Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BONDING Trying to bond trios – please help needed

  • This topic has 3sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by Bam.
Viewing 3 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • Fuzzy bums
      Participant
      3 posts Send Private Message

        I have two bonded pairs that are 7 months old males; we’ve had them for just over four months now. Just after Christmas we adopted a two year old female. We thought it was best not to bond them straight away so the female could be able to get a bond with us and learn to trust us before putting her in a stressful situation.
        At first we put the cages together for a few days this was when we first had her and tater a few days she started making this wingding noise so we thought it would be best to remove her and out her in a different room. This meant that our house was divided. The boys ( Marley and Charlie ) had the living room, kitchen and half of the hallway and the girl ( Lucy ) had the other half of the hallway, study and occasionally she ventured out in the bathroom but not as much. The house was divided by a pen gate so they could still smell and see each other.

        Lucy and Marley didn’t seem to like each other at first, fighting through the gate but Lucy and Charlie seemed to hit it off. After a few months Marley and Lucy seemed to have less and less fights through the cage and started to just sniff at each other.

        My partner put them all in the bathroom in a pen so they didn’t have much room to they had to interact with one another, at first there was some initial fights which was stopped straight away. They started off with a barrier in between the boys and Lucy as they was closer to one another than usual. Then we started removing the divider so they could interact. Lucy seems to be really nervous and constantly on edge which has come across as aggressive. She’s fine with Charlie unless he sneaks up on her which makes her jump and startle. Whereas, Lucy and Marley seems to be the issue,
        After 24 hours Marley has been more curious about her and wants to sniff around which she’s seeing it as he’s going to attack and then starts being aggressive. Earlier on today Marley and Lucy was touching noses and Marley managed to eat next to her five minutes later she lost it. About an hour after that Marley walked up to her and started grooming her face, I was shocked that this was happening… It latest about 3-4minutes and she freaked out and went for him.

        Marley and Charlie are really close, they have a lovely bond… They were grooming each other. Marley was cleaning Charlie and Lucy went up to the boys and just sat there. After 5 minutes she realised how close she was and Marley turned round and she freaked again.Ive also noticed when Marley humps or grooms Charlie she make these wingding noises. Which we have heard when she first arrived. She is a very vocal bunny, she likes to talk to her when she wants attention. We decided that we would try and give them the entire bathroom and see how that goes, which went badly. I think it was too early for more space. We are so use to them having so much space that we felt sorry for them when they were confined to such a small space. So we’ve put them back in a small pen with a divider in the middle so they can cool off but can still see and smell each other.

        I am new to the rabbit world, I’m concerned that I’m missing something.

        Last night the we out a divider In between Lucy and the boys, the boys found a way to get out of the pen and ran into their main room ( the living room )… I thought it could be more boredom than anything but my partner thinks they don’t went to be near together. What do you think? Am I doing something wrong? Should I give up and come to terms they won’t be a trio?

        We only started Saturday at 4pm.


      • Fuzzy bums
        Participant
        3 posts Send Private Message

          Tips or techniques or even advice on this matter would be extremely appreciated.


        • Mikey
          Participant
          3186 posts Send Private Message

            Keep introducing them in neutral rooms like the bathroom until they all get used to eachother being around. Is everyone spayed/neutered? Although i dont have a female bun, i read that female buns tend to want to be the dominant ones and need a lot more attention than males. Im not sure if thats true or not, but it could be worth a shot. Perhaps you can try petting her more while everyones out to play or putting a little juice on her head to get your boys to groom her. She might nip and hump them to show them that shes the boss

            When you bond, keep them all in a small neutral space until they stop reacting to one another. If they all ignore one another, thats fine. If they groom one another, thats great. Then move onto a slightly bigger area. Like move them from the pen to the tub, if the tub is bigger. Then start again. Continue until they are brought to where they will be staying together. Dont be afraid to go back a step if you feel you moved forward too soon. Use spray bottles with water to stop fights and remove all humping after 10 to 15 seconds. If fur starts to fly, separate them for atleast a day unless one is wounded, then separate until wounds are healed

            There are a few different trio journals in this forum you can read for advice too. Youtube and bunny related reddit posts can be helpful too


          • Bam
            Moderator
            16836 posts Send Private Message

              Here are two links to bonding multiple buns:

              http://rabbit.org/faq-bonding-multiple-rabbits/
              https://www.thebunnychick.com/category/bonding/

              Sometimes bonding is a very slow process. The things that’d make you give it up are mainly really bad fighting and backwards humping from a boy (can result in the boy getting his manlihood bit off, which of course would be terrible.)

          Viewing 3 reply threads
          • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

          Forum BONDING Trying to bond trios – please help needed