Going to try and bond Vince & Faline

Well, today Hazel is going in for her spey so as she will be out for the day and will spend tonight in the house I try and bond Vince and Faline. I put them together briefly yesterday and they ignored each other for a bit, then Vince humped her so I took him off her. He then nudged her under the chin as if to want grooming but she ignored him and moved away, he didn't look too chuffed with this and tried to hump her again. She moved away and wagged her tail at him, she then head butt him so I seperated them before anything bad happened. I think he wss trying to claim dominance and she wasn't going to let him be top rabbit so she wagged her tail in annoyance.
All 3 are going to the vet today, Faline and Vince need their post op checkup so I will put them in the same carrier to travel together and when I get them home I'll set up a temp run in a neutral place and put some peanut butter on their heads to encourage grooming. (I read that somewhere on another bunny site, it works with rats!) Both are clean bunnies so it'll be nice for Faline to share a space with a bunny who doesn't poo everywhere and use the litter tray as a dig box

Not sure what I'll do with Hazel tmrw if Valine and \Vince get on, Hazel is the boss of Faline so I just hope Vince submits to her. I'll update later!

Good luck, don't be in a rush though, Vince will still be acting on testosterone, and Faline is still post op. I guess small introductions may be ok.
Personally I wouldn't feed peanuts to a rabbit in any form. whilst rodents can eat these, lagamorphs cannot tolerate beans, which the peanut is.

ahhh ok, it wouldn't stick to them anyway and what did they shook off so I wiped it away

They are sat in the kitchen together, Vince humped for about 5 mins then belly flopped on teh floor, Faline didn't object to the humping and now they are eating a bit of carrot together. They both seem fairly relaxed, esp Vince.

Aye I read somewhere it takes up to 4 weeks for the hormone levels to drop so.. Might be worth waiting or the bad behaviour becomes a 'learned' response rather than a purely hormonal one.

I did the sticking to the head trick for grooming, using a little banana. Probably also not good for them, but I didn't give them too much and it is rather sticky. I only think this trick will work with bunnies that are interested in food more than a new bunny, though.

God I dread to think what Gloria might do as she is VERY interested in food. It might turn her cannibal as she might not stop at the head!

Fingers crossed with the bonding, although they do sound like they are getting on quite well in a quiet way.

NickieM wrote:God I dread to think what Gloria might do as she is VERY interested in food. It might turn her cannibal as she might not stop at the head!

LOL, Hazel is like that too

Well, they seemed ok in the kitchen, Vince is quite affectionate to her, he seems to really like her, she is ok with him. They were laying next to each other this afternoon and eating dandelion leaves together. They seemed very peaceful so I put them both in Vince's hutch. He seems to like her being there and didn't mind her exploring, he gives her space and she is tolerant of his ocassional humping sessions. I think she prefers Hazel, who is top dog. With Vince I think she, but I couldn't be sure at this point. She's quite a quiet bun and Vince seems to have fallen in love with her
I'm not expecting things to go so smoothly with Hazel and Vince though, she is quite fiesty and had growled at him and nipped him on the face a few times through the bars. he didn't object though, I think Vince likes the girls

Im not surprised Hazel is a bit more difficult- she has been horribly injured by another bun so she is going to be feeling frightened.

I think it will take time and patience with her.

Just a little update, Vince and Faline seem very happy together, Vince is totally loved up and adores Faline. Faline was washing his ears for him earlier and Vince was in bliss. He loves being groomed on his head, he loves it when we do it so it must be even better when another rabbit does it for him. They lay next to each other, Vince on his side and Faline with her legs stretched out. I think I have just experienced the most easy bonding ever!

Aw thats good.