So, we are going out to Spring Farm CARES in Clinton, NY soon to see how Sophie does with picking out a roomate. I am super nervous about this. I know we've posted on this before, but how hard is it to bond a spoiled 18 month old rabbit who has been an "only child" her entire life? I don't think she even knows that she is a rabbit. Her socializing with other rabbits has been very limited and she's never been interested in playing with them when put into a play pen with them as she got older.  When she was younger she was "king of the hill" bouncing all over the place with her siblings, if you know what I mean. I've never seen her aggressive towards another rabbit, but I don't want her to be depressed if mommy brings her to pick out a new sibling and that sibling comes home with us.  She is very much "routine oriented".  I need advice. I know most bunnies do well paired up, but I don't want to change her personality or our relationship at all.  HELP HELP HELP.

~Danielle who desperately loves her bunny

A couple of points to put your mind a bit more at ease:

- No matter what happens during her date sessions, Sophie will not love you any less.  Rabbits are social animals that live amongst large numbers of other rabbits in close quarters.  Their instincts are to interact with large numbers of other animals.  She will not forget you if she gets a boy friend, or blame you if she doesn't.

- Almost nothing you do will effect the choice of a buddy for Sophie.  She will choose who she likes; your job is to facilitate the bond.  You cannot 'make' her like somebun or 'make' her hate somebun, she will decide for herself.  Don't fall in love with any of the boys, because that one will be the one that
she hates

- Some buns just don't like partners; Gravehearted has one that just really likes being an only bun.  Such buns are rare but not unheard of, Sophie could be one of those.

- You'll know right away if she does not like somebun (growling, circling, boxing, biting).   Determining if she is interested is a little harder.  Boys like to mount; make sure that she is not uncomfortable if this happens.  Do not allow mounting from the front!  She could bite the other bun in a most uncomfortable spot.  Good signs to look for are her presenting herself for grooming (stretched neck, chin on the floor), sharing a litterbox, sitting close together but ignoring each other.  She may also nuzzle the other bun or groom him.  Be prepared to intervene if either bun appears stressed, and use a towel or gloves to separate them, lest you get bitten in the mele.

- Taking her to a place outside of her comfort zone is a really, really good idea.  She has no territory to defend there, and will be a little scared, which makes her more receptive to making friends with stranger buns.

As to her not being around other buns much, she'll figure it out.  Instinct is a powerful thing.  Please try to have fun with it.  The process can be long, but it is fascinating to watch.  If she does like somebun, then you have to decide if you want to wait and try another date, or bring the other bun home and work on the pairing right away.  For most pairs, there is still a process of cementing the bond once the dates go well, which will require that you house them separately when you are not with them until you are certain that they will not fight in your absence.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes!

How Fun!! Bonding bunnies is way fun.  Juli and Kramer fell in love at first sight.  I brought little Kramer home, and the first thing Juli did was hop on top of his carrier, and lip her head upside down to check him out! The first time they met through the cage Kramer licked Juli on the nose...and the first time they met without the cage they groomed each other, Kramer hopped into Juli's cage, and then they layed down next to each other, as if they were saying "What took you so long to get me a friend!!?"

Bonded pairs do the cutest things EVER!!!! if you think one bunny is cute, just wait until you see two snuggling.  Juli's favorite move is to wait until Kramer sticks out his back foot to groom it, then she shoots her head in between his front paws so that he accidentally starts grooming her head instead of his foot..he just stays there with his back foot extended...thinking he is grooming his foot all along

Oh Moobunny, that is so funny. I have been really thinking about this decision and I still don't know what I am going to do. I am going to bring her around some buns up for adoption and see if she "sparks" with anyone. Deep down though, I think she is a solo bunny. So, we'll see....

Anyone have any bonding stories? Give 'em to me....the good, bad and the ugly!

You can see my story about bonding DJ and Curly Sue here, along with some other stuff about how we came to be a bunny family:

www.therabbithaven.org/DJandCS.htm

I also just finished bonding little Deanna into a trio with Curly Sue and DJ, and we officially adopted her this weekend (one of the hazards of fostering).  The bond of the trio was a little different.  I started out the same way as I did with the pair, to let the 3 of them out into neutral space.  Yikes, big mistake.  DJ, the boy, was chasing and mounting both girls, growling at us, and in general just being a snot.  So I asked our resident bunny expert at the Haven, Auntie Heather, and she told me that a trio introduction should be with each of the buns and the new bun separately at first.  We tried that, and it went much smoother.  DJ and Deanna got along well right away, but Curly Sue was terrified of Deanna, running away everytime Deanna came near her.  After a few more of these one on one sessions, they all seemed to tolerate each other, so I used another Auntie Heather idea and set up a big super fun play area in neutral space.  This was the week between Christmas and New Years, and the girls were off from school and I had the week off from work, so we could spend a lot of time with the buns and watch them together.  I grabbed all sorts of stuff from the garage and made a bunny play area with boxes, cardboard tubes, wooden planks for ramps, some old corkboards for platforms.  I set this up in a 6x12 space with a litterbox, food and water and just let the buns hang out together.  This worked really well.  After two days of this, they were spending the entire day together in the play area, eating greens together, using the same litterbox and grooming each other.  At night, I moved Deanna's pen right next to the big pen so that they would not forget her smell.

It took about 3 days before I tried letting the three of them be together in the Family Room, which is Curly Sue and DJ's play area.  Deanna got chased alot, so I tried putting the three of them together in the pair's pen, with us watching.  This did better.  Somehow having less space forced them to get along better.  We left them in the pair's pen together for several hours a day, and after a total of about 10 days from start to finish, Deanna moved in with the pair.

Are there any people at the shelter/rescue you are going to who know a lot about bonding?  It really helps to have someone that can read the subleties of body language to know how well the buns are getting along.  I worked on two bonding sessions at our adoption show this weekend, and one was a lady who has been looking for a bond for her girl bunny for a long time.  We were the fifth shelter/rescue she had tried.  I took her girl and a bonded pair of boys around for a "first date", and one of the boys nipped at her and I thought "Too bad, this won't work".  Heather thought they might get through it and she spent some time with them.  The lady wound up taking them home!  This girl bunny had a history of attacking other bunnies, and somehow the fact that these two boys were higher energy helped to calm her down.

One more thing: don't be afraid to try two girls as a bond.  Sometimes these work out great too.

There is an animal communicator there who will be assisting us, as well as another house bunny mom who has 4. I am just worried about pairing her up, I'm a nervous mom! Watch my little diva be the one bunny in a thousand who wants to be alone!

I bonded a mini lop that I had because he was very shy and I thought he would maybe come out of his shell with a bunny friend. I took him to the shelter where I worked and let him pick out of what we had after doing a lot of reading. Most of the girls were too aggressive for him. He got very upset being attacked. I was skeptical about pairing male to male but seeing how they were both neutered I tried him with an older M/N lop. I can't say it was love at first sight but it was much better than the other ones with them pretty much ignoring each other. I let them ride next to each other in seperate crates in the car. For about a week I had them caged next to each other and then did short, supervised interactions in the bath tub. A bathtub is big enough to allow some room but not so big they can run away from each other. Gradually I allowed more and more time together in the bath tub and once I felt confident, I let them be together in their room (supervised of course). The more dominant guy who I brought in did definantly take things over for my little guy. There were some scuffles too but I seperated them quickly and kept a water bottle on hand. I found that as long as the submissive one had somewhere to hide he usually avoided fights. After about a month I felt confident leaving them along together without supervision. The little one ended up loving his friend and followed him every where! He even started to venture out on the scary wood floor which he never would have done before. I thought it went well over all and I am very happy I did it. Good luck with your bonding, the stress is definanlty worth it to see them matched up.

The tub is a great idea!  In part of our 3-way introductions I used our shower stall as the neutral territory.  The slippery floor also seems to help keep the aggressive buns from chasing too much - no traction.

My girl bun is just as much of a princess as yours I think...she parades around when there are visitors over...and she looooves pets and attention...and I think that actually makes her MORE of a good wife-bun instead of less.  Now she not only has ME to dote on her, but her lowly servant (oops, i mean Hus-Bun) Kramer to give her grooms...whether or not he knows thats what he's doing!

Now, when I am not home, she still gets the attention she wants! Kramer will also try to push his head under hers to get some grooms, but usually he just gives up and starts grooming her ears.  Every ONCE and awhile tho I will sneak into the living room and catch little Juli grooming Kramer (while Kramer does a dead bunny flop), but if you ask her she WILL deny it!

I wouldn't worry much about a rabbit not having experience with other rabbits. I have a rescue bunny over at my house right now who is bonding with Medusa. He was bought at birth and has never seen another rabbit since. I was a bit worried, but he actually turned out to be very friendly and started grooming Medusa the first meeting. I think that what matters is a rabbit's experiences with other beings. My rescue bunny had a positive experience with his humans so he has no reason to live with mistrust or fear. Other rabbits who may have been in bad relationships with humans or other bunnies will have more of a cautious instinct.