I’ve done a lot of research on the topic and it sounds like it cannot be done BUT after a lot of patience and careful bonding sessions I have had success bonding two unaltered females who were not litter mates. I have a sable point lionhead and a tort lop that I worked with for ~5 months and are now living together in the same pen/area and don’t go anywhere without each other.
I wanted to post this in hopes of helping out any other rabbit owners in similar situations looking for answers. I understand the health and behavioral benefits of spaying BUT where I live in (NW Ohio) there are not any rabbit savvy vets that will do a spay surgery for under $500. The majority of the vets out in my area do not even see rabbits. We live out in the country and sadly the most common reason people in my area even own rabbits is to raise them for meat. I often get confused looks when I tell people I have “pet” rabbits that live inside; it’s just not a common concept out in the country.
The bonding process was pretty arduous, and to be honest, in the beginning I did not think it was going to work out. My lionhead is very opinionated and thinks she’s the boss, so they had to establish a sort of pecking order. Now my lionhead grooms my lop and they are inseparable. They eat together, sleep together, binky together, etc.
I started with bonding dates in a neutral area, in my case in the bathtub. Socks, the lionhead, was initially just interested in displaying dominance and proceeded to chase and mount GR, my lop. I separated them as soon as I noticed it was starting to stress out GR too much (she yelped and ran away)
I did this in the bathtub for about a month . Then I moved their pens next to each other so they could sniff each other through the wires. During month two I started sitting them both on my lap during TV at night. I would continuously pet them while their bodies were up against each other and we watched TV.
During month two I noticed them laying up against their pens next to each other with their bodies touching. During month three I started to let them have some supervised exploration time outside their pens in our basement. Our basement is ~2000 sq ft and runs underneath the entire length of our ranch style home. Having plenty of room to run and explore definitely helped. During this time I would see them follow each other around and all of the mounting had stopped. Now they were just curious with each other and liked to be nearby each other.
Fast forward 5 months into bonding and they now share their own pen. It is about 5’x4′ ft with lots of toys, litter boxes, and a little tree house so they have access to a second level and something to climb on. Whether they are free-ranging throughout the house or in their pen, they are almost always right next to each other relaxing or playing.
I may have just been lucky and maybe their personalities just seemed to mesh, but bonding an unaltered pair IS possible.