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Forum BONDING Bonding my bunnies – please help to understand their behaviour!

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    • Chii
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        I am currently trying to bond my 1y 9m old neutered male mini lop Muffin and about 5-7 month old spayed girl Miffy.

        Muffin lived with me since he were a baby and we adopted Miffy about a month ago. Muffin is very gentle, calm and lazy, laid back bunny and Miffy is nervous, very curious and energetic. Muffin is free range, without a cage and Miffy for now lives in a large cage on the shelf.

        Prior to bonding I switched they plush toys and put each other’s fur in their cages. Bunnies saw each other during supervised play time in separate parts of large room.

        Today was our first bonding session. I chose bathroom as nobunny ever been there and placed a towel on a floor and fresh parsley. I put Miffy on the towel and after few moments, added Muffin. I petted them both, wearing big cooking glow. Both bunnies just sat there near to each other and then at some point Miffy started humping Muffin both from the back and from the face. I gently pushed her away from his face as I was scared she will hurt his eyes with paws or hi would bite her in a tummy. Muffin sat there with an unhappy face, but didn’t say much. She digged at him and tried to sniffle (I guess) his tummy and bite him few times in a neck – very fast. Muffin growled and shacked a bit and turned away, but there were no broken fur or blood. Is biting okay?

        So that continued for about 10 mins – bunnies sat closely together and from time to time Miffy were digging and humping Muffin and he just sat there. He was completely ignoring her! After one of the humping I petted them both for few minutes and then took Miffy to her cage and let Muffin back to room. Both received treats.

        Is it a good start or bad? Does this mean that Miffy will be the boss now? Should I try the 10 minute date again every evening now? 

        And also, will bonded bunnies hump? It looked a bit wrong a Muffin looked so upset  

        I will keep this thread as a bonding diary and will update it with news.

        Please advice! Thank you in advance!

        My husband took a picture of bunnies when they were calm. Their first picture together! <3


      • Kokaneeandkahlua
        Participant
        12067 posts Send Private Message

          Good start! If they do well for a few minutes then hump/bite, keep sessions only a few minutes long. Better to have lots of good but short interactions, then a few long ones that are OK.

          Going for a drive, or putting them on top of the drier worries them enough that you’re unlikely to see any humping/biting etc. Your picture looks very promising


        • Chii
          Participant
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            Bonding Day 2: Morning
            Today I made about 15min long date. I setup everything the same. In the beginning I petted them both for some time. When I stopped, Miffy started nipping Muffin and I tried to make loud noise and she backed up. There were were about same amount of humping from her. Then she left him alone and started eating greens and Muffin was washing his face. Unfortunately, this lasted for about 10-15 seconds. Then unexpected happened – during humping, Muffin growled and nipped Miffy and pressed her firmly down. He humped her for a while and she didn’t look stressed and didn’t do anything. He groomed her head and nipped a bit her ears, but she were still.
            Muffin left her alone and she tried to nip him, there were a brief moment of circling and nipping from both sides and I stopped it with noise. Then they sat there for a moment, without doing anything I thought it was a good moment to end session – I petted them again for few moment and took Muffin away. I petted Miffy and returned her into her cage, too.

            After this session both bunnies got treats.

            Questions:
            – Is eating and washing in each others presence a good sign? Even if it was so brief?
            – Is progress so far good?

            About car rides – I was thinking about stress bonding them at some point. Miffy is very nervous and scared of pretty much every noise, but Muffin flops during car rides, loves playing with vacuum cleaner and clearly doesn’t care about the noise. I am not sure how to provide stress environment for them.


          • LBJ10
            Moderator
            16869 posts Send Private Message

              So far, I see nothing wrong with their interactions. First session, Miffy was testing Muffin. She humped him and nipped at him, thinking “hey, I just might get to be top bun here”. Second session, Muffin got a little fed up with her annoying him so decided to put her in her place. I echo KK in trying to keep the first few sessions as upbeat and positive as possible. Keeping them short and ending on a good note are always good ideas. At some point though, they will need to work things out, so some humping and nipping are okay. Just keep a close eye to make sure things don’t escalate or become to stressful. So far, it looks like you’re doing fine. Their reactions sound fine. Ignoring is not a bad thing either.

              Signs that they are relaxed, like grooming are good. It’s better if they groom each other, LOL, but ignoring and grooming themselves is fine too. Honestly, you might not need to do stressing bonding. At least not yet.


            • Chii
              Participant
              30 posts Send Private Message

                LBJ10,
                Thank you for your reply! I will not do the stress bonding, at least yet, I was just thinking about options if such need would arise.
                Nice to hear that their interactions sound about right. I will do another date this evening and will make it shorter.

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            Forum BONDING Bonding my bunnies – please help to understand their behaviour!