Turning Hate Into Love | Bonding Our Aggressive Rabbits 

Fun fact: when bunnies put their head down to another bunny, they are trying to establish dominance. They are establishing this because they are asking to be groomed by the other bunny!

BUN MI?! Excuse me, that’s the best rabbit name I’ve heard so far. Well done.

From enemies to friends to lovers 🥺🙌❤

0:00 Intro 1:24 About the bunnies 2:40 Overview of bonding process 3:26 Pre-bonding and aggression 6:00 Side by side pens 6:20 Table bonding 8:18 Bunny fight 9:57 Grooming trick 10:24 Micro floor bonding 12:15 Playpen dates 14:18 Bonded!

I've been watching what feels like hundreds of videos and asking hundreds of questions on forums and finally started bonding three days ago. Had tried a month ago and they fought pretty bad and I was so nervous. Calming myself a lot more this time, going better this time. I love that Bunmi is kind of named after food 😂 my girl's name is Hasenpfeffer.

I cannot thank you enough for this video. My two bunns, Rosemary and Thyme, hate eachother:( they've gotten in a few fights and I've been scared to bond them because of it because I feel so awful everytime they fight. This gave me some confidence though and my bunns are over 2 months post spay so it's about time I get over myself and my fears and try bonding my bunns.

Thanks for sharing your rabbits bonding process! This is the exact info I have been looking for! Stress bonding does not appeal to me and the table sessions are the perfect solution. So helpful!

The decision to simply combine the 2 pens into a single, larger one at that precise point was the deciding factor I think, and quite a brilliant idea. 💡 🐰 🐰

This video appeared at the perfect timing for me! I just got another bunny, and very similar situation to your bunnies where my first bunny was completely free-roam so it was a bit difficult having to restrict him to just part of the house. And finding a neutral space was so hard since my first bunny always had access to all parts of the house. I really liked how you included your timeline in the beginning to better get a sense of how long all your different methods/phases took. Definitely gonna check out your other videos!!!

These 2 are the cutest! 😍 Anyone bonding bunnies for the first time, the banana trick works! I’m fact, I will occasionally smear a bit nana on my face just to get my bunnies to groom me ~ yes I’m completely shameless when it comes to bunny love 😂🐇💞 This is an EXCELLENT video!! Much love to you and your beautiful bunnies 😇

This seems like such a better method than the fear methods of having them in a carrier and shaking them around. I have two buns who are completely separated because of a similar situation, so this will definitely be what I try. Thank you!

This is the best video on bunny bonding I have seen. I love the fact that you showed a calendar for the timeline. One month is definitely more realistic than a week. I also loved that you tried one way, give it a chance to see if it would work, and then changed if it did not. Love your flexibility and love your simplicity on explaining your method.

For a couple of months now, I have been thinking about getting another bunny to bond with my own and have been really nervous about it, but I still think it will be a really good idea for my bunny. This was the best, most realistic video I have seen and I really appreciate all your information and honesty with your process. Thank you! Your bunnies are so sweet.

I had no idea there were Rabbit Sanctuaries in my area. Thanks for sharing

This was very informative I didn’t know about the table bonding. I knew about the stress putting them in the carrier for a rocky walk or car ride. When I adopted my second bun the rabbit rescue happily bonded mine for me outside of my home and I watched two of theirs that were already bonded it was a great exchange that was free if you cared for two or theirs. Even though I didn’t have to bond mine this was a great informative video.

Loppies!!!

this is the best video on this subject. well done.

So helpful! I wasn't sure where we were at but after watching this I think we need to go back to the table. I love the timeline and those fluffle buns are so adorable.

I love how you rub their little noses. So cute.

Thank you for sharing your experience, about to start the process of bonding my bunnies, one is indifferent but the other is not happy to say the least. Your video has been super insightful and has given me more confidence in trying to bond them!

This is super helpful! I'm struggling with an aggressive bun at the minute. Sometimes it's feeling like it'll never happen but fingers crossed. Gotta be more stubborn than my bun 😂

It took a car trip from Alaska to Washington state to bond them 😂. We tried all the tricks first, but it wouldn’t work.

I’ve never heard of table bonding before, only the stress bonding techniques. I wish I had known that before, I had a brother and sister bunny since they were babies, but once their hormones started they fought *constantly* (I thought they were both girls, I separated them as soon as I found out lol). Once they were both fixed I tried to rebond them but never had any success. Sadly my girl passed away a little over a year ago now from spay complications, and I’d pretty much given up on the idea of getting my boy a partner since he’s so ornery. But maybe I could win him over with that technique...

So cute!❤️❤️

Turbo lives up to his name 😂🤍. They’re both so cute. I loved this story.

Thank you for this advice! The flop and grooming footage is so adorable. We're about to embark on the bonding our bunny and also want avoid stress bonding. This is great.

this is a really good video. very informative. after finally getting my bunnies to bond, looking back at this video...it is spot on. Thank you for such a thorough and well articulated experience. your video gave me the hope and tools to keep trying...and my babies finally bonded! You are an awesome bunny mom.

This was so helpful! Thank you 💕

This video is such a life-saver! Just got another new bunny as a buddy, havent neutered yet but planning to. This video gave me so much knowledge for the future bonding sessions I plan to do with mine, ty so much 🥺😭

Thank you so much for this video, we just got another bunny and very optimistically put them together right away. It did NOT go well, but hearing your experience helps immensely. We're going to take a page from your book and hopefully they love each other eventually

Thank you so much! My male rabbit is extremely aggressive and I've started to get worried watching all the videos where bunnies have bonded so quickly and with no fights. I now have restored faith that they will be friends and this has given me some really helpful advice on how to get them there. Thank you!

That so cute. I could have watched this a day. I'm planning on getting another bunny too 🥰

Currently fostering a neutered boy to bond with my girl and this video is super helpful. I’ve seen them mirroring eachother in their pens but haven’t had great luck with their “dates”. Definitely gonna try table bonding.

I appreciate this video so much! I want to get my free roam bunny a companion, so I've been looking at bonding materials, and the prospect of stressing them out on purpose was putting me off a bit. So I appreciate a lot that not only you offer an alternative, but also shared the difficulties and un-successes along the way

This is such an encouraging video, thank you for posting! We’ve been struggling with bonding our bunnies and I’ve also wanted to avoid any stress bonding. I’ll be testing out some of the tips you mentioned, fingers crossed!

Thanks for this - am struggling with two aggressive boys in first week of bonding, so some good tips to try here

Thank you for this very helpful video!

CUTE!

Turbo is the cutest

Great video ...happy it worked out for you ..I'm in the early stages of bonding our two (neuted) male rabbits using many of the same techniques .. I waa getting a little despondend that they are still nipping at each other but you've given me enchoragment to persevere.

Tysm for this video,me and my family have just bought a new friend for our bunny since her sister passed away and we thought lets get her a friend. But the first day we tried introducing them to each other our new bunny didn't like our existing bunny so Im really glad I found this video so it can help me bond them.

Fantastic video, I wish it was around when I was bonding my 4 rabbits!! I didn't get all 4 at once of course! Two male and female pairs, where the males tolerated each other & the females absolutely hated each other! One of my pairs were siblings so no bonding required but the other two weren't related so it took a looong time for them to get on. Managed to bond a trio but my aggressive female attacked the other pair every chance she had, so I eventually had to abandon the bonding & just keep my 2 pairs separate. They're happy and living a luxurious free roam life, so it was all that work was definitely worth it! ❤🐇🐇❤

Omg Oven Mitts I'll never forget again

lol when you said 1s name was bunmi I was so hoping the other was bunyu

Thank you so much for uploading this video, I’m so glad I came across it! We have such a similar situation with a little boy bunny who’s lived with us a while that we’re about to try bonding with a larger female bunny, so this was super helpful

Thank you so much for sharing. I'm going to try this. I have two three-year old holland lops since babies and they were both completely free-roam. We decided to get 2 more babies since we had room and money to give them a really good home. But one thing I didn't expect was my sweet rabbits being so aggressive and territorial. It was heartbreaking to see the big ones trying to attack the new ones. Been a few months and I'm still so afraid to bond them again after their first fight. Will definitely try your idea and give an update!

this is such a helpful video. my male rabbit lost his bonded mate a few weeks ago and he's been so lonely. we just rescued a new female and after doing well in their meet and greet at the rescue, they are just nipping and fighting at home. With our last bond, they went through bunny dating at a rescue but we don't have that option this time around. Your stages seem very manageable and i much prefer your suggestion of table bonding instead of stress bonding. fingers crossed we can make this work!

Thank you so much for posting this. I had a bonded pair for four years but recently the female passed away. They had instantly bonded and moved in 3 days after bringing them together. The now lonely male, has always been super friendly with other rabbits. He also tends to be happier around others. I decided it was best to bond him with a new female as my circumstances are changing and o won’t be around as much during certain hours. I adopted a “chill” female but she instantly decided she didn’t like him. I’ve been trying for a week now and was about to give up on bonding. I decided to look up some info and your video has given me hope that they can still be bonded.

Very informative video! Thank you for the useful information. Your rabbits are very cute!

FIXING THEIR BROKEN BOND 🐰❤️🐰: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zLLevvj1r9M.html OUR CLEANING ROUTINE 🧹😍 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NGE3Qf_DlvA.html This is the story of how we bonded our rabbits Turbo and Bunmi. They weren't the easiest of pairs to bond as Turbo was very territorial and aggressive towards Bunmi but we still managed to bond them within a month and their bond is slowly getting stronger! We loosely followed the bonding guide from www.rabbitsanctuary.com.au/how-to-bond-your-rabbits (table bonding, floor bonding and playpen dates). We didn't use any stress bonding methods as we wanted the bunnies to bond through acceptance, rather than fear. Both bunnies were desexed before meeting. Turbo was desexed at SERV (Sydney) and Bunmi was desexed at Berry Vet Clinic through The Rabbit Sanctuary. I will be doing another video in the near future with tips for bonding difficult pairs of rabbits and how you set yourself up for success!

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! We just brought home our second bun. While they did great on their date at the shelter, at home it was a completely different story. I was so worried that an initial fight would mean they would never get along, but hearing Turbo and Bunmi's story makes me feel much more positive about moving forward!!! :)

I love Turbo- looks just like my old bunny

Mine loved each other instantly, I was super lucky with that

I love watching your video, we successfully bonded a few females, But I have just put up a video about one of my rabbits attacking the other and the damage two females can do to one another. A lot of patience and persistence but also knowing when two are not meant to be.

Bunmi is a Classic central European version of dwarf lop. In central Europe we don’t have minilop or holland lop we have a dwarf lop there are bigger 1,5 - 2 kg and longer

What a cuties 🐇🐇❤️❤️

Thanks 😊🙏 super helpful 👍

Such a thorough video. Loved the timeline in the calendar. I don't even have a rabbit but I'm considering fostering or adopting a pair

Thanks for this video. My bunnies are very aggressive and I will try the method

HI , I have two rabbits as well. I got the second one in the end of November, they had a huge fight in the next following weeks and so I had to start the bonding process again. The second rabbit has always felt comfortable with the first rabbit. He would pet him, lazing next to him, but he would be the one who would start the fight. the first rabbit doesn't do anything to the first rabbit and i think that it is the problem why the second rabbit starts the fights. It is a long bonding journey but i do not give up. hopefully my rabbits will like each other as your Turbo and Bunmi. Well done with the bonding!!!! they are so cute

My fvt is Australian Rex! Holland lop cute as well!

I’m feeling pretty discouraged with my bonding. I’ve bonded once before, but my male bunny passed in February, and my girl Marshmallow ended up getting pretty unhappy being alone. I adopted a sweet boy from a rescue, who was found in the garbage. He has settled in, but is still very timid. I have no neutral territory in my apartment and my female is very territorial. Anytime I let go of petting them in a squish she attacks him and starts aggressively dumping him and humping him, and he just cowers and doesn’t respond at all. (Of course I stop her.) He’s submitted from the get go, but she does NOT like him. My first attempt in trying to work up to putting them in a pen was unsuccessful so I started from the beginning with them entirely separated, with scent swapping. Now I’m starting again with short dates but there’s been absolutely no progress. The only interaction she has towards him is nipping, even though he has submitted and groomed her in the past. I don’t want to give him back!

Thank you!!! I'd pretty much given up on bonding my bunnies. We brought Peach home in August after a year and a half with just Lonny. They've had to be kept separate as Lonny would just attack her, so we just worked on bonding her with everyone else (people). We saw our first bit of progress between them only a week ago, when I was vacuuming their enclosures and they ran to eachother for comfort (trauma bonding I guess). So I did another youtube search for bonding info and found your video. So thank you! Table bonding is going great, and I have SOME hope again!:)

They are adorable! I have recently made my pet channel so watching other pet videos is so inspiring! I’m definitely subscribing!

I’ve just rehomed a neutered, male lionhead as a companion for my neutered, male mini lop. Don’t know whether I’m coming or going with our house divided up the way it is at the moment and I have no doubt we’ll have some difficult moments, but I’m hoping the end is worth it and we have a beautiful, bonded pair like you 🥰

I have found that putting a potty stool in the shared pen so who is the high rabbit can be established without humping or fighting is helpful. They need to sort out their hierarchy and Iive with it and this helps.

Awesome! This is very encouraging video, thanks for making it. I was thinking of getting a companion for my naughty girl. I always wanted to adopt a rabbit, but was quite worried about her attacking the other rabbit coz she is very territorial, running free in the flat, 3 yo..now this video makes me wanna do it again and I started to look at rabbit adoption , fingers crossed 🤞🐰🥰

thank you for this video currently trying to bond my 2 girls and i tryed the 24 hour bonding and once i put them together even though if was in a very small space they fought really badly and ripped skin of one of the bunnies and i terrifed to bond them again and this video gives me some hope.

I love the name Bunmi so cute 😍 Lol just heard where you got it from still super cute.

Bun mi!! hahahah best name

This is all very handy, I just adopted a second bun and they are both a bit aggressive with each other and didn't like the idea of stress bonding

wish i saw this years ago 👌👌💯

I'm just about to bring a female bun home to try and bond her with my neutered male, and I think stress bonding is really cruel, so I've been looking for more positive methods I can do that will not endanger or distress the rabbits too much. Luckily I found your channel! Thurberi is pretty easygoing with me and my cat, but I've never seen him interact with another bunny, so wish me luck, haha.

I've found this video very helpful for bonding our rabbits. We're about to set up neighboring pens. Do you remember where you got your pen gates from? Thanks!

3.3K VIEWS!! NICE!!

i don't own any bunnies but this was so cute

They are so lovely together! I'm trying to bond 2 males both neutered. Rascal and Harry (named after Houdini and his personality)Rascal was done a long time ago and Harry was done about a month ago. Rascal used to be bonded to another rabbit called Bun Bun but he passed away a while ago. Ever since I've been looking for a suitable rescue bunny to hopefully become his new best mate. The thing is Rascal is a lot older and likes to flop and just chill whereas Harry is much younger so wants to run around and do binkies all the time which is lovely to watch) Harry is about twice the size of Rascal and during speed dates he constantly tries to hump him which is a bit tiring for everyone involved! although not seemingly for Harry. We've got to the stage where Harry will groom Rascal but Rascal will not groom Harry in return. I feel thats the final stage and once that occurs we'll see real progress.

Love this . I have a rescue who isn’t even good with me yet but I think he be better with a mate so I thought I would get another more social rabbit to bond with although I can’t really even pic this rescue up or do anything with not social at all not sure I can keep my rescue because doesn’t like anyone

It’s been over a year of unsuccessful bonding for us... but when they’re in their separate pens they always greet each other and lay by each other. So weird and frustrating🥴

she looks like a rex/lop mix!! 100%! my bunny looks similar and she’s that.

Howd you even manage to carry your rabbits like that ;_; also im so scared of unsuccessful bonding but this changed my mind hahaha

Love this video! I’m bonding my 4 bunny’s now, so this is very helpful. This is a little off topic but would you mind telling me where you got that bear hide house in the back it’s precious!

Thank you! I just got a bunny for my recently widowed lion-head. My problem is that she’s never been friendly with the humans. She only liked her bunny and runs away from me! Still not going to give up. I hope the news bunny will help make her more friendly to people. Loved 🥰 the video.

When I see bumni in the back I laughed the hardest I’ve ever laughed

You’ve done incredibly well with them! I don’t believe all buns get along perfectly as depicted in stories of bun marriage bliss, but ARE more like brothers and sisters who sometimes squabble. And even in marriage, there’s still squabbles after the honeymoon period is finished. 🥴😉 Thanks so much for doing this. It was truly a huge help.

Thank you for this video! I had sibling bunnies. I got Robby first and about 4 months later returned to the rescue to get him a friend. His sister was still there and they went on a speed date and brought her home. Bonding them was fairly easy as they were siblings. Unfortunately Robby passed away a few months ago. We brought Arya back to find a friend and she clicked with a male bun. We brought him home Sunday and I’ve been working to bond them since then. They’re living in side by side pens, we have done a little stress bonding in the carrier around the house, and I’m trying to give them together time but they do nip at one another. I think it stresses me out more than anything so I try to break it up immediately. I like your oven mit idea! I’ve gotten a few nips from being the referee. How did you determine how long to let them nip/chase before intervening? I feel like I am messing up the fight for dominance when I pull them apart but I also don’t want one to get hurt.

Trying to start the process of getting a second bun has been suuppper overwhelming. Thanks for your advice! (At first I thought banh mi’s name was bun mi) 😆

Such cuties. I want to get my girl a husbun but I do not have the space or time right now ☹️ definitely in a year or so. 🤞🤞🤞

Gosh you make it look so easy. I bonded my two little buns very easily, although at one point Bunbuns sliced through Benjamin's lip with lightning speed, yikes! So now I have a Flemish Giant, but because of the lip incident, I lost all my courage to try to bond them. Bunbuns, the little guy, tries to attack my 14 lb. Flemmy, who retaliates. So.....I don't know when or if I will ever try again. I can't stop thinking of Benjamin's lip and what harm Bunbuns could do to Loki the Flemish.

I think is also because before bunmi . Turbo could go anywhere. So there isnt a neutral area in your appartement actually. That s why turbo was so teritorial:)

Thank you so much for this video!! My two bunnies Ginger and Oreo have been together since they were born (they are brothers) and they used to get along so well! But about a couple months ago they started getting to fights so we had to separate them. And we have tried a couple bonding strategies but none of have worked :( so I’m going to try this and see how it goes!!

This is really helpful because I’m thinking about getting a female bun for my male

F ... I've been debating on getting a friend for my rabbit as I'll be starting work soon, I've let him free roam in my room for the time. And don't close him into his kettle, simply use it as a base you can say. And I was planning to just have them both in my room and obviously watching out for them if they fight. Choose to look up some videos before going through with it and I'm glad I did as I would have gotten the other one hurt as no doubt my main boy Levi would have been very territorial because here's suddenly a new guy

Hi there! This is such a wonderful video 🥰 We have a female mini lop from the rabbit sanctuary and we are looking into getting her friend! She’s free roaming at the moment in our apartment so sounds like we will likely be in a very similar situation! I’d love to be able to get some advice as I’m going through the process ☺️

Hi, we love your video and your buns. We also rescued a bunny from the rabbit Sanctuary. Our own bun, Rosie had been with us for 8 months. We got Robbie in November....and it certainly wasn't love at first sight. Rosie is a mini lop and Rob is a Rex cross and 500g heavier. It's been a slow journey for us and we're now at the floor bonding part. Their pens have no gaps now and they spend time together during the day and also have separate free roaming time morning and evening. We'd love to get to putting them together in their pens. Rob is territorial and still a bit nippy with her so we aren't going to rush them. They groom each other and are relaxed together but he still lunges at her at times like Turbo did to Bunmhi....my question is when you finally tried them together in the pen did you clean everything down and remove anything? Robbie is territorial so that does worry me. Thanks so much. We watch all your videos 😃

Omg I have the same exact pair, down to behavior and color 😂

You just described my last serious relationship to a T, 😆

Hi! I'm desperately in need of miraculous bonding tips. and it's the 1st time I hear about table bonding. How long did take each session? thanks in advace.

😭😍

Hi I really hope that you read this! We just recently got 2 bunnies, Gillian and Kacey, Gillian is the female and Kacey the male. Gillian is a Rex bunny and is much bigger then Kacey as Kacey is a small Holland Lop. They are both 2-3 months old (Gillian being older) we are planning to breed them but they are still to small so we want to introduce them while they are still young so they can get used to each other. We have put them together 2 times. The first time there were charging and jumping over each other which eventually faded slightly and it wasn’t so bad, we then moved them to a smaller space 2 days later. It got really bad and Gillian was making a growling sound at Kacey. Kacey got a little scrape by his eye from the jumping around, Gillian is the issue and the dominant one in this situation. Kacey has become scared of her and will run away after today, as I said we are planning to breed them so I hope we won’t have to neuter/spay them. If it doesn’t work out then I might end up giving Gillian away and just getting another lop that is more Kaceys size. They are not indoor bunnies they live in a cave in the barn, they each have their own side of the cage but they can’t see each other through the cage because the split in the middle is solid wood. We have a large space and a smallish space to let them out in, willing to build/buy something as in smaller set up for them, and eventually Kacey may become a half inside/outside bunny. If you need anymore details for this situation let me know happy to give them! And I hope that we can get them to bond