Bunday Tuesday

They look peaceful, don't they?
Unfortunately, this is rather the exception - when they are close together and she grooms him, or he grooms her.

This is what I have been finding on the cage floor Sunday morning:


and more evidence in the litter tray on Monday:

I noticed that sometimes, out of the blue, and especially when Miss Eve is showing her back to Bing, he will suddenly lunge and try to bite her - grabbing luckily only a bit of fur. This escalated yesterday evening, happening 3 times within an hour, while they were in and out of the cage. Once she was sitting in the litterbox and stretched her head asking for grooming, and he almost got her on the nose. Luckily I was there supervising them, but of course I cannot be there 24/7.
When I noticed for the first time that Bing wanted to bite Miss Eve, I informed Amy and she recommended not to separate them as long as it did not get worse. She was confident that it would settle down - but it looks as if it is getting worse, but why? We were discussing with Mr D why Bing is behaving this way; surely there must have been something in his past that triggers the aggressive reaction, although we are at a loss there. Miss Eve is the most loving and affectionate bunny and will groom him all the time, always trying to stretch next to him and looking for contact, but this does not seem to matter. Probably Bing is more of a people's bunny than a bunnies' bun, or maybe Miss Eve is not the right one?
So, yesterday I decided to separate them, and Bing is now in what used to be BillieBun's indoor cage, next to Miss Eve's. They see each other and although Miss Eve does not seem much fussed by the new arrangements, Bing definitely is! He certainly did a show of his disapproval ripping all the newspapers I put on the floor, and is looking over to Miss Eve. In some ways he behaves a bit like the abusive husband who first beats his wife, and then when she throws him out, he is all contrite and misses her.
I spoke to Amy today and she is coming on Thursday to return Bing to her foster, and to pick up Miss Eve to try to bond with Dom, who is this blue mini lop:


This is a picture taken just before Christmas, and he had a tearing eye that since then is back to normal. Amy tried Miss Eve also with Dom, while she had Eve to be bonded with Bing, but she thought that Bing would be an easier bond as he was showing no aggression, or as a matter of fact, he was pretty much indifferent to having her around. Dom, on the contrary, tried to hump her during the first meet, a bit like Hugo did really, and Amy decided to take her away from him.
Hugo did quite a bit of humping with Miss Eve on their first meet, and also on the first day when they were at Amy's place, but since they returned to our home it never happened, so I hope that this is what is going to be with Dom, and that the two will go along. After all, Miss Eve is a piece of cake!

So, replying to the comment that the fluffies did on my previous post, I'd say that if Dinky decides to hump Daddy Dino, this means that she is the one who wears the pants in the relationship, and as long as Daddy Dino doesn't react in a negative way (biting, for instance) I would monitor the bonding sessions, always to be held in a neutral (for both) territory, and increase the "exposure" of the two to each other every time. If you have time, try to have them meet every day, each time for a longer period of time - the humping will stop eventually. Oh, of course, I am assuming that both are neutered, yes?

And before I finish, thank you to everyone for their lovely comments and welcoming messages for Bing - and thank you to Silver for warning us about Ankles'Lemonade Award - I shall have a look soon and take action :)

For Rabbits' Guy: thank you, I did see the post made by Crafty Green Poet and loved it - it actually brought a few tears but also a nice glow :) I shall blog about it very soon, maybe even tonight...also because I received something from her :)))

Off now to dinner!