Bunny bonding – a single doe, a single buck and a bonded pair of sisters – HELP!!

[Kitkat]

Like many, my heart has been stolen by bunnies. 

I originally had one female mini-lop, Florence, who is currently 15 weeks old and despite me giving her ample space to explore with her very own bunny den and LOADS of attention, I noticed she seems lonely. She is very mellow and rarely gets hyper, binkies do not happen often either. It may just be her personality as I have tried very hard to get her out of her shell: various toys have been purchased or made and I play games with her (as you would a child!) but she still seems uninterested. She loves a snuggle with ear rubbing but no jumping about and sadly no binkies. She is perfectly healthy (except from having maloclussion but is due to have her incisors extracted next week) so I came to conclusion that she must want some bunny company.

I visited the local pet rescue centre and selected a 10 month old playful male lop (larger lop breed) who has been neutered and is due to come home any day now. I have set up a large playpen in the livingroom for him (which is definitely Florence’s area) right next to Florence’s den (a large converted walk-in cupboard with a baby gate instead of a door) so that they can see and smell each other and I can gradually bond them, with the official “moving in” taking place once Florence is spayed in about 3 months. My hope is that the buck will bring the “bunny” out in Florence and provide her with some company.

However, three days ago I brought in two sister bunnies (breed unknown, but pretty big!) who weren’t being treated well by their owner. The previous owner said she bought them from a breeder at 8 weeks old and she had them for 3 weeks so if the maths is correct they must be about 11 / 12 weeks old. One of them is the complete opposite to Florence – very playful, lots of energy and very inquisitive and the other is much shyer. It’s clear who the dominant one is! They are situated in another room of the house in their two-storey hutch with large playpen attached for plenty of play space, they also get supervised access the rest of the room a few hours a day for exploring and playing. This room was rarely visited by Florence so they deem it as their space now. I took them in because the previous owner really didn’t know how to care for them with both being confined to the hutch all day and the only human interaction they got was when being fed DOG BISCUITS once a day. I couldn’t rest knowing that they were in that condition and didn’t trust the owner to find a suitable home for them – there was mention of just setting them free.

My initial plan was to “foster” them until I found a loving forever home but, inevitably, I have fallen for them. And, as I’m sure you are all aware, there are so many bunnies in rescue centres who need a loving home and it is so difficult to find that. The poor guy I am adopting was in the centre for months and some of the others have been there even longer. I do not want to take them to the centre as they will have even less freedom than they had previously but am also finding it difficult to source a loving home for them.

So my question is (sorry for the long text but feel it’s important I paint you an accurate picture of the situation!) would it be possible to bond all bunnies together? And if so, how would I attempt it? I have read numerous posts, articles and documents on bonding bunnies and feel confident in bonding Florence with the young chap, even if it takes months. But I must admit, the prospect of bonding four bunnies is worrying. Or should I continue my quest in finding the sisters a new home and focus on my two? There would be plenty of space in the bunny den (it is 6ft x 5ft) and they would have unrestricted access to the livingroom when I am here. When unsupervised at night or when I am out I would attach the play pen so that the total space would be 6ft x 5ft in the den area and 4ft x 6ft in the pen. 

I would not attempt to bond all four until Florence has recovered from her operation, the three does have been spayed and Florence successfully bonded with the buck. What do you experienced bunny guys think?

[LongEaredLions]

It is completely possible to bond four bunnies. Atleast two BinkyBunny members have bonded groups of five bunnies.
As long as they are all spayed/neutered it should work out fine. Sorry I am not much help, I have never had a large group of fuzzbutts.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/127407/Default.aspx

[Kitkat]

That’s alright, just to be told there are members who have bonded multiple rabbits gives me hope! I apologise for the time of post, I am not awake at 5.26am! I do, however, live in Scotland where the time was about 2pm when I posted this. Any further info or tips on how to bond these wee darlings would be much appreciated

[LBJ10]

Is everyone spayed and neutered? I’m guessing not due to age.

[Kitkat]

No, just the buck who was neutered recently at the centre. My vet sad she won’t carrying out spaying until the does are 6 months and even older for Florence because she is so small!

[LBJ10]

You can’t really do any real bonding until everyone is hormone-free. When those girls hit puberty, they are likely to fight with each other. You don’t want to let them fight because it could ruin any chances of bonding in the future.

[Author]

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