Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

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.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

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.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BONDING First bonding experience, looking for advice!

Viewing 6 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • JennyL
      Participant
      20 posts Send Private Message

        Hi there, I’ve been trying my hand at bonding my two rabbits (info to follow shortly), and I feel like I’m making a complete mess of the experience. I read the bonding information from the sticky topic in this forum, as well as a few other general guides online, but I still feel as if I’m kind of stumbling around in the dark.

        The two rabbits I’m attempting to bond are Jinglebell (roughly 8-9 months old male flemish giant, 9 lbs and still growing) and Jolie (female fluffy little lop mix, 3.5 lbs, best guess for age is 1.5-2 years). Both are altered, Jingle having been neutered in November, and Jolie having been spayed in early January. I started introducing them to each other face to face (after having their cages in the same room for the past month or so) as soon as Jolie seemed to have healed from her operation. I wasn’t worried about her hormones because she seems to be a very timid and submissive rabbit.

        My bonding sessions take place in my bathroom, neutral territory for both of them. I’ve just been letting them roam around on the floor, but I see a few posts on here mentioning putting a litter box in with them- is that something I should be doing? 

        My issues stem from Jinglebell being an aggressive little bully. He’s never shown any signs of being aggressive or territorial towards me or my cat, but he just loves to lunge and chase Jolie. She’s terrified of him by this point. So far I’ve been breaking up their “fights” (which mostly consist of him trying to bite her and her running for dear life) after the first few seconds, but I’ve read some posts on here saying I should just let them have it out. Is this correct? I’m very confused, some articles say not to let them fight at all, some say let them fight.

        They will sometimes huddle against each other in the bathroom, which I count as a small victory. I tried a bit of stress bonding, putting them both in a good sized carrier and then sticking them on top of my dryer, and they stuck close to each other but as soon as I got them back into their regular bonding sessions Jingle went right back to biting.

        Also there’s one other thing I’m not sure if I should be concerned about- mounting. Namely, there’s been none of it at all. Jinglebell has never showed the slightest interest in mounting anything ever, even before he was neutered, and he hasn’t attempted it once to assert his dominance. I’ve seen him try and stick his head out for grooming once or twice, but Jolie was too busy cowering in fear to be very affectionate. 

        All in all, if you could give me as many tips/tricks/ect that are relevant to my situation, please do. I’d also love some concrete time amounts for how long and often I should be putting them in the bathroom, once again I see a lot of variations on the articles and blogs I’ve been reading.


      • Peri and Poe
        Participant
        52 posts Send Private Message

          Here are a couple of things we learnt from bonding our rabbits:
          -The Jam trick might be effective in getting the rabbits to groom each other (just smear a little jam/honey/banana on their forehead so hopefully they get used to licking each other)
          -The smooshing technique (you can use a blanket/towel for this, which we personally found helpful), smoosh the rabbits togethor in a confined area side by side and then groom them both togethor, switching you hands once in a while to mix their scents and get them comfortable with each other. Just watch out for when the rabbits get angsty, just let them go, they’ll let you know when they’ve had enough.
          -Try to indirectly break up their fights rather than getting involved yourself-i used a whistle everytime one of the rabbits nipped. You could also use a water spray (this works well to get them distracted with grooming themselves). Or any loud noise really which should distract them.
          -Other stressfull situations like leaving the vacuum on.
          -If the fight need direct intervention (the rabbits carry on chasing/nipping despire other indirect attempts to stop them) I like to use a large dustpan and block them from each other for a while
          -Don’t seperate when they’re having little fights only if it gets serious (rabbit are locked on to each other)
          -Always end on a good note, perhaps sharing a treat (make sure there is plenty so rabbits do not get possesssive or food agressive)
          -If the short sessions don’t seem to be helping, you might consider to take th plunge and do marathon bonding. Simply put the rabbits in a neutral area in a pen or cage of some sort (not too big) and do not seperate. They’ll need to be supervised the first 24-48 hours but afterwards i find the rabbits slowly start to calm down and get used to each other (It took us 6-7 days to see signs of real affection and bonding so don’t get discouraged if you choose this method)

          To answer your other questions
          -Litterbox aren’t really required for short session and actually some rabbits can get territorial over it, if that happens remove the litterbox.
          -Our rabbits barely showed any mounting (although initially our male rabbit did). I wouldn’t worry too much about it, they’ll find some other way to assert dominance.
          -The sessions really depend on you and the rabbits (our shorter sessions were 20min whilst longer sessions could go for 4+hours) It really does depend on the rabbits though, if you start seeing them getting frustrated i would end the sessions earlier, at the same time if the sessions seem to be going well, you could extend it.


        • JennyL
          Participant
          20 posts Send Private Message

            Thanks a bunch. I moved their bonding area to the upstairs bathroom (I thought it would be best starting them out in the downstairs bathroom, despite there not being a bath tub, but they didn’t seem to be making progress) and hopefully having them in the close proximity that the bath tub allows will do them some good. I tried putting a bit of jam on Jolie’s head, but Jinglebell wasn’t interested in it at all. Jolie just cowered in the corner for most of the session, but Jinglebell didn’t attempt to bite her until 20 minutes in or so. I count it as progress.

            So to clarify, I should -definitely- let them try and hash it out on their own? On one hand I’m worried because Jolie is such a timid girl, that she’ll be scarred for life and be unable to bond with Jingle in the future if he keeps doing this. I’m also not clear on where the stopping point should be. Do you mean locked on as in how some dogs will clamp their jaws around the neck of the animal they’re attacking? I don’t think Jinglebell has drawn any blood yet, but he’s huge. And Jolie is tiny. So him actually hurting her is another worry I have.


          • Peri and Poe
            Participant
            52 posts Send Private Message

              All in all, is sounds like the bonding is progressing quite well (our rabbits still were showing signs of aggression even in the eighth bonding session so the fact that your Jingle bell doesn’t nip that frequently is very good).

              About the jam, our Peri refused to lick it off Poe’s head (i don’t think she likes Jam that much)-she did however seem much more keen when we tried grape juice. You could try experimenting with other food to see if one of them like it. Just to clarify, definitely put the food on the dominant rabbits head as they’re less inclined to do the grooming themselves.-Peri would get very offended when Poe asked for grooming and it would lead to her nipping his butt.

              About the fights, this is how we decide whether to interfere or not. Nipping is perfectly fine-it doesn’t harm either of the rabbits. Trust me, we used to worry about it constantly cause our girl just would not stop nipping but even though they’re bonded now, she still nips him from time to time (usually his fault) but straight afterwards she would be cuddling or grooming him. We’ve had many sessions and not once did the rabbits draw blood (i think it’s pretty unlikely that Jinglebell would hurt Jolie, especially if he hasn’t done so by now)
              The only time you should intervene is:
              1) If both rabbits are fighting head on
              2) If they are circling each other
              3) If one rabbit is chasing the other agressively
              If they have a little scuffle but they go there seperate ways, it’s best to just leave it at that with no intervention.

              ps i wouldn’t worry too much about the size difference, we were bonding our baby male with our 2 year old feisty female and despite her being a bit of bully/diva and twice his size, there was no serious issue.


            • JennyL
              Participant
              20 posts Send Private Message

                Thank you very much. I’m about to put them together again, hoping for a good session.

                And do clarify, he -does- chase her every once in a while. But I think it’s because she won’t stay in one place if he makes the slightest aggressive move towards her, she just bolts. She’s the most terrified little animal I’ve ever met. She’s only just now letting me pet her without freaking out, and I’ve had her for close to a month.

                Would peanut butter be a no-no for head licking? I’m trying to think of substances that my rabbits might like to eat that I could actually smear on them, but I feel like I’ve read somewhere that nuts were a no-go. And it’s good to know that I should only do it to the dominant rabbit, too- I had put it on the submissive one’s head, thinking that if he started licking her she’d calm down.


              • Peri and Poe
                Participant
                52 posts Send Private Message

                  Chasing is perfectly fine as long as it’s a short burst chase and not one rabbit constantly pursuing one that is trying to get away-if you notice him starting to chase her perhaps spray him with a little water.
                  Peanut butter should be okay, just make sure it’s not too sticky (maybe add some water) and don’t push into the fur, just at the tip.
                  As for the nervousness, that’s something we experienced as well. All i can say is that the more sessions you do then gradually your girl bun should come out of her shell more-they need to earn each others trust first.
                  You could try what we did, which helped us out in allowing our bunnies to get used to each other. We put them in a really small storage box, just big enough to fit them comfortably in. This completely eliminated chasing, although there was nipping but this could be avoided by an oven glove between them. We put a blanket/towel around them and started petting them both (smoosh technique). Gradually Poe started getting more confident around Peri and even started grooming Peri so it may work for you.

                  Good luck and let us know how the sessions go!


                • JennyL
                  Participant
                  20 posts Send Private Message

                    Thanks again! Jinglebell normally only starts chasing her and biting her a decent way into the session, when he gets bored/more confident in the territory. Jolie didn’t appear interested in the peanut butter at all, unfortunately. I need to get this little lump to start grooming him, there’s been no real signs of affection between them so far, aside from them cowering in the same corner whenever they get too nervous.

                    I did try a bit of smooshing today, just to test the waters. It went really well, I’m going to try it in a box next time and see if I can get them to cuddle more.

                    Image and video hosting by TinyPic

                    I like that storage box idea. I may try that when I’m introducing them together in the room where their cages are kept for the first time.

                    Speaking of introducing them to not neutural territory, how do I know when I should start having them interact somewhere besides the bathroom? I do eventually want to move Jolie into Jinglebell’s cage, as it’s much larger. They’re currently kept in the same room and get floor time in the same area, so I was thinking the next step up might be having them in a large box or something in that room for their sessions. I’m just not 100% clear on how to tell if it’s the right time. If Jingle is still biting her when he gets bored, maybe I should wait.

                Viewing 6 reply threads
                • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                Forum BONDING First bonding experience, looking for advice!