Bonding my two Rabbits

Question
Hello, I have a question relating to my two rabbits Kurly and Peanut. Well, it's been more than 5 weeks after Kurly's operation and I want to bond him and Peanut together. Peanut's not spayed but Kurly is. I know the first step is to put their cages aside eachother and their cages have been side by side since like December! I think they've gotten used to being near eachother already. Whenever one rabbit has free run of the backyard (under supervision of course) he/she would go touch noses with the other rabbit through the cage bars. And I think that's a sign that they wanna be together! The last time they were in a cage together was in November and they had to be separated because Kurly wouldn't stop humping Peanut and Peanut would get fed up and eventually started screaming her lungs out and lunging. The next encounter was when both had free run of my room and Peanut ended up humping Kurly and then she lunged at him when he trid to hump her. The last encounter of them having free run together, Kurly wouldn't stop chasing Peanut in the yard so I had to separate them cause I thought someone would wind up getting hurt. What's the best method of bonding these two silly rabbits?

P.S Yesterday, I let Peanut exercise her legs by letting her run in the grass and she peed on one spot then I put her back in her cage and let Kurly out. He binkied over fourteen times then went on sniffing the trees and leaves and then smelled Peanut's pee and he couldn't get away from the scent! He rubbed it with his chin then licked it and hopped away then kept going back to it and what not. I hope this is enough info for you to give me some advice to bond them!

Answer
Hi Vanessa,

I would not recommend going through all the work of bonding them, only to separate them if Peanut gets spayed, and then possibly breaking the bond.  I don't recommend trying to bond a pair where one is still intact.  One has full hormones and their actions are significantly determined by the high hormone levels, the other is more mellowed and calmer and it's just not a good match-up.

The best thing to do is do what you are doing now, getting them used to each other across gates.  As long as they are amicable it's a good foundation to work on once Peanut gets spayed and you wait 4-5 weeks for her hormones to plateau at their new, lower levels.  You can exchange a little bit of litter from each of them into the others' pans, so they start getting used to each others' smells being in the same litterpan.  But I wouldn't try doing any bonding until she is altered and is 4-5 weeks after her operation.

The House Rabbit Society has a lot of articles on bonding:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/introductions.html

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/behavior/bonding-tips.html

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/4-4/tough-bonding.html

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/behavior/expect.html

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-4/marriage.html

I'd read up on them and save them and print them out for review and use during your future bonding attempts.

Lee