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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum BONDING another Bonding help thread :s

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    • MegaPixel
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        First of all, I’m sorry for posting another thread like this but I need help.

        Allright so just as information, I have read a lot of topics and article on various websites including Binky Bunny for the last month and after each sessions I try to read some article again and I catch some things I could do differently and some addition we could implement in the bonding process. It is our first bonding experience and I feel pretty ignorant when I try some bonding experience even if I have read on the subject for the last month or so.

        We recently adopted a neutered bunny (2 years old) a week and a half ago (Sept. 27th). He is pretty calm all the time and easy to pet.

        We are planning to bond him with our 7 months old spayed female. (i presented her as a male couple months ago but turns out he is a she )

        We have started swapping toys a couple days after he came into our house.

        We did a first date in the bathtub in a NIC meeting cage that I made, about 1 cube and a half each but with an empty space in the middle of approximately 2 inches. (3 cubes long). They were curious but as it is our first time bonding bunnies, I tried reading the body language but I saw nothing in particular, maybe grooming demands but it was very subtle.

        The second time we did the same exercise, they both tried to did in direction of the other rabbit and the female tried to mark the place.

        Both times we ended on a good note and we try to give a treat before putting them back in their cages. (He is not a good eater in public, I don’t know why, also he has some different eating schedule. He eats late in the evening or when we go to bed, or simply when we are not around.)

        Here is the part that is getting interesting, tonight, we tried the first real date (maybe too soon I’m afraid). We put them in the bathroom, I sat in the middle. They tried to fight for the first 5minutes and I kept separating them because they were pretty aggressive, pulling fur and fighting a lot. I decided to keep them apart even if they tried to cross on the other side because I thought it was enough fighting for one date. Maybe they did not have enough time to let their aggressivity on the toys that I swapped, but they did not seem to be aggressive on the toys… the female was trying to mark her side but they finally laid in their respective corners. I offered them a treat, the female ate it as usual but the male don’t seem to care less for treat when offered. He started to groom himself so we let him finished before ending the session. That was good enough to end it on this note as I was too scared to let them be close to one another again.

        It might be just over protective from my part and from what I have read maybe they would have be less aggressive after the first aggressions but I did not want to let them go for another round.

        Any thoughts on where to go from here?

        feel free to ask for any clarifications and thanks in advance for any help/comments. 


      • MoveDiagonally
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          Can you explain the NIC meeting cage? Maybe post a picture. I’m a bit confused about what it is and how it’s been used.


        • MegaPixel
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          43 posts Send Private Message

            here are the pictures of the meeting NIC set up. (the meeting did take place in the bathtub though)

                

            I put a top to make sure they don’t jump out of it or jump in the other bun space. there is a space of 1 square in between the 2 areas (they are not able to touch) and the middle is two grids high. (always supervised anyway but just to make sure)

            I put it in the bathtub the first 2 times for them to meet in a neutral territory without touching each other. also, there was a neutral towel under the “cage”.

             

            i was thinking about going forward with a stress bonding but i wanted to keep this strategy for after the yesterday meeting if things would not go as planned… like they did . although i will give them a couple days break and might try some other “scent swap” strategies?

            EDIT: i was thinking of maybe putting the cages beside each other with a gap between the two, would that be a good idea? Pixelle (the young female) is in a Condo which is three floor high and He is still in the cage from the previous owner which is pretty large for a cage like this (i think it is about 50 inches wide). does the height of their habitat would affect their relationship? like if she stays on the top floor of her condo would it intimidate him?

            thank you!!


          • MoveDiagonally
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              Okay, I understand now. Thank you!

              I think stress bonding is going to be really helpful for you. When my rabbits fought upon first introduction I did some laundry basket sessions. Basically, put them both in and if they started to fight or be aggressive I shook it, jostled it, drug it around a bit, had a can with pennies in it that made noise, etc… To stress them. I would do this for about a minute or so and then continue with a normal session in the basket. Repeat whenever aggression or fighting started. This seemed to be pretty effective in the beginning.

              Later in bonding I made NIC cube and used it for stress bonding, car rides, etc… If my rabbits became aggressive during a normal session I would move them into the cube and proceed with stress bonding. After some cube time I would return them to a normal session and repeat the process whenever they fought.
               photo PenMontyCube2_zps7f502cb8.jpg

              As you get more comfortable and get to know their body language you will find that some fights can be broken up by just a little intervention and without stress bonding. Some fights they even work out on their own (which is good!).

              Anyway, those are my tips! Good luck


            • MegaPixel
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                thank you, i will look into the stress bonding method. i might consider the stunt double strategy for them to blow off some steam the days before the next session

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            Forum BONDING another Bonding help thread :s