Getting ready to bond

[OverthinkingBun]

Hi, I have only one bunny, a spayed female, but am getting ready to adopt another with “speed dating”.  I have some questions first!  My bunny is very friendly but hates being picked up.  How do you wrangle bunnies to take them in and out of neutral areas for dates if they don’t tolerate holding?  She likes her pen and will easily go back inside when asked, so I don’t have to catch her very often now and she isn’t used to being picked up.  Should I practice picking her up more?

I’m not planning on doing the pre-bonding, since she will have to go on a few successful dates with the second bunny before we bring him home.  Do you think that rearranging the furniture/setup in the rabbit’s current room will make things feel different enough to make it a neutral territory?  I want to put them in side by side pens until they are bonded.

[Sarah]

You will need a territory that no bunny has been in. Unfortunately, just rearranging the furniture won’t work because your current rabbits smell is on everything.
For bringing your rabbit to neutral area, you could always train her to go into a carrier on command or in a box or something so you can carry her from place to place. All you have to do is get her used to associating a clicker with food (click=food). Then lure her in the carrier with food and click when she goes in. Then start saying “go in” when you lure her in. Then once she does that you can just start to use your hand and point into the carrier and say “go in” and she should go in. It doesnt take long at all.
Hope this helps!

[Asriel and Bombur]

You can also do it when they’re in their litter box. Considering most buns can be found their munching on hay it shouldn’t be too difficult

What you’re suggesting is fine for semi-neutral, but you really do need a fully neutral space that way neither one thinks the space is theirs.

[OverthinkingBun]

I was afraid of that. Putting bunnies in a different room will be difficult because of our cat and our apartment’s floorpan. He’s not very aggressive but doesn’t have much sense and can’t be around rabbits unsupervised because he makes himself sick on hay. Maybe we can figure out a “roof” for the rabbit pens to help cat-proof them.

@A&B, I’ve tried that trick, but she hops out once it starts moving I do weigh her by using the litter box to convince her to hop on a scale, though.

[Asriel and Bombur]

A member once used a one of those fold-able fabric xpens, and it worked great for them. It has a roof on it, and it’s pretty contained, but it did the trick

[Author]

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