Bonding before or after moving?

[TheEstherBunny]

I have an almost 1-year old bun named Esther. I’ve had her for 6 months and love her dearly, of course! We’re going to be moving into a studio apartment in September once my current lease is up (2 apartment mates). Esther is a free-roam bunny, but she is only interested in my room. Invitations and treat-lures into the living room don’t accomplish much. She’s just disinterested in the space and visibly much more comfortable in *her* room (which she graciously shares with me), so I do have an option for a neutral space for bonding. 

I’ve been planning on taking her to speed dates to pick out a friend, but after doing more research on the bonding process I’m unsure which would be better for her, before or after the move. Since she’s spayed, happy, and healthy, I was planning to start the bonding rigamarole, especially with an anticipated dump of bunnies on local shelters due to Easter coming up soon. But I’m torn whether now is the right time. 

On the one hand, I want her to feel as loved and happy and safe as possible, and I know that involves attention and communication from another bun. How do I know if she needs a bun friend *right now*? On the other hand, I would hate to exile the new bun to the living room for the next two months during bonding, which would be necessary as Esther has thoroughly claimed every inch of my room. Is the living room neutral enough, if Esther has been in there a handful of times? If I wait until the move, the new apartment will be truly neutral (I’m buying new rugs, replacing some furniture, etc.), and I will be more able to parcel it into Esther’s space and Somebun’s space for bonding. Since it will be studio apartment, at least there won’t be a wall isolating Somebun and they’ll theoretically feel more welcome… but is September too far away?

So- in everyone’s experience, would it better to bond before the move or after? Am I being selfish by not taking her mate-shopping immediately? 

Thank you for the feedback!

[BeanMode]

We began bonding just after moving and in our case it made a huge, positive, impact. The territorial behavior was minimal to non-existent and we had a ton of neutral space to work with in the new apartment. In general I’d say our pre-bonding stage was easier than normal, but not incredibly shorter overall- the buns (and humans too for that matter x-x moving is hard) were given plenty of time to settle into the new place’s smells and sounds before we started dating. Just did a lot of the swapping of things/cages.

If you have a rescue you want to work with, and you decide to wait until after the move, I’d let them know you’re planning a move. Ours worked with us- letting us do all the speed dates before we moved and then we were able to set up a pick up date for our new lady on the same day we were planning on moving our current bun into the new apartment and they were able to come home together.

[TheEstherBunny]

Thank you for the input, BeanMode! I’m leaning toward waiting for the move to have a truly neutral space. How far in advance did you begin your pre-bonding?

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