Bonding Help Pls. 2 lionheads 5 yo and 8 weeks

[TwoBunsNYC]

My fiancé and I have a 5.5 year old Lionhead adult and she’s fixed for 4 years, she’s usually very sweet but maybe is spoiled being the only pet in our home. About 1 week ago we received our baby boy Teddy, also a Lionhead, born 12/26.

We researched how rabbits prefer to have a partner. We always wanted a bunny and thought the bond would be easy like a mom and son bond but that hasn’t happened. We have him in her old cage (that we cleaned like new). Dalai is a free rabbit for a few years now, she has full access to all rooms in our apartment except our bedroom.

Teddy the male bunny is too Young (8.5 weeks old) to be neutered and he is not humping and all he does is play and eat and poop and repeat. Dalai is always sniffing his cage which is located within the living room (which she hangs out in). Often she will go near the cage and mark it with her chin, curious Teddy will get close and sometimes Dalai will try to bite through the cage bars which are too narrow to fit her mouth but she still tries and other times they simple sniff each other almost like a kiss and hop away.

We took them both in bathtub to do a short stress bonding but I had to hold Dalai down to make sure she wouldn’t attack but she still managed to bite off some of his hairs off, but he was not injured nor scared at that moment. We stopped the bonding and started researching…. we are kinda sad because my fiancé feels like they may never bond due to the huge age gap.

Please advise us on what we should try next? Our goal is to bond them so they are both free happy rabbits.

I’m thinking of moving the cage into our bedroom to keep him out of sight. Have him fixed and then after he recovers maybe start bonding them again. He is too tiny to defend himself.

We welcome any and all advice.

Ps when I first got Dalai I tried bonding her with a mini Rex about same age as her but he was a bully and there were several fights during unsuccessful bonding. That rabbit is with a family friend who adopted him. He used to damage everything on top of picking fights with Dalai. I hope there is hope to bond her with her new bunny friend.

[Doodler]

The age gap between them isn’t a big deal at all. Bonds can happen between any age difference. I think it’s best to get them as close to the same age as possible but only so one doesn’t lose their bonded friend too soon due to old age. With that said we all know they don’t always make it to old age so nothing is a given anyway so I wouldn’t worry about it. At this point it’s too early to worry about a bond not working between the two of them. Bunnies can be very aggressive to each other. This is why it’s so important to take it slow and follow some important steps.

In your case it’s not really an age difference per say, but more of an age issue. Baby bunnies cannot bond. The first step recommended for bonding is to have two fixed rabbits so what you are thinking is spot on! I would make sure they don’t have any more face to face interactions. You can have them living in a way they can see each other and interact at a distance, but you want to make sure they can’t nip, lunge or do any fitting through his cage bars. I have seen pictures of bunnies with permanent scars due to bites between bars and it’s not worth the risk. Not only do you not want them hurt but this can also cause the bonding to be much harder.

At this point you will need to wait until he is neutered, healed, hormones settled and prebonding is done before you start the bonding process. Good luck with them!

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