As of a few days ago, we adopted a new rabbit to keep our old rabbit company when the fall and winter seasons cause my wife and I to work more. We started with a speed date at a shelter, and it went swimmingly. Our old rabbit is Yuna, a 4 year old New Zealand white. The new rabbit is Pip, a roughly one or more year old Dutch Mix (not certain as he was originally a stray). We started by separating them with Yuna, being a free roam rabbit, having the rest of the apartment and Pip being locked off with a double gate in our bedroom. They were laying next to the gate and sniffing each other and doing well. So we started doing some bonding yesterday. Only about a half an hour. Yuna has been showing so much aggression, even though we put them in a fully washed down and scrubbed, neutral territory. This morning we had to break up a fight as Yuna decided to leap the gate and attack Pip in our bedroom. We were able to immediately stop it as we were just reading in bed at the time.
So now, we are on about day 3. This is our new set up. Pip is small, so we set him up in a puppy play pen, and put up wire gating around the outside so even if he chews a hole somehow, he can’t immediately get out.
We have watched and taken notes of so many different bunny bonding techniques and are fighting the feelings of discouragement, so, I ask you, is this a better start? This pen and sort of forcing an interaction of Pip being around Yuna? They are very docile when separated by a wall, even if they see each other. Yuna has been watching him and not showing any signs of aggression. Also, if there’s any advice from any bun parents that have had to bond a free roam rabbit, we would love to hear it.
Thank you!
by Tropical_Zeffa
