Hi.
Just after a bit of advice, I know I’m still only baby steps into bonding my 2 kids, but have some observations/ questions.
So… I have 2 buns who I am currently trying to bond;
Mordecai a 10 month old neutered boy dwarf of some sort, we’ve had him since he was 3 months old, he’s never been particularly human friendly, he will accept pets, but on his terms, and is little lungy and Grunty
And
Pinot (Grigio) a 1 year (ish) female spayed Netherland dwarf, we brought her home about 10 days ago, very very human friendly, will run to you as demand pets, will climb all over you and grooms her humans.
These kids were kept completely separate for the first few days, so Pinot could get used to her new surroundings, we had a cage and pen set up in the hallway, as Mordi has the run of the living room and office. He could however see her, through the gate that blocks the living room from the hallway. We bought new face clothes and gave them one each, and have been swapping them over so they can each get used to the smell etc.
After 5 days, we set Pinot’s cage and run up in the living area (I know this is Morecai’s ‘area’, so I hoovered and cleaned the corner where I was setting her up first) our boy was very intrigued, Pinot, even though demanding of human contact, is quite timid, when she finally got the courage to have a sniff at him, he would have a sniff, then lunge and scratch through the bars, obviously being territorial, he has spent the most of his first 10 months life completely free of bunny contact. We remedied this by leaving Pinot in the area, but putting her cage lid on, so there was a double barrier between them, this helped.
We then began swapping bits and pieces around, food bowls, toilet areas, even bunnies, though Mordecai wasn’t best pleased about being cooped up inside a cage all day as he’s usually running around the whole living area, but it seemed to help, they got used to each other. We’d set a cage and a pen up and switch the bunnies periodically so one had the balcony and a small area of living room and the other had the living room and office, so they both got used on the area, and Mordi was starting to accept having to share his area in the future, aside from a huge amount of territorial pooing, we’re going well.
Bunny Dates (we have had 3 so far, all in the neural bathroom)
I’ll break these down into the 3 dates, so you can grasp the development.
Date 1 (dating day 1 am) (session length 20ish mins)
This was the first time these guys had ever met completely. And very surprisingly for me (knowing Mordecai’s temperament) there was no fighting. There was a lot of sniffing, face, sides, bums, ears. There was a lot of humping, mostly from Mordecai, but Pinot had a fair crack a few times too, and as such, we had quite a few fur tufts strewn around the bathroom. Mostly Pinot would just stop still, lay down, head down and let him get on with it, she would soon let him know when she’d had enough. Mordecai we noticed in this session, however, enjoys to face nip, particularly Pinots eyes, though they do seem to be freakishly large so it might just be a misjudgement in his part, I think he’s doing this to try and get Pinot to groom him, and getting aggravated when she doesn’t. she will also constantly put her head down demanding to be groomed, it’s at this point that Mordi will shove his head under hers and nip. This activity would be broken up by periods of them both laying down, separately and together, or cleaning themselves. We ended it on them both laying next to each other, in order to end on a
Positive not.
Date 2 (dating day 1 Pm) (session length 20 ish mins)
We took them both back to the bathroom, and much the same as the first date happened, there was some sniffing, some nipping (all Mordecai) and some humping, but both not overly phased by the whole thing, or by there being another bunny around. There was a little territorial pooing and weeing, luckily we have tiled floors (I’ve had it lucky so far I know)
After this session, Pinot went back into the cage and pen area including the balcony and Mordi went back to the living room office, however, we may have ended up with a lovesick bunny, Mordecai spent the whole night sat or laying, right up against the pen where Pinot was, she also stayed not to far away from the pen (she is our more timid one) he was so desperate to be with Pinot that he ended up actually jumping over the pen and ending up in with Pinot (he’s a springy little bean) were obviously not at the stage where they can be completely together yet and as such we’ve decided to move Pinot back into the hallway during the day, but put her cage next to his at night and continue with the bunny dates.
Date 3 (dating day 2 pm) (session length 30 mins)
Due to work, we were unable to have a session this morning, so as soon as I could I dutifully collected them from their respective homes and into the bathroom we went! This session was different, Pinot seemed wildly on edge, and was grunting (not aggressively) but it seemed like she was trying to communicate either with is, or to give Mordecai a stern talking to, she was very very vocal. He was also making noises which were unusual for him. Pinot would make these noises every time Mordi tried to mount her (which didn’t happen until a good 20 minutes into the session) she would then escape and come straight to me for comfort and strokes. In short she was having none of his advances today! She would run to me, he would then sculk off against a wall and flop, completely flop. She would then go over and sniff him, and his advances would start again. They would end by having the head under chin stand off. Both vying for grooming, and each unwilling to submit.
I’ll do another session tomorrow and just keep at it, but my main issues/questions are:
– am I doing things correctly.
– is there anything else I can be doing to help
– Pinot seems to submit completely during mounting, but is unwilling to submit to grooming requests, it’s as if she wants to be dominant, but can’t be bothered/is too timid to make steps towards trying to make Mordi submit (she willingly grooms her little lamb that has Mordecai’s scent all over it.
– due to her obvious distress today, do I even do a session tomorrow, or give it a few days
– should I move her back into the living room, in a separate area or continue just moving her into the living area in her cage overnight so they get used to each other being constantly around.
– am I missing something.
I am well aware it’s very early days yet, and from reading posts I can also tell that I seem to have it fairly easy at the moment. I just want to check I’m doing this completely correctly, I’ve never bonded bunnies before.
Also I apologise for the extreme length of this post, I just thought it best to include as Much info as possible in order to get the best help possible.
Any assistance or advice is so greatly appreciated.
Thanks y’all
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