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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 Behavioural changes when bonding

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    • Annnabomb
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        I’m just posting this purely as I’d searched the web, rabbit forums and books, and asked anyone i knew who had a clue about bunnies what to do and I found my answer, so this may help.

        Just gonna paint a quick picture for you..

        Lonely house bunny….

        I had tony, a neutered male grey dwarf lop for 3 years, a rescue rabbit from some hideous rabbit ignorant people. Happily litter trained, healthy and hopping about our house. It became apparent that due to my boyfriend getting a job away and me working all day that despite countless toys and affection when we were present, he may have been getting lonely.I looked into bonding and introducing another rabbit, long before we decided to. After reading countless articles and opinions, the general consensus seemed to be to get a female. Having had a French Lop before, I knew what they were like and so visited a local breeder. We then brought home Daisy, a 3 month old little(ish) black beauty.

        Getting a companion….

         Now, the adventure began.. Having read to keep them in separate cages, Tony was used to being free running all the time, so I wasn’t going to penalise him and coup him up. I bought the biggest dog crate I could find and placed it in our lounge, where Tony spent most of his time (I don’t know whether this was the right or wrong thing to do, but i figured they could learn each other’s smells without actually being free together). The sniffed each other and showed no signs of aggression and daisy quickly learnt how to use her litter tray and after a week, I decided to try them together, fully supervised on neutral ground, as recommended we tried for about 20 mins a time, every few days, trying to finish each session on a positive, non-aggressive/territorial note. We tried the bath, but they just lay down at opposite ends, and a neutral room but both seemed for the first few sessions, completely unswayed by the other.

        Slow progress…

        As daisy grew bigger, I decided to separate the two as she need a room of her own so she could run around all the time, so we have a partially divided lounge/diner which i barricaded half way, so they were totally separate (bar sessions) but could still hear and smell the other. As she got older, nearing the age she could get neutered, (i believe we did it at 6 months).. she became notoriously more hormonal and started growling and lunging for Tony during the meetings. Not wanting to permanently taint their relationship with her female pubescent angst, I decided no more meeting until after she had been done. 

        Attack…

        Then one fateful day, I’d gone out to buy my boyfriend a McDonalds, (last one ever!) leaving him with Tony and Daisy in their separate rooms. However, as he was watching telly, he didn’t notice the door was open and boom!.. Tony and Daisy are in together literally trying to kill each other. I came back after about 5 minutes, saw my boyfriends horrified face, and trumped it. He’d managed to separate them but Tony had already been cut badly on his underside. It was a bank holiday Saturday and he needed urgent attention. The vet bill totalled £350. No more bonding until she had been done, and the hormones were out of her system.

        Feeling despondent..

        Christmas came and went, Daisy had settled and was adorable and cuddly (to humans) but they were equally wary of each other during sessions. I have to admit, these weren’t ever day, but at least once a week. Tony was getting aggressive now towards Daisy and lunging at her so sessions were becoming more tiring than productive. Daisy was pretty massive by now and desperately constantly scratching at the room divider I had separated them by. I was getting totally demoralised by the whole situation, Tony had no friend, had been really wounded and now daisy was getting sad as she was alone too during the day. I honestly thought we were gonna have to give up and sell her, but I’d bonded with her and was very against the idea.

        2nd attack..

        Coming home from work one day to find them in the same room, nearly give me a heart attack. Daisy had jumped on to a dining room chair, hopped onto the dining table, jumped over the barricade, onto the sofa and into the lounge with Tony. What a nightmare, Black fur was everywhere, but not much grey this time.. had Tony regrown his balls and fought back?! Yes, he had, but he still had the injuries so it was back to the vet.

        SNAKE VENOM??!!!???

        The vet stitched him up..again.. and Tony returned home, my wallet again a little lighter. The second he jumped out of the carry box he bolted out of the door and ran round and attacked a very unsuspecting Daisy. There was no bonding that week. I took him back to have his stitches out and the vet asked me what mood I thought Tony was in and why he was attacking Daisy. I have no idea what ‘mood’ he was in and the vet could see I thought it was a pretty daft question. I said ‘Jealous? Resentful?’, I went with ‘Jealous’. The vet then ran out the back and came back with a dark glass bottle. 

        ‘Homeopathy. Give him 2ml for 5 days, all will then be well.’

        Now, wanting the best for Tony I quite rightly asked what it was.

        ‘Snake Venom. Don’t ask me how it works, it’s homeopathy.”

        Right I thought, I’m not giving my re-injured stroppy rabbit snake venom without researching. So I went home and looked up ‘Lachesis’. It recommended prescription for hormonal women..it was snake venom and i was more than dubious.

        I administered it and had to keep them in the same room to see if it would work. The first night i stayed on the sofa in the lounge with them to ensure no fighting. Tony literally had his back to daisy and she was now terrified of him. The second day went fine, then Monday, I had to work and my boyfriend was away. I got off early and arrived back home about 2.30pm is. I kid you not, they were lying on the same rug, no fighting or anything. So i hesitantly moved her litter tray into the lounge and her food as there was no way they were gonna share food bowls. 

        SUCCESSSS!!!!!

        5 days in, the course complete, Daisy and Tony are living happily together. A week later, they’re sharing food bowls, Tony is more affectionate and animated than he’s been in months, they’re lying together follow each other everywhere. 

        I wrote this because I looked over our lounge table, barely 3 weeks after that Homeopathic remedy and I just caught Tony grooming Daisy’s head. Cannot believe it.

        So if you’ve tried everything, try this.. or at least look into it. I was a sceptic, I still am as I don’t understand it but if it’s made them happy, then so am i

        The only thing is now, Daisy has discovered sofas and the fact she now likes chewing them…


      • HerculesandMolasses
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          I did not know that snake venom could do that.

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      Forum BONDING Behavioural changes when bonding