Bonds are important life-long commitments that bunnies share, whether in pairs or groups. Bonds formed in wild rabbits and hares revolve around a specific geographic area where the group resides, forages for food, manages the group's safety, births and rears young, and utilizes instinctual skills. Bunnies born into the colony are bonded to the others naturally. They settle in to individual roles for the benefit of the group.
        In house rabbits, bonds do not usually come naturally and are delicate. Under certain circumstances, bonds can break. Broken bonds can lead to fights. House bunnies forge bonds through stages including introduction, acquaintanceship, and friendship. Since they don't have a large colony of friends and lots of space as wild bunnies do, house rabbits are at a natural disadvantage in bonding. Their bonds revolve around the sharing of valuable resources: litterboxes, food, activities, and space. The greatest indication of binding between bunnies are two key things:  behavior emulation and physical closeness. Communal enrichment activities that encourage use of instinctual behaviors like digging, jumping, rooting, foraging, lifting, pushing, and pulling help make bonds. 
            When bunnies go through the bonding process, they learn to share resources, be cordial to each other, live together peacefully in a designated space, and, eventually be trusted to free roam together without the need for human intervention. My bonding approach applies bonding goals in a systematic and strategic way while reducing or eliminating anxiety for both bunnies and humans. 
           

 I am often asked if bunnies and cats can peacefully coexist. The answer is yes. While bunnies are prey animals, meaning they spend their lives avoiding capture from other animals who hunt them for food and sport, and cats are predatory, meaning they are instinctually driven to hunt, kill, and consume prey animals, they can learn to live harmoniously. Each cat is different in terms of the amount of hard-wired prey drive they have. Each bunny is different in terms of the innate amount of timidity. Since cats have never been fully domesticated, they usually have some prey drive. House cats who can't chase mice, stalk birds, and hunt lizards outside must have that instinct satisfied daily in order to not look at bunnies as prey. The stalk-hunt-capture-kill cycle has to be replicated at least twice daily through specific play. Also, cats should not be free fed food and their diet should not include dry bits. Wet food closely resembles fresh kill which is what their body craves. Changing the way cats are fed (puzzles not bowls), the types of food( wet not dry), and how often (twice daily instead of constant supply), and the type of play activities they are engaged in will redirect their instinctual desire from hunting house bunnies to hunting the lure at the end of a wand toy. Once they no longer perceive bunnies as prey, trust can form between cats and rabbits, leading to great friendships. Food and activity are the most important ways to achieve this. 

    As the bonding adventure continues, one looks for signs that indicate friendship or the possibility of it. One of those signs is grooming. So what happens if the buns don't groom each other? Or only one bun grooms? In some cases, mutual grooming doesn't happen. Some bunnies may not groom another bunny because they never learned to do it. Perhaps they were an isolated bun until maturity or they are not prone to groom themselves well so they don't think to groom others. Some buns are shy and won't groom another while humans are present. While bunnies are clean animals and, like cats, bathe frequently, some are more thorough and motivated than others. Grooming themselves is an innate skill but grooming another bunny is not. During bonding, it's easy to focus on grooming and become disheartened when it doesn't fully happen. However, there are equally important clues to look for that indicate friendship is blossoming: cheek snuggles, laying side-be-side, boops, nose-to-nose touching, repeated body touching, sharing hay or greens or the litterbox, mirroring behavior, slow movements and polite requests, purring, nose rooting into the other's fur, gentle nips, and body melting next to each other. In some cases, grooming comes after bunnies have been bonded a while. There are several factors that lead up to grooming and bunnies move at a slow pace. So be patient while waiting for grooming. The bigger displays of affection like grooming come after friendship and trust have been established.