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Forum BONDING Chloe and Min

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    • bpash89
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        We are officially starting bonding today!  

        Min (the black bun) has been with me for about 3 years now and is my spoiled little baby.  Chloe (gray bun) came home from the shelter about a month ago.  Chloe has made herself right at home and Min wasn’t too bitter about her space being invaded.  So far Min has been pretty open to the idea of a new friend… she’s even tried to groom Chloe a few times through the bars of the cage.  Chloe has been…. not quite as receptive.  For the most part they simply ignore each other though.  

        I’m going to use the bathtub as neutral space as my apartment is small (and shared with 3 other humans and a dog).  I’m pretty nervous about the whole thing so send happy thoughts our way.  I’ll update tonight if anything noteworthy (good or bad) comes out of their first official meeting tonight… 


      • bpash89
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          Okay first meeting when about as I expected. Chloe was a bit nippy (and she got sprayed with the water bottle each time she tried to bite) but the majority of the time was spent exploring the bathtub and otherwise ignoring each other. Poor Min… I always figured she would be the bossy one but she’s so timid around Chloe!
          After a bit they both settled down and let me pet them while sitting by each other and took a treat so I figured that was a good note to end things on. It was a pretty short meeting tonight but I wanted to end while things were good and both bunnies were calm.


        • bpash89
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            Okay day 2 went mostly the same – maybe slightly better. Min had a better idea of what was happening and she was NOT HAPPY. I’ve never heard her thump so much in my life! She took a strong defensive stance, she didn’t try to attack or nip at Chloe at all but she definitely wasn’t taking any sh*t tonight. Chloe only tried to nip a few times, mostly ignoring Min. Chloe is pretty relaxed about the whole thing? She definitely considers herself the top bun right now (and has no problem being the aggressor) and poor Min was on edge the whole time – ears back and ready to lunge if Chloe got too close.
            We ended the night the same way – both settling down a bit and letting me pet them. Then a little treat and back to their own spaces.

            How much should I be letting them “fight it out”? I’ve been separating them any time they try to bite (so far they haven’t done much more than that).

            Should I try some stress bonding? Or is it too soon?


          • bpash89
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              Okay tonight was our first attempt at stress bonding and it went really well! I put them both in the carrier and we took a little drive around town. They didn’t try to fight at all (they both haaaaate traveling) and it was probably about a 15-20 minute drive and then we came home and I put them both back in the bathtub together. Once they were out of the carrier Min flopped down in her “spot” in the tub – I think more as a show for Chloe than actually relaxed… she was breathing hard and definitely watching Chloe’s every move. Chloe seemed a bit more stressed about driving than Min so she pretty much kept to herself.
              Whatever comradery that was established during their car ride seems to have stuck through the entire bonding session for today. Min was still very on edge but Chloe didn’t try to bite her at all. They ended up sitting about 3in apart and let me pet them both. We had our treat and ended it on a good note.

              Question – for most of their bathtub time, they completely ignore each other. They go to opposite ends of the tub and pretend the other doesn’t exist. Should I put them in a smaller space to make them interact a bit more? Or just let them be for now?

              I think we are going to take a break from bonding tomorrow because they both need their nails done and thats stressful enough on it’s own…. we’ll do another bonding session on Monday.


            • Mikey
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                For the fight it out question, you seem to be doing well with it Nipping is ok as long as there is no fur pulling and no holding on. A quick warning nip is usually just to grab attention and shouldnt be worried about too much. If you notice nipping with fur pulling, or the bun doing the nipping is starting to hold on, then youll have to intervene. Same with if it is a full bite rather than a nip

                For bathtub time, them ignoring one another is a good sign. If they ignore one another to look around, it means they feel comfortable with the other bun being there. They have enough trust in one another that the other wont attack while their guard is down. I would only move them to a smaller space if they try to fight at all


              • Azerane
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                  It sounds like things are going pretty well. Initial nipping and things are quite common as mentioned, and acceptable up to a point. You need to let them do their own thing, but you don’t want to let them get into it, if that makes sense.

                  The fact that they are ignoring each other is really good too, if it was going to be bad, they wouldn’t ignore each other and would constantly go for one another. The tension between them is normal, especially if Chloe being the new bun is also turning out to be the dominant bun.


                • bpash89
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                    Thank you both. I know ignoring is a good sign but like… at some point these two gotta interact or we’re just at a stalemate! I’ll leave them be and see how things play out.


                  • bpash89
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                      Okay. We put in a solid hour tonight and I think they only interacted like 3 times the entire time. Most of that time was spent glaring at me, the evil human who keeps forcing them into the bathtub…

                      Chloe did try to demand grooming at one point and Min refused… that was about it though.


                    • bpash89
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                        There hasn’t been much of a change with these two yet. I haven’t been as diligent about bonding as I need to be so it is partly my fault.
                        We did some stress bonding tonight before bathtub time. Stress session went fine and bathtub time was pretty normal – very few nips but no real progress either. Min did flop in the tub at one point which greatly offended Chloe – lil miss was thumping up a storm ^^
                        I’m going to try for a long session this weekend. I’m going to be cleaning and rearranging my room so that means bunnies have to give up their space for awhile while I do that aka the prefect time to sit in the xpen together!


                      • BunnyFriends
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                          Sounds like it’s going well!

                          Chloe is absolutely ADORABLE. No question about it. And Min is too!


                        • bpash89
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                            i feel like we are regressing. Chloe is being more and more aggressive and Min still has not tried to “fight back” in any way, just running away and avoiding Chloe at all costs (she literally managed to jump out of the bathtub yesterday). we are going for a car ride tomorrow i think… Chloe really needs to be stressed in order to distract her from her monty python instincts…


                          • BunnyFriends
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                              Well, stress bonding is an idea, but maybe a smaller space would be better. They help with more interaction. So, a carrier, maybe, with nothing in it. (Make sure you can get in to stop fights, of course )

                              Another small space os the laundry basket. I’m going to try this with my two today hopefully.


                            • BunnyFriends
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                                Forgot to mention – small spaces should not have food or anything in it. The idea is to have no distractions and not much room so they HAVE to interact in some way.


                              • bpash89
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                                  We had a pretty good session today. I put them in the carrier together and left them on the table while I made my lunch for tomorrow lol
                                  Neither of them like being in the carrier so it’s pretty stressing to them by itself. Afterwards I put them back in the tub together. Min was on a mission to get out and did not care about anything else. Chloe was still shaken up from being in the carrier so there was no fighting or nipping today! Chloe thought about it a few times for sure but they even stood nose-to-nose for a bit without Chloe going after Min so I consider today a win.
                                  How soon can I hope we progress from very thin tolerance to genuine affection for each other? lol


                                • Vienna Blue in France
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                                    Well I’m not up on bonding but you’ve only had 5 posts so that’s not a lot really. It all sounds good.

                                    Do you have another place you could go to ?

                                    Completely Min free (another house’s bathtub / enclosure in a different garden / laundry basket in different environment / car boot… lol)

                                    Or keep putting them in the carrier when you make you lunch everyday. That sounds as if it went well.

                                    If you can work out which one is asking for the grooming (pushes head under the other bun’s head) then you could try putting a bit of apple sauce on the ‘asking’ head so the other ‘inadvertently’ grooms her…


                                  • bpash89
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                                      well I haven’t posted about each and every bonding session – that would get redundant real quick. we’ve been doing it at least a few days each week for 30min-1 hour at a time.

                                      I don’t have anywhere else to take them besides the bathroom/other rooms of the house which I’ve been doing. I don’t think it would matter honestly, I’ve tried putting them in the xpen and min just chews on the bars trying to get out. she’s not used to being confined and she is not taking it well.

                                      we haven’t really progessed to a grooming stage yet. chloe has tried to demand grooms a few times and min has refused but i was waiting until chloe was less aggressive towards min before attempting for coherse some grooms out of either of them. we’re building up a tolerance for each other first


                                    • bpash89
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                                        I think we made a little progress tonight! We went straight into the bathtub tonight (no stress bonding or time together in the carrier) and Chloe nipped once initially but then settled down. They mostly ignored each other again but Min decided to sit closer today – more towards the middle of the tub with Chloe on one end.
                                        They finally met somewhere in the middle and sniffed at each other without any fighting. Chloe put her head down, demanding to be groomed and Min tried to wedge her head underneath Chloe’s… so neither one is giving in yet but the grooming snubs didn’t cause any fighting either. Chloe simply gave up and hopped away. I think next time I might try some banana/apple sauce on the foreheads…


                                      • Vienna Blue in France
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                                          That sounds good progress bpash – it always seems eternally long when you want something to happen straight away, but you’re making progress…
                                          Baby steps – and then a leap and a bound may come along when you least expect it…


                                        • bpash89
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                                            okay i had some family stuff so there wasn’t much bonding happening this week. we did go to the vet one day which meant sharing a carrier and car rides and stress, stress, stress. They did fabulously (and both are healthy as can be and received the vets stamp of approval).
                                            We did some bonding tonight and there was NO FIGHTING OR NIPPING WHATSOEVER. The “worst” either of them did was grunt. There is still very little interaction between them… both are pretty content to sit on opposite sides of the tub and groom themselves, but we are making some steps.
                                            I did attempt the applesauce thing… no dice. Min is a bananas or gtfo kind of girl… i should have known better. I will try again with banana and see if that doesn’t get us somewhere.


                                          • Vienna Blue in France
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                                              LOL – yes bananas are a high value scrum scrum !! Good luck – sounds as if it’s going to plan…..

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                                          Forum BONDING Chloe and Min