Hi! I posted the other night about my one very submissive bun that I’m bonding with my male. This might be a long post. Feel free to skim through it, it’s just a bunch of details that might help you understand why I’m having a hard time figuring out how to proceed? So, it turns out my new female bun is very, very shy. The issue I’m having now is that she is currently in a kennel in my kitchen with my male in the other room. It’s been about three days since she came home with me and she hasn’t yet ventured out further than a foot from her cage and she doesn’t leave the cage at all when there’s anyone in the room. I’m having a problem trying to get her and my male in the same space. I feel awful trying to grab her out of her cage when she’s still clearly very scared about the whole new situation. I’ve only done this twice so far but I’m sure it’s already made her that much more wary of her new home.
I think it will be much easier to get her used to the new home once she’s bonded with my male. But they’ve only had two meetings at this point because I feel so bad trying to take her out of her cage! I’ve tried some little tricks like leaving some treats just out of her reach so that she has to hop out of the cage to grab them, but she hasn’t been inspired to explore any further than that. And she’ll eat treats out of my hand if I put my hand in the cage, but she won’t take them from me when my hand is just outside the cage. Her previous owner said she was very cuddly and likes human attention but that she was very shy at first. And when I have successfully gotten her out of her cage she doesn’t seem to be too scared of me.
In the two meetings that the rabbits have had, however, my male has been extremely dominant and she’s been extremely submissive. Lots of mounting on his part and lots of flattening on her part, although I did see significantly less of this on their second meeting. But when I moved them to a slightly less neutral space the male was repeatedly mounting her again, so I think I may have jumped the gun on that move. I’m wondering what my next move should be and I think that decision should be based off of why my female is so unwilling to come out of her cage. I can’t tell if she’s scared of me or if she’s scared of my male. Their first meeting was right when I brought her home and it was actually in the kitchen, where I ended up setting up her cage after that first meeting. The second meeting was held in the bathroom. I’m wondering if she may be afraid to come out of her cage in the kitchen because she knows my male rabbit has sort of claimed that space. If that’s the case, it may be best for me to push through with the bonding process. But if she’s just scared of the new situation, maybe I should just leave her alone in her cage until she’s gained a little more confidence to explore and maybe until she trusts me a little more. So, what comes first, the bond with the male or her comfort in the new space? Do I wait for her to get comfortable or do I just push through with the bonding process?