Buster and Binky, moving their cages closer

[Smawalsh12]

Buster is our 3 year old holland lop buck who we have had for a year. Binky is our 3 year old holland lop doe who we got roughly a month ago.

Basically they’re both spayed/neutered and we put Binky in a separate cage 6inches a part from each other. They were aware of each other’s presence but were indifferent to each other. Tonight I cleaned their cages and moved their cages right next to each other (they’d done well for 5 days prior to this). They were indifferent to each other again. I crawled in Binky’s cage and removed a small price of wood that separated the cages (about 4 inches tall to prevent stool and bedding from coming out). I had to cut the zip ties that held it to the cage and it caused some noise and commotion. I got out and they smelled each other. Buster reached his nose in her cage and she nipped him. He seemed unphased. I quickly separated the cages. I gave them both some fried strawberries as positive reinforcement of the interaction. Buster continued to try and reach over to her cage (seemed unphased by it and interested). Binky then started clicking her teeth loudly and repositioning her towel in her cage. Buster wasn’t phased by that either ate his hay groomed himself ect. Since then he stuck his nose towards her and it was fine she didn’t do anything. She laid down stretched out really comfortably near busters cage. She continues to lay there (eat groom herself, ect.). Busters eaten stretched out laying down too but in his normal spot. He will go sit near where she is laying but doesn’t lay down just sits there (kind of an awkward place in his cage to lay). They both seem happy and fine (buster wasn’t harmed at all by the nip either and still seems very interested in binky).

What was Binky’s clicking about? How should we proceed from here?

[LBJ10]

Sounds like it could be annoyance. Binky probably isn’t impressed by Buster. His presence is annoying her, but she isn’t being aggressive about it. You’re still dealing with 2 separate territories here. When were you planning on doing formal bonding sessions?

[Smawalsh12]

We did their first formal bonding session today. It seemed to go well. They sat next to each other and Buster appeared to groom her and then mount her which she didn’t mind. It seemed like a positive interaction at one point it looked like she may have started to groom him too. So we’re hopeful for now = )

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