Email received for bonding advice.

The administration email was sent this email overnight and I am posting it here for everyone to offer advice.

'I have had two bunnies for almost 5 months now, I got them when they were 8 weeks old, and they aren't from the same litter, but they were born the same day, and housed together for those 8 weeks. One is a female lion lop, and the other is a male lion head. From day one they were soul mates. They would cuddle, groom one another, and play together. I already had it planned that I was going to get them both fixed. When it came to them being about 3 months old, I woke up to fur from both bunnies everywhere, and I had to take the female to the vets to get stitches, while the male only had a few scratches.  I don't why it happened, or where it came from, but they were perfect the day before. After that I kept them separated for a long time until both were fixed, and then also waited another 6 weeks after that before I tried to bond them back together. I have tried car rides with them in the same carrier, which always went well, I house them next to each other so they know each other are present, but far enough they cant bite at each other, and I have also tried putting them in neutral territory where they tend to do decently well.  The only problem is, is that if the male tries to mount her, she gets mad, but it hardly ever gets to him trying because she usually, out of nowhere, bites his back end, and back legs multiple times which he doesn't mind at first but then get angry. The female also tries to get after him when I let him out of his cage for exercise, but when I let her out, he just hops over to the side of the cage she is at and watches her. I have started trying the neutral territory again, and a spray bottle, which even after I sprayed the female, she would stop and then go after his back end again. Please help me!!'

Hi Hun

I received this too - I replied to the lady and also suggested she joins up and posts to get the maximum advice. I suggested she sees if there is a rescue near to her that would bond them for her too.

Firstly I would encourage you to join the forum as there is a wealth of advice to be  offered from our members.

I have been in this situation, during bonding my doe was injured by my buck and they took a long time to bond after that because she was naturally very of him.

We also had a similar discussion yesterday when our local hopper group met. There is no one set of advice for bonding because each case is different.

The expert advice currently is against the stress approach (so no drives and bath tubs).

If you can set up two pens next to each other so the buns have space to exercise and see each other at all this message. Don't attempt a face to face until they are mostly both ignoring each other. Once they are not showing a negative reaction to each other through the bars then attempt a face to face.

For face to face you want a large neutral space with plenty of hidey holes. Cardboard boxes with a one bun sized hole cut in them are ideal as it means a frightened bun can defend themselves without fighting. Unless they properly lock on to each other then do not stop mounting, chasing or scrapping as they have to work out their problems.

Unfortunately you can't hurry bonding or rebonding.

(Thanks Katie)