Bunny bonding

Hi all, My second post here. Glad to find a community about buns!

Is it advisable to try and bond an adult spayed female (2/3 years old) with a baby male?

As first time bunny owners, we adopted our Josie about 3 months ago. As a rescue we didn't know much about her, but have found her to be not very affectionate to humans but certainly sweet. She'll will put up with a few pets, does NOT like to be held but jumps up on my lap for treats and comes running to greet us with head bumps. We've had her to many bunny get togethers at a neutral building and she's always been great: lots of bunny nose meet-ups, a couple of times a male would try to mount her and she just sat there, and accepted grooming from many different friends.

Fast forward to this past weekend when we met up with one of our bunny friends who had 5 little buns that she'd hand fed because a dog killed their mother. Lionhead babies currently at 8 weeks old. She wasn't sure what she'd do because they would/could only keep 2. My 10 year old daughter and I decided we'd take one of them, thinking Josie would love a friend. I knew enough to keep them separated but get used to each other's odor. I used one of Josie's blankets to make a bed for the new little one. The next day I brought that blanket into Josie's room. She sniffed it, left poops all around it, and then went CRAZY! Running reckless all over the room and biting at anyone that went near the blanket or trying to pick up the poops. We got the blanket out eventually, and were able to pick up the poops once she settle down and was distracted by food.
That night when we put Josie in her cage for the night, we then brought in the baby bunny in his cage and set him in the room, NOT next to her cage. In the morning, my daughter usually lets Josie out of her cage, so on this morning, I asked her to remove the babie's cage from the room before she let Josie out. Unknowingly, one of the babie's poops landed outside the cage and on the floor of the bunny room. While I was moving the babie's cage from the hallway to a different room, I heard my daughter say "Josie is pooping all around the babie's poop". As I walked back to the room, Josie started running crazy again and jumped up and bit my daughter's upper thigh. Hard.
As an inexperienced bunny mum, I got very scared. I think my next step is to re-introduce them in neutral territory, keeping the baby in his cage. But the biggest question: Is it even possible to bond an adult with a baby?

I'm nowhere near an expert but from what I've read recently I think the pooing is a territory thing, and I know that when introducing rabbits it needs to be done on neutral ground. Someone else will be able to tell you way more!

It is really important in bonding that both rabbits are neutered. That little male lionhead is probably just starting to give off lots of hormones, which may well be upsetting her. There is no reason you can't start getting them used to each other now, but I would strongly advise neutering him as soon as he is ready and then leaving it a few weeks for his hormones to settle before you consider letting them have direct contact.

I've never heard of behaviour quite as extreme as she has shown (to a third party rather than the other bun) and it's difficult to tell whether it is true aggression or simple overexcitement.

Neutral territory is also very important, so it might be worth introducing her to his smell somewhere outside of her own room. Instead of putting a blanket in her territory, could you leave it somewhere else that she can free-range, but which she does not consider 'hers'? The pooping is definitely a territory issue.

Just out of interest, are you in the US? It's the only place I have heard of which have bunny 'hoppy hours'...

As Zo said the pooing everywhere is a territory thing. Lots of people find that they need to redo litter training with bonding.

If you were asking ahead of getting a bun I would advise you not to get a baby. They problem being that babies hormones are all over the place in their first 9 months or so and so can be difficult to bond.

I know you have read some of the other threads so you will have already seen that the most important thing with bonding is to have both buns neutered. Your baby buck will smell very strongly of boy to Josie and as such she is likely to become quite territorial. Does are far more territorial than bucks because they see bucks as being there to mate with them. Because she can smell him she will assume that anyone coming near her will be wanting to mate with her as well. Once he is neutered this scent should lessen and she will accept him more easily.

So remove him from her areas until he has been done and then give it another 4-8 weeks for his hormones to settle after neutering. He should be able to be neutered from 12 weeks or as soon as his testicles drop.

The next important thing is that bonding areas need to be neutral, not smelling of buns and it should be small enough that neither bun will be able to claim any territory in it.

You need to remember that baby buns do all sorts of silly things that adult buns do not tolerate. When Bruce was young he thought it fun to launch himself over the end of the sofa and scare the life out of me and sometimes bite me on the boob. Baby buns think these sorts of things are fun.

I bonded my pair when Bruce was 3 and Flo was a baby. It was a nightmare and there are lots of things that I didn't know then that would have been really useful. The most important is understanding rabbit language. If you want to read up on this then this book is good. Many people - myself included - mis understand rabbit behaviour espcially between buns and will split up bonding scuffles too soon.

However I would also point out that accidents happen whilst bonding that are not necessarily deliberate and therefore I would advise you to insure your rabbits before you start a bond. You do not have to keep it up but it is wise for the bad bit of bonding. My really did not get on at all initially because Bruce was really curious and Flo was really scared. One day I felt like we were getting somewhere and Bruce was sniffing around Flo's back legs. She panicked and kicked out at him. He responded by grabbing the nearest bit of flesh and ended up splitting open the skin all down the inside of her back leg. It cost me in excess of £300 just to have her stitched back up and then had many follow up appointments.

I am a great believer in perseverance though. Once Flo had healed both from her accident and from her spay it took 6 months of perseverance to get my 2 bonded. And for most of that they fought daily to some extent. However they have a very tight bond now and it was totally worth it.

I think she is showing you and your daughter what is known as referred aggression, although I've only heard of it bun to bun before and not bun to person.

It is common for buns to take out their temper in there partner when a new bun encroaches on their territory.

Like the others have said I would leave all bonding until after the little guy has been neutered and his hormones have calmed down.

A waiting game I'm afraid :-)

Yes Sparky we are in Minnesota. And we DO call it Hoppy Hour.
I ran out of the house for a short bit and was so excited to see some responding posts when I got back. Thank you

Thank you too cheryl! I really appreciate it.

Hey you snuck in there too katieb, thank you

Minnesota is the Hoppy Hour that has their videos posted on Disapproving rabbits isn't it? What does Josie look like? I will look out for her on the videos.

She is a grey/light brown lop. I'm not so sure I've ever seen any video being taken while we were there, but I know there is someone taking photos once in a while. I've never been to their site though so I'll have to check it out!

Videos of Hoppy Hour from Youtube: clicky

We in the UK are quite fascinated by the idea, but not quite brave enough to try it

OK that site is hilarious! I did see a video up that is from the Golden Valley Hoppy Hour, which is actually closer to our home, but so far we've enjoyed the company of the smaller group in South St. Paul, and that is also where the adoption event was held when we got Josie. We wanted to make sure she was OK with everything before we introduce her to even more rabbits in GV. AND we've come to like the people in our small group, easier to talk with everyone. My daughter does however want to try GV soon.

Just called our vet about neutering. We'll have to wait til our little guy is 4 months old. gah I thought it was 3 months honestly.

The Age can vary slightly - as soon as the testicles drop and he is at a good weight he can be done. Although I think daisy was 16 weeks.