Moved to a larger area..

[KJDez]

 Booker and Mara (both fixed) have been in separate cages beside each other for a few weeks now, even groomed each others’ faces through the play pen barrier! A good sign, right? =]

I began bonding them in the bathtub today which went so well for an hour or so. Lots of grooming and a small amount of cuddling, mostly mounting. She snarfles about it but it happens momentarily. They have never, ever fought! They are now in a semi-neutral area, have been for about 2-3 hours. He tries to mount and she darts away. She will put her head down and he will at times, but only she has groomed him. He hasn’t done a whole lot of grooming her. They eat, binky, lay out in the play area.. only not by each other. No one is being territorial either. 

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is the process going well.. just oober slowly? 

[KJDez]

Mara spent the last five minutes cleaning his head and then he goes to try and she runs away. Playing hard to get much?

UPDATE: 8:05PM: they have laid closer to one another, only for a minute.

[tanlover14]

Be careful about moving them to a new area too quickly. You want to cement their bond in each area before moving to the next. For example, in the bath tub they should be able to hang out for a long period of time with no too much aggression. I would leave them in this new area together for bonding sessions and get them to the same point they were in the bath tub before trying anything else.

So far though it sounds like everything is going very well! Funny enough – ignoring each other is a good sign and some bunnies just don’t prefer to lay next to each all the time. Some don’t even prefer it at all. So don’t worry if they’re not laying right next to each other. It’s a good sign that the mounting has not led to any fighting also! Usually it’s a few scuffles before they get that down. It sounds like your girl doesn’t like it but rather than fight the dominance she is accepting but trying to get away which is normal. My “top bunny” sometimes does this and it annoys the others also. But they are bonded. The behavior will most likely decrease as their pecking order becomes more decided. Her grooming him is also a sign of his dominance. And it’s okay if he doesn’t groom her back – some bunnies just don’t – but if she becomes agitated and aggressive about it try putting banana on her head to get him to groom her back. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. (Of course, your bun has to like banana.) Mine like pumpkin, so you could try pumpkin also.

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