Apologies for such a long post, but we are going through the bonding process for the first time and could really use some advice.
We have had a 3 yr old neutered male bunny named Oscar for almost a year now and finally the time was right to get him a bunny friend. We took him on some bunny dates at our local rescue and he did really well with all the bachelorettes. All the rabbits showed many positive signs (grooming themselves and eating in each other’s presence, polite sniffing etc) but not love at first sight. The shelter staff believed that any of the matches could work, but if they had to choose they would recommend the 2-3 yr old lop named Snickers. So we decided to bring her home and give her a try.
A little background on Snickers: She came from a house with 2 kids who really loved her but sadly had to rehome her due to allergies. Upon adoption she had recently recovered from a terrible ear infection that left her partially paralyzed on the right side of her face. Despite her ordeal she is very sweet and friendly and does not appear to be inhibited by her paralysis. As far as we know she can still see out of her eye and has started to blink regularly so we are hopeful that she will regain some feeling in her face.
The first few bonding sessions in the bathtub went fairly well. Oscar was very relaxed and mostly ignored Snickers but she held completely still. We tried feeding them greens in the tub and rubbing banana on each others heads. They both ate their dinners and licked the banana off the other rabbit’s head. So far so good.
Then we made a mistake on day 5 and tried another small neutral area, the walk-in closet in the bedroom. Both tried to mount one another but neither one wanted to submit. Then Snickers froze up, Oscar approached cautiously and she snapped and lunged at him. She was going for blood. We had to restrain her to stop the chasing and then put them back in their cages.
It seems that while Oscar is very eager and interested in her (he has tried to groom her and seemed very comfortable around her until this fight). Now he is terrified of her and is starting to retaliate. He cannot move without her flinching/lunging/nipping at him. He has started thumping and trying to climb out of the tub to get away from her. We are worried that her recent illness is causing her fear and aggression or that they are simply not as compatible as we thought. She has been very friendly with me (snuggling on the couch, buzzing at me and grooming my face) already but is only fearful and hostile towards Oscar :/
So far the methods we have tried are:
- pieces of cloth with the other rabbit’s scent (male rabbit just sniffed, female peed on it)
- smooshing them together in the tub while petting them
- rubbing banana on the heads
- feeding them their greens in the tub
- smooshing and petting them together in the tub while we run the vacuum
- car rides together (seems to make things worse–Snickers isn’t afraid of the car but Oscar is)
They also live in separate NIC cages a few inches away from each other. Lots of territorial pooping the first few days but that has improved. It has been just over a week since we brought her home.
Any advice would be very appreciated!