Bunny bonding..

Question
QUESTION: Hi there,

I have been a bunny owner for 9 years now. I had a beautiful little Dutch rabbit named Calvin for a wonderful 8 years who passed away this past march. He was little trained and had full run of my house, no cage ever.

I now have 2 new bunnies, and they are the ones I am struggling with. They are about 5/6 months old, both female, both spayed (a month ago). They were best best friends for the first month we brought them home. They were quickly perfect with litter training and had the run of most of my house. They would snuggle, groom and sleep with each other. Perfect.

Then one day Dexter started humping Riley and Riley fought back hard! I separated them, one upstairs and one downstairs and they have been separated since - about 2 months.

Now that they have been spayed and have healed I have been researching bunny bonding and have started having daily bunny dates. I take them in the car where they show no aggression and they snuggle together. Then I bring them inside and put them in a small gated corner of my bathroom (neither's territory) with a litter box and lettuce. They have been so so good together. Dexter grooms Riley like crazy. She bows her head to Riley and then Riley will do the same. Riley and Dexter will both almost crawl under each other. But every once in a while Riley will suddenly bite Dexter really hard and they TRY to get into a full on hard fight. I immediately stop them and separate them and have been bit hard in the split.

Please help me. My house is separated. My husband and I are having trouble coping with this because we love them both so much. They show no signs of aggression to either of us at all. They give a million kisses to us both every day.

Please, any advice.
Thank you so much for your time.

-Jackie

ANSWER: Hi Jackie,

there's a difference between establishing dominance and actual fighting.  One is necessary for the pair to go through, the other is destructive.  Sometimes it's hard for us to tell the difference because to us it looks the same.  But it's not.

In any pair or group, one rabbit will always be dominant.  That's how they are, one is in charge.  Once that's settled everyone moves forward.  Now dominance sometimes changes, but one is always the top bunny.

Also keep in mind the behavior of intact rabbits and those rabbits after a spay are different in the sense the former is awash in high hormone levels that affect how they deal with other rabbits.  Spayed, they have much lower hormones, and they are a lot "freer" to make different choices than they were before when their high hormone levels kind of overwhelmed their personalities.  The pre-spay behavior is artificial, hormones override personality.  Post-spay, the rabbit's underlying personality is able to come out and the rabbit has a choice to do different things other than the one hormones would have pretty much made him/her do.

The mounting behavior is a dominance move, for any sex rabbit.  They might fur pull a little fur from the back area.  Chasing, mounting, little nips and the one you describe are generally part of dominance and not fighting.  and from what you say both do get along which is good.

Fighting is stuff like: growling, charging the other one, continued biting at the face, ears, belly (ie not the single small nip, not the fur pulling of loose fur on the back), kicking with back feet, tussling and fighting while rolling on the floor, where you'd have to get in there and pull them apart.

Actual fighting is far different.  Dominance establishment can appear to look like that, but it is something every pair of rabbits has to settle before bonding can truly occur.  You have to try to let them figure it out.  You always have to watch them doing this because there is a possibility it can turn into fighting, and you don't want that.  The only times it's really a concern is when both rabbits appear to want to be the dominant one, and one doesn't seem to want to back down.  The other case is the dominant one is too aggressive for the one submitting, and it finally exhausts the submissive one and they fight back.  But otherwise they need to be let alone to determine who's going to be in charge, and then things can move forward with them.

There is always the possibility they won't bond. Or the other thing you might find is that they can play together for awhile, and then they can go back to their other areas separately.  This is not a bad situation either, because they get some time with another bunny, but they aren't bonded and it makes it easier in things like vet visits, spending time with each (sometimes bonded pairs lose interest in human interaction), they may like most of the time having their own space, and having a little time with another bunny, but not 24/7.

Bottom line is that even if bonding doesn't work it doesn't mean a terrible outcome.  They still may be able to spend small amounts of time together (supervised, though) and that may be all they need/want.  Rest of the time they have you.  But you have to give them a chance and not stop the dominance process unless it degrades into actual fighting.  If that occurs, give them a break from being together and trying it for a week.  If they fight after the week break again, it's a sign to stop bonding them.  Rabbits pick their friends, just like people.  

But from what you've described in their behavior you have a decent chance they will bond.

Spend some time on the House Rabbit Society web site (www.rabbit.org) and search their article database on "bonding".  Great stuff there.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You have no idea how nice it is to have somebody's support and wisdom. The one thing that I am struggling with is how I know if they are actually fighting or just showing dominance.

Basically, one will nip the other suddenly and the other will fly around and they will really go at it. They will get up on their back legs and clash paws and possibly bite each other. I dont know if they have actually bitten each other but I know that when I pull them apart, I got bit, badly and that scared me thinking that if she bit the other bunny like that it would have been terrible with their thin skin.

If there is biting involved, have they definitely crossed the line into a fighting place rather than a show of dominance? I want to let them sort it out, but its really scary and emotional.

Perhaps I can have my husband take a video of us doing this this weekend and post it for your opinion?

You have no idea how thankful I am that you provide this service.

-Jackie

Answer
Hi,

If they are rearing up a lot and a nip starts them both going, if you see fur flying and they are tussling, I'd say it's time to take that week break now.

Don't let them be able to get to each other for one week.  Use double gates if necessary so they can't nip through the gates.

then try one more time, and if the result is the same, give them a couple months.  try one last time.  If not I would not try it anymore.  It's notthe end of the world, there are a lot of advantages to solo bunnies.  They really love their owners and at some point in the future they may grow into tolerating the other for a little while.  

Lee