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Forum BONDING The Everlasting Bonding Process of Meeko and Nibs

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    • MeekoAndNibs
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        Hi all,

        After 1 previous attempts at bonding my hoodlums and a very long break during which I moved to a new place, I am ready to try bonding my viscous beasts hehe.

        A little background, Meeko I have had for 1 year and 3 months. She is a New Zealand X, white with beautiful ruby eyes, female, and is about 2.5 years old. Her hobbies include grooming me incessantly, cuddling up beside me, and watching NCIS with me on the couch

        Nibs is a female, “mutt” as I call her hehe, and is a fancy ever-changing grey. I’ve had her since I weened her and the rest of her litter from their mom (suprise litter in a petting zoo I know of, and I took charge of rehoming them to good homes) and she is now 11 months old. I wasn’t planning on taking her, but she was never very personable or cuddly as a baby and was always on the crazy side. I was actually fairly certain that any home I found her in the time frame I was allowed would either dump her or try to return her to the petting zoo which wasn’t an option. So home she came. Her hobbies include, destroying things that I’ve taught her are okay to destroy (lol), being bossy, and running in circles as fast as possible. She was a fairly aggressive rabbit from the start. She has been with me, as well as with Meeko. That being said she has taught me to speak rabbit fluently which is a positive thing

        They had some play dates when Nibs was very young and Meeko, after a few days, started grooming Nibs now and again. When Nibs entered her teenage years the play dates ended and they simply lived beside each other.

        After her spay I tried bonding beginning in a small area and it went much like Vienna’s experience if y’all have read her thread. Fur flew, and there where a few serious bites. I am no longer willing to try that type of bonding process as both of my bunnies are big. Certainly too big for a small space.

        Date 1:
        After a couple weeks of living beside each other, tonight we had our first bunny bonding date in the kitchen which is neutral space. I had greens spread out for the picking and both of their litter boxes in their. Much to my surprise they actually spent the 15 minutes ignoring each other rather than having a fur-flying battle! They munched on greens, jumped in and out of each other litterboxes, sniffed everything, explored and didn’t really say hello to each other. Nibs had a few moments where she would watch Meeko intently with her ears perked forward, but then went back to ignoring her.

        After returning them to their cages these three pictures were the progression within 4 minutes. 

         

        More updates to come soon


      • MeekoAndNibs
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          Date 2:

          It dragged on for about 25 minutes unintentionally, as I was waiting for them to fully relax. 

          Started by spreading out some greens and both their litter boxes (which both smell like both of them) Nibs was full of energy today, running and binky-ing across the kitchen which is there neutral space. Meeko seemed to be watching and avoiding her mostly.

          Nibs ran up behind Meeko and almost mounted her, Meeko spun around to lunge at her at which point I put the dust pan between them. They went separate ways. The mounting led to a bad fight between them the first time I tried bonding them, so I was too chicken to let them hash it out.

          About 15 minutes in Meeko approached Nibs from behind and Nibs half-heartedly lunged at her (I was getting ready to intervene, gosh I’m a fraidy-cat) but Meeko scampered away immediately. 

          Around 20 minutes in they ate some greens within about a foot of each other and just watched each other and chewed 

          After this Meeko hopped over to one of the litter boxes. Nibs followed her and got into attack stance (I think she was surprised by the sudden movement). I tapped my foot on the ground and called her over and she came over. I gave her a pet and she then decided to flop down about a foot away from the litter box Meeko was in and groom her front paws. Meeko lay down in the litter box and I called it a night after a few minutes of them relaxing. 

          Upon returning to their cages they flopped down next to each other facing one way, and 30 minutes later they both turned around, which is so nice to see! They usually lay down as far away from each other as possible. I welcome any tips you may have 

          I can’t believe how far we’ve come from immediate fighting when put in the same space!

          I’ll try to get brave enough to take some pictures videos during an actual bonding session.. we’ll see!


        • MeekoAndNibs
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            Today’s bonding date was a bit longer, around 30 minutes and it was definitely higher in tension.

            Here are some pictures of Date 3:

            Started out like this

            about 5 minutes in we got to this

            a few seconds later they were eating side by side or face to face for a while

            After this I was a little too busy stopping fights before they occured to take pictures so here’s a summary.

            Nibs mounts Meeko, Meeko hops away, Nibs starts chasing her frantically, and it turns into circling so I break it up (This is where Meeko got a chunk taken out of her before, mounting turned to circling). It took a bit for Nibs to get the idea out of her head and they went back to eating. Nibs followed Meeko around quite a bit (nose to bum) but not mounting, and Meeko just continued hopping around and ignoring it. 

            Nibs seemed not to be in attack mode, but ears extremely perked up at Meeko, and always keeping on ear on Meeko, whereas Meeko was happy to turn her back on Nibs. Does this mean Nibs is a bit unsure of her still?

            So because I can’t really let the humping happen too much without it leading to circling.. is there any other way in which Nibs can assert her dominance? Is there just nipping? Not really sure what to look for other than that and grooming.

            Meeko almost groomed Nibs within the last five minutes of the session, but then decided she wanted the grooming  didn’t get any and hopped away from Nibs.

            Shortly after they both pulled one of these and I ended the session. They lay right up against the wall separating their two cages again upon returning to their cages, really flopping over 

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        Forum BONDING The Everlasting Bonding Process of Meeko and Nibs