Bonding gone bad.

[Emily]

Hey everyone,

I have had my bunny Kingsley for about a year and a half now and just recently adopted/rescued a bunny (Cabbage) from a friend of a friend that no longer wanted him/was not caring for him properly.
Kingsley is almost two, four pounds, a red mini rex, and spayed. Cabbage is a Dutch bunny, about four or five pounds (guessing), neutered, and a little over two years old.

Cabbage is very sociable with humans but trying to introduce the two in a neutral zone briefly broke out in one of the worst bunny fights I’ve ever witnessed. I succeeded in separating them and decided to take it much slower. Cabbage was the instigator but I attributed it to his poor living situation that caused his sudden violent aggression. (He hadn’t left his cage in months and came from a home with two young cats constantly harassing him, also eating only alphalfa hay pellets (not Timothy based which adults need) with no fresh hay suitable for adults.)

Due to a animal hating roommate, I am forced to house cabbage in my room where Kingsley is pretty much free range. (I wanted to house him in my living room) The current set up in my room is a xpen with sheets pinned to all the sides so they cannot see each other but can still smell and hear. After three days with both bunnies acting very normal I switched their litter boxes to introduce more smells and both bunnies acted fine. I decided to take down a small section to create a window and that section has smaller wire mesh on it so they cannot fight through the xpen openings.

Over the past couple days they’ve had supervised “viewing” times and have been quite curious with each other with only the occasional attempted nipping. But here’s where it goes wrong. Last night I went out for a couple hours and when I came home I open my bedroom door and see fur all over the floor (more of kingsley’s than of cabbage). I see cabbage is out of the xpen somehow and I immediately grab him and put him back. (the only way I think he could have gotten out is by jumping super high but I’ve never seen a bunny clear a three foot high xpen before, there is nothing in the cage that could have given him height). I find kinglsey hiding undernearh the bed with tufts of fur half out of her and looking very rough. I immediately grab her and do an assessment to which I find a pretty bad bite underneath her belly which I think I may have opened by me grabbing her and it started to bleed. I grab gauze and apply pressure and it slows pretty quickly and then once I find she has no other injuries I just start sobbing. (I also assessed Cabbage and he is completely fine)

I feel so horrible that all this happened. I contacting someone from ARL and asked what to do and I then was directed to a 24 hour vet that asked me about everything and basically told me if the bleeding stops in a timely manner there is nothing to worry about. He suggested I keep her in her cage for the night and next day to limit movement and keep everything clean.

She seems to be acting okay this morning no signs of blood in the cage, shes eating and pooping normally and seems very annoyed she’s stuck in her cage (rattling the bars to be let out). I altered Cabbages’s set up by pinning a sheet to the whole top so this will not happen again).

Sorry for the long post, but I’m not sure what to do now..
Is bonding now going to be impossible between these two?
I just don’t understand why Cabbage is so aggressive with kinglsey when kingsley has meet other bunnies and done great! She’s such a sweetie..

Should I keep them separated completely for now?
What should be my next move?

I heard it is usually very rare not to be able to bond bunnies together but if it’s going to be risking Kingsley’s health I don’t think I can keep Cabbage even though I really wanted to give him a better home and find Kingsley a best friend.

[Gina.Jenny]

Its not uncommon for a bunny to clear three foot, I have to use four foot divides, as two of mine have easily cleared three. Its not good that one bun has actually drawn blood, as buns hold grudges. It sounds like Cabbage could well be jealous of the freedom Kingsley has. He could also have been left stressed by being able to hear movement, but not see what it was at the beginning?

Is Kingsley showing any aggression towards Cabbage since the bite? If she is, then that would not bode well for bonding, but if she is likely to be forgiving, then calming Cabbage down and then bonding them might still be possible. I’ve just bonded a quite aggressive little girl to a newly adopted boy, and she went from nipping him to grooming in four days of intensive bonding, so it can be done.

I would start by making sure Cabbage gets floor time, even if this means shutting Kingsley in for a while.  Buns need exercise to keep healthy, and he can wear off some pent up aggression by running around! Also try feeding them ‘side-by-side’, so he can see she’s not getting anything better than him, and because eating near each other, while watching each other, is a good start to bonding. 

[Emily]

I hope that’s not the case, everyday whenever I’m home I let him in my living room for run time and open his pen to my bedroom door so he can run in and out of my room to the living room. I make sure he has a minimum of three hours of exercise time throughout the day even if it’s just opening up the xpen to the other wall so he has a quarter of my room to run in.

I haven’t let them see each other since the incident and I’ve kept Kinglsey in her cage to limit her movements per the vets suggestion since she frequently jumps up on my bed.

[Gina.Jenny]

Can you try feeding side by side? That might given some indication as to how the two feel towards each other now

[Emily]

So I took both buns to the bunny spa today at ARL to get their nails trimmed and ears checked and afterwards they had a quick date, to which Cabbage still immediately tried to attack Kingsley so they were separated.
The volunteers there wanted to see how Kingsley reacted to other bunnies so we had her go on a quick date with a known calm rabbit and she did great.

They suggested to me to keep them separated for two weeks to let cabbage settle in and know he’s loved and in a secure environment. He may just be lashing out because he had such bad past experiences with animals.. Hopefully that will change in the coming future.

For now they will both have separate exercise times and cuddle times. And we’ll try again once both are less on edge. I think Kingsley is still a little off from all the attacks she’s suffered. Luckily her wounds are healing great and there is nothing to worry about with that. I just wish she hadn’t have gotten them in the first place.

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