Bonding 2 rabbits

[PandaEyes2]

Hi

So we got a female baby rabbit nearly 4 weeks ago. She's about 14 weeks old now. She's a house rabbit, confined to a cage during the day and free reign in the evenings while we are with her. When we took her for her jabs the vet advised us to get another one because they need company of their own sort and can get very lonely. We decided we would wait until we had her spayed.

However we had been looking at getting her a bigger cage and we found the perfect one at such a good price on a local selling sight but it came with an adult male rabbit. However the previous owners don't know much about him. They thought he's around 2 and half and don't know if he's neutered. He's a sweet boy (lionhead our girl is Rex x lop) likes fuss etc. We know we have to do things gradually but how exactly do we bond them?

We have him booked at the vets for Saturday to check the neutering situation and we will have him done if he isn't. They have their cages in the same room so I think they can see each other. We let him out last night for an hour to explore he front room and he was rubbing his scent on one of her toys. She could definitely see him from her cage, but she was just interested. No aggression or foot stomping. However when we put him back she came out and rubbed her scent on everything and left a few droppings around the room. From what I've read this shows she's leaving her mark to warn this is her territory as I know rabbits are territorial.

For the time being we've just swapped toys between cages so hopefully they'll pick up each other scent and then we will move the cages next to each other (but we are reserved until we know about his overall health) we don't think he's been mistreated but definitely not loved. And advice further on how to make sure they bond. I'm worried our girl is going to be too dominate and cause upset

Sorry for the long post

Bonding adult rabbits can be tricky!

Advice is to introduce them on neutral ground - so maybe in the garden or in a room your female rabbit doesn't go in. Supervise closely and separate them if they fight and try again another day. Keeping their hutches close so they can sniff through the bars might help too.

If either bunny still needs to be neutered I would advise doing this before you try and bond them - a spell at the vets is enough to un-bond even the best of bunny friends, and you might have to do it all again.

Good luck :)

Watching with interest as in the same situation with out lovely house rabbit. He needs a friend, he's almost 1yr now.

You're doing the right thing taking it slowly and swapping toys. You could also swap cages so they get used to each other's scent

this will be a long process for you. she wont be able to be spayed for quite a few weeks although she could get pregnant soon. he will be fertile for at least 4 weeks after neuter. they can mate through bars of cage. so need to be kept seperate for a while yet but within sniffing distance is good. but when time comes just introduce in neutral area and feed them to give them something to do other than chase each other around. but well done for giving both a happier future

Thank you so much everyone for the advice! I've never had rabbits before so a little apprehensive about he best course of action. He's coming out of his shell much more now and he's a very sweet gentle little bunny. But having said that, they both are and both come for a little fuss if you talk to them.

His appointment at the vets tomorrow morning will tell us more about him hopefully. My partner let them out separately last night but in the same room with the girl in her cage on the floor. They had a little sniff of each other's noses and then resumed what they were doing! But definitely won't be doing it again until we know he's neutered

Well we've just been for his health check and thankfully everything is perfect, however we've just discovered he is in face a girl! So we have 2 girls not a boy lol

You'll need to make sure they're both spayed before trying to bond them - unspayed females are very territorial.

Not sure if I'm allowed to post a link, but there is a lot of information on the web about bonding.

Link