Hello all, I have a 9-year Mini Lop (black and white, male, fixed) named Oliver. Poor Oliver lost his bonded bun wife (Peppers) in July. After a couple weeks, we adopted another female (fixed, Penny) for him to bond with; however, she was spayed at an old age and had some lingering uterine cancer left. She passed away about 2 weeks ago. Since we don't want him to be lonely, we adopted a young English Lop/Angora mix rabbit, Mochi, from a local bunny rescue.
Mochi's foster parents had cats, and she was extremely interested in them. She's quite the lovey girl and just wants other animal love. Oliver, however, is very particular. He was likely abused in his previous home (we adopted him 4 years ago) and has always been shy.
We brough Mochi home and set her up in a pen close to Oliver. He ran right up to the pen and shows lots of interest in her. Oliver never showed any interest like this to the previous bunny (Penny) we got to try to bond. We thought that was a good sign because maybe that means he actually wants to bond? However, soon Mochi stuck her nose through the fence to sniff him and soon Oliver nipped her. He seems to be nipping her, so we put some boards up along the fence to block him from doing that. He never nipped Penny; however, with Peppers (the bun wife) there were quite a few tornados where we had to separate them.
Is it too soon to tell if the bonding is a lost cause? He seems to be quite territorial over the space and over us (even though he isn't a lovey bun). It took my husband and I about 2-3 months to bond Oliver to his bun wife (Peppers). I'm quite nervous to try the tub method or let them actually be near each other. Poor Mochi just wants love and affection and Oliver is being a grump.
by ConsistentCover7161