Bonded but Weak Bond

[kmurphy]

Hi everyone!

My roommate had our bunnies over the summer at her house and was finally able to bond them after we struggled with some health issues with Jitterbug before. Jitters and Kraken (spayed and neutered) have been bonded since June/July. We moved them into our house for the semester in August and they are living in my room. They had one scuffle that I have witnessed. It was odd. Kraken (male) was laying down and Jitters seemed to ask for grooms and then she bit him on the butt. He whirled around and she lunged again and then they started circling each other. I was able to split it up before it escalated too far. I wasn’t too worried as they were in a new environment. I haven’t witnessed any other fights (or fur pulled etc) but they don’t seem to have a strong bond. There are a lot of issues with grooming. Kraken will sometimes groom Jitters but hardly ever when she asks for it. Jitters pretty much never grooms Kraken when he asks…. and he asks a lot. Last week Kraken was just wandering around last night and Jitters looked on edge. Her ears went back and she looked like she was going to lunge and nip. I told her to knock it off and gave them an apple stick which distracted her from whatever pissed her off. This happened again two days ago and then again last night. It never even escalated to a fight or even a nip just Jitters lunging with her ears back and tail up. I gave them a handful of hay and Jitterbug seemed to settle. They do lay together, sometimes groom each other (rare), eat together. Overall they sort of ignore each other most of the time.

I noticed yesterday one of the bunnies peed outside of the litterbox. This has only happened when we first got each of the bunnies. It was a lot of pee so I don’t think it is a UTI but I think it might have something to do with their weak bond. However, I am planning on taking them to the vet probably next week.

How do I strengthen their bond? I know one of their issues is grooming and lack there of.

Should I just give it more time?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or even just stories of how your bonded bunnies interact with each other.

[Mikey]

Since the room is still fairly new to them, it sounds like they are trying to settle who is the boss/alpha of that room. It would explain neither of them wanting to feel submissive to the other, and the territory pee. Work on some bonding tactics with them (small area to a larger area over a few days) and it shoudl be fine. Otherwise, it is possible their bond is weak and they dont really like one another, they just tolerate one another

[Author]

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