How to Introduce Pet Rabbits

As with humans, the first impression your pet rabbit develops of your newest bunny is critical in determining the future success of their relationship. Properly introducing your pet rabbits to one another is also important for the safety of your rabbits and you.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Keep them separate for 2 or 3 days. Allow your new bunny time to adjust to the new sounds, sights and smells of his new home before adding the stress of meeting a new bunny. Set their cages next to one another to give them close, but safe, encounters with each other during this adjustment time.

2. Build trust with your new rabbit. After your new rabbit has had at least 1 day to adjust to her new surroundings without being bothered or handled, begin handling her so that she becomes accustomed to your touch, smell and voice. This makes the upcoming encounter with your other rabbit easier if the new bunny turns out to be afraid or shy of your other rabbit.

3. Find a neutral meeting place. Introducing your bunnies in a neutral area that neither rabbit has been in before is the safest way to introduce them. This eliminates any territorial fights and increases the likelihood of a successful introduction. A bathroom is an ideal area because of its size and lack of hiding places. Bunny-proof this room before bringing your rabbits there.

4. Place the rabbits together quietly, without their cages. Put the new rabbit in the neutral meeting place. While holding your other rabbit, allow the two to see each other and touch noses. This prevents them from startling each other and starting a fight. After this, calmly and quietly place your other rabbit down with the new rabbit and allow them to interact. Do not worry if one mounts the other. Keep cages and toys out of the neutral meeting place to avoid territorial fights.

5. Keep a towel handy to separate fights. If one of your rabbits grunts, lunges or otherwise displays signs of an imminent attack, place a towel over the aggressive rabbit and place him back in his cage. Introduce them another day. Rabbits remember fights, so it is imperative that you be familiar with the signs of an attack before it happens.

Tips & Warnings

• Before introducing your new pet rabbit to your other bunny, be sure that it has been checked by a veterinarian. Introducing a sick rabbit to other rabbits can endanger the health of all the rabbits. Pairing young rabbits and rabbits of the opposite sex are most successful. Pairing an older male and a young male is the least likely to succeed, as the two will usually fight for dominance. Two females may also engage in territorial battles if you do not introduce them in a neutral area. Rabbits that have not been paired together before sexual maturity should not be left in the same cage unsupervised. Even if your rabbits get along well, this does not guarantee that they will not have fights in the future.
• If you are introducing rabbits of the opposite sex, be sure that both are spayed and neutered. At the very least, have the female rabbit spayed, as a neutered male can still impregnate an intact female for a period of time after the neutering procedure.