Bonding Advice

Hi,

I’m looking for some advice on bonding my two rabbits! They are both fixed, and have been bonded before (to different rabbits who have since passed; I adopted the lop buck (S’more) to bond to my Netherland Dwarf doe (Rosie) after we lost her mate unexpectedly). I’m not sure about S’more’s age since he was rescued after being abandoned by his previous owner (along with his previous mate, who did not survive 😢), but he’s definitely an older bun. Rosie is five.

We’ve been working on bonding for about a month now, and seem to have reached a standstill. The main challenge is that when Rosie feels cornered or overwhelmed, she will lunge at and box S’more. Thankfully, it’s never escalated to an actual fight, and she’s never drawn blood. Otherwise, they get along great; they’ve even both groomed each other. They have no problem sitting next to each other or sharing hay. They’ve been at this stage for several weeks now.

I guess I’m not sure where to go to from here? I want to put them together, but I’m not sure if they’re ready yet. They seem to be stuck at a mostly good point, other than the occasional aggression from Rosie. Thankfully, S’more never seems to take it personally (he just wants to be close to her 🥹), but I don’t want to assume that they will be ok and put them together and then have them get into a big fight. I’m in unfamiliar territory here haha because my previous rabbit bonding experience went much differently.