Hello everyone – thanks to all who helped me with all of my questions. I started bonding last Tuesday (it is Friday today), and today was the last day! They aren’t necessarily lovers – but they are really great friends. It is amazing to see, my heart melted countless times today!
Anyways, if anyone is struggling or has any questions, feel free to ask me! Here are the basics broken down:
1) I started in a box small enough to only just fit both of them (bad idea). On the second day the first fight broke out. I realized nothing would make them stop fighting besides physical separation.
2) I moved them to the stand up shower (with an x-pen to replace the shower door so I could supervise them) for days 3 – 5. Small fight on day 3, I yelled and banged loudly, and used oven mitts to separate them.
3) Kind words work a lot better.
4) Stay in the presence of your buns to begin with! I fed them together, petted them together, and made sure they felt safe. After my yelling and banging the day before I think they were both a little scared. I moved them to a larger area, about 3 feet by 5 feet (in my kitchen).
5) Mashed banana on their foreheads from days 3 – 9 – this works SO WELL to initiate grooming.
6) Giving them more space allowed them to actually move! And be rabbits. They could groom, binky, and flop.
7) Each space they were in was neutral, and contained timothy and orchard hay.
8) I started with 2 hour bonding sessions and each time moving forward was anywhere from 1.5 – 4 hours.
9) I pre-bonded for a long time. At least a month. I had their cages side by side (3 inches or more in between), and swapped them back and forth between cages during the day, over night, and swapped toys. I always switched it up and never kept anything the same.
10) Their play area was the same before, they would just take turns. So their area now that they share has a mix of their smells already.
11) Ignoring each other is a good thing, and don’t force anything. Don’t rush.
12) Day 10 – Grooming initiated without banana, and they laid down right beside each other and napped. The biggest key point today was that I refused to be seen. I spied on them through the gate but they thought they were alone. I knew today was the day. I let them stay like this for 5 hours (mostly unsupervised). I washed the biggest cage (who was my does before) and built a new set up in it (second floor with a ramp) during those 5 hours. Then after all was cleaned up I went to the kitchen and removed the gate. I let them wander on their own. They followed each other around and finally my buck went into the cage. He made himself at home – but it took my doe almost 30 minutes before she let herself in. He didn’t mind at all. They are happily co-existing, not a nip or third eyelid to be seen.
I think my most important lesson was that not all rabbits hump each other! Mine didn’t, and they don’t seem to need to. I will be sleeping with them overnight (camping on the floor ) to ensure all is well before leaving them 100% together.
Thanks again everyone!
Sorry for the poor resolution on the image! I had to crop it to get it to 500mb…. This was today.