Ms. Rabbit to come out:

Eventually, he gave up and flopped:

Ms. Rabbit decided to take advantage of that. She hopped out of her box and tried to nip him on the butt. He ran away from her, and she chased after him, constantly trying to give him a nice, hard bite. Both bunnies seemed exausted and scared, so I decided to seperate them then.

They spent the afternoon in eachother's rooms. They both coated their new rooms with pee and poop, but other than that, they did quite well.