Poorly chicken

[coppers]

I would like some advice for my DD re bonding her two rabbits. She has a female of about 18 months old and a male of about 6 months old. They are both small Rex rabbits. The male was neutered a few weeks ago, all was fine and he healed well. The vet said to introduce them a week after his op so DD did so, in their lounge. These two rabbits have been sharing the same run (with wire down the middle so they were separated) since July and have been okay. They sniffed each other etc and lived happily alongside each other when in the run. They have met often, but only with wire between them, in the run, and when one was in its hutch and the other hopped around outside of the hutch. Iyswim?

 

On introduction all went very wrong. The male attacked the female immediately, very badly, so they were separated straight away. It all happened in an instant and took DD by surprise. The female was taken to the Vet and ended up having to have an op to stitch her up. The Vet has now told DD that she should wait a month so that the male's hormones settle down. DD was not told this before and acted on the Vet's previous advice. She is now very nervous about reintroducing the two rabbits in case the female gets attacked again. She definitely doesn't want the female to be hurt again and doesn't really want another Vet's bill of £200!

 

Any tips?? Thanks. x

[lillybettybabs]

You need to bond in a very neutral area, I tend to use the bathroom and have a bath at the same time

that way you can flick some water if things get too aggressive.

Remember things will be rough for a few months even when they are bonded; they will be snuggling one

moment and fighting the next. You may want to think about spaying the other bun as girl bunnies get

aggressive when the come into breeding age.

[coppers]

Thanks. I have passed your advice on to DD. xx

[Sageandonion]

Sorry to hear about your female bun, hope she is on the mend soon.

 

We have followed our neighbour's advice twice when bonding our male with a female. He is with his second "wife", his first died prematurely unfortunately. First time around it was easy, second time it took a little longer, he was indifferent to her at first -though there was no nastiness.

 

We have a 7ft hutch and put a wire mesh down the middle so that they could see eachother. Every night we would swap them over so that they could get used to eachother's smell and not get territorial. We would put them in adjacent runs during the day and again swap them over. As lillybettybabs says we put them together in a neutral area - our hall. We put a towel down, rabbits don't like slippery floors and they would be near eachother on the towel. We had a tunnel and a plastic hideaway thing so that they could hide if necessary. We would alternate rubbing their noses/heads, again to transfer their smell. We didn't leave them unattended and had tempting greens down for them to share. We built up the bonding sessions in terms of time.

 

I hope you have better luck next time. It may be that it was too soon after the op and the fact that your female isn't neutered. The hormones do stay for up to a month. I have heard/read that the best pairings are neutered male/females. I think we were lucky with our male, he is very laid back and placid and loves company. Both females were not neutered when introduced, though we got them neutered later.

 

Hope all goes well next time, it is lovely to see rabbits snuggled up. A good indication of bonding is when they are at ease enough to groom eachother.