Bonding

[Rabbitqueen]

I adopted a dwarf bunny, Weston in October to be bonded with my girl, Penelope who lost her bonded mate in September. We adopted Weston from a rabbit rescue & they did a meet & greet & they seemed like they could be potential mates. Both seemed relaxed when near each other & didn’t pay much attention to one another. I’ve been going through the bonding process since then & I’m not seeing a ton of progress. I put them in a very small neutral space. They start off snuggling together & then Weston starts nipping her. Penelope just sits there not moving because she is terrified by everything that is happening. I don’t think he’s biting hard but sometimes I’m not sure& I know he’s trying to communicate with her but it’s not going anywhere. He just will keep nipping. He sometimes nips her face very close to her eyes (which scares me) & her side & she often jumps. After nipping he will sit next to her & clean himself. I think he wants her to groom him but she’s too afraid.
But one positive thing I do see after all this time is that when one of them gets scared they go running to each other. It seems like they will work but I don’t know how to get to the next step. I feel like I’m missing something. I didn’t have this much trouble with my first bonding with Fritz & Penelope. Any thoughts or suggestions? They are both spayed & neutered btw

[Limit]

You could try wiping a bit of banana on each of their heads to encourage grooming

[Rabbitqueen]

I’ve tried that. It didn’t last long until he nipped her again. But thank you for the suggestion and reading my bonding woes. It’s a great idea. I will be trying it again but I might need a break after tonight Bc Weston nipped Penelope right above her eye and gave me quite a scare.

[Limit]

Bonding is stressful business! I would suggest that maybe a bigger space could work for your two? I know that it did for my last bond but for my current one a smaller space is needed Hope you can sort it out but by the sounds of it, they’ll be a lovely bond once they’ve sorted their differences

[Rabbitqueen]

Thank you I hope so & yes bonding is very stressful! I tried a little bigger space yesterday & Weston started to chase Penelope. But Penelope ran away which is good so maybe I will try that again. Maybe he will go for her bum instead of her eyes that way.

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