help! male’s tail is alway raised, spraying, growling, attacking

[GandF]

I brought a new male neutered bunny home (Honey) to bond with my male neutered bunny (George) who recently lost his friend. George is a grumpy bunny but we love him. He growls at us all the time. He doesn’t seem to enjoy being touched but he is not afraid of us. He doesn’t run from us. He hops around the house always looking for food. He has never bit anyone in my family. 

I have been trying to bond the two buns in a neutral space i blocked off in the bedroom. its about 6ft x 3ft. i cover most of the floor with blankets and carpet tiles because the new bunny has a really hard time walking on the fake wood. We’ve done 6 bonding sessions for around 20 min. Honey has stayed in the corner for 5 of them. He is doing better but still very fearful of my family and seems to be of George. He moved around slowly and cautiously once during this last session. 

During the first session. George sniffed Honey and asked to be groomed (Honey didn’t move). then George started humping Honey for a while. Honey eventually turned around and nipped him. Then George raised his tail and attacked him. Since that session, George’s tail is constantly raised and he continually attacks him during every attempt to bond. He also growls at him. Honey will fight back from his corner but is never the instigator. We break it up with a broom. Eventually George will get tired and lay down a couple feet away from Honey but he keeps his tail up.

We’ve tried sprinkling food around. George eats all the food and then attacks Honey. Honey will eat some food close to him. We’ve also seen Honey and George groom themselves but never at the same time and only in between attacks. When Honey tried to approach George to sniff him during the last session, George raised his tail and attacked him.

George is also peeing all over the bonding space and I think spraying. Sometimes I can’t find wetness but it smells like a skunk. George has free range of the house while we’re home but lives in the Lanai (5ftx15ft tiled area) I set up Honey’s temporary cage next to the Lanai. They can see each other through the glass and there is one doorway of wire they can smell each other through. Honey stays in his cage for most of the day right now. George poops and pees all along the perimeter, sprays inside, and sometimes tries to bite Honey through the wire.

When George sleeps in the office during the day, I let Honey out to explore George’s place. I haven’t let George into Honey’s space because He makes such a mess around the perimeter I’m afraid he will destroy the inside. I’m using a large piece of cardboard to protect the floor and don’t want to have to replace it.

Help! I don’t know what the next step for these two should be! I don’t feel comfortable stress bonding because George is so aggressive towards Honey. I feel like he would attack him in a small space and it would be harder to separate (George has bit and tried to jump over the broom to attack Honey).

[Mikey]

They dont seem to like one another at all if one nip caused all of this. It doesnt sound like you did any prebonding. Keep their cages next to one another and alternate when they can play outside of their cages throughout the day. Do this for about 2 months. Dont try any bonding during this time. It will allow Honey to feel comfortable and secure, as well as get George used to sharing his territory

[GandF]

thank you. I read one woman’s opinion- “pre-bonding is just putting off the inevitable need to establish dominance”. I guess I was hoping she was right. Right now, George has the whole Lanai which is separated from our living room by two sliding doors. One is always baby-gated. The other sliding door is how we let him in and out. I attached Honey’s NIC cube cage to the baby gate. Do you think I could just split Georges large existing space on the Lanai or would that upset George more?

[Mikey]

I would not split it as it can cause more problems. Prebonding is always helpful because it allows all bunnies involved to see one another as threatless. Since they cannot attack, they dont see one another as harmful. Over time, they learn to see one another as friends, or at the very least, room mates

[GandF]

thank you for your help!

[Author]

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