Bonding SEVEN bunnies

[Dylan]

Clover- 5 year old spayed female (3 pounds)
Lucy- 2 year old spayed female (12 pounds)
Wildflower- 8 month old spayed female ( 7-8 pounds)
Meadow- 8 month old spayed female (6-7 pounds)
Whisper- 1 year old unneutered male (Will be neutered in a week) (3-4 pounds)
Sapphire- 4 month old neutered male (4 pounds)
Rose- 4 month old unspayed female (4-5 pounds)

I want to bond these seven together! I will wait for Whisper to be neutered and I will wait to add Rose because she isn’t old enough to be spayed yet… But the others?

[Bam]

My goodness! From what I’ve read, multiple bonding can be a bit easier that bonding a two- or a threesome, perhaps because the buns can’t concentrate on who to fight with and/or feel insecure enough not to start a fight. It is very natural for bunnies to live in a colony, so if you can make this work, I’m sure they will be very happy.

But I must confess I know very little about multiple bonding. We have some members who have done multiple bondings, but I don’t know if they are around at this moment.

We will of course be very interested in following this adventure, if you’d like to share it with us!

[Azerane]

I’ve been trying to find a thread on another forum for you about someone who bonded five rabbits, but for the life of me I cannot find it. All I know is, that once you have a slightly larger group of rabbits 4+, bonding tends to become easier with each additional introduction.

In terms of where to begin, I honestly don’t know if it’s better to start with two together and add rabbits one at a time after that point, or whether it’s better to start by putting 3-4 together. However, I would probably suggest starting with the two rabbits that are most likely to get along. I would probably match up your neutered male with one of your spayed females, however given that he is so young, I’m not sure how long he’s been neutered. I would wait until he’s been neutered for a full two months before attempting bond him (same goes for any of the others). With your girls that aren’t spayed, you can still start the bonding process for your others and simply add those two later once they’re all healed from their surgeries. You can still however prepare them for bonding by doing scent swapping of items from their cages with the other bunnies etc.

You may even be able to bond two separate pairs, and then bond those two pairs together. Instead of starting with a single pair, then adding one, then another one. Based on what I’ve read, if you got step by step, bond 3 and 4 will probably be the hardest ones, but after that as Bam mentioned, it gets easier with larger groups of rabbits. The main issue you may have with potentially so many steps in the bonding process, is finding a new neutral territory for each new bond.

Will be very interested to read how you approach this and how things progress as you bond them together.

[Dylan]

Thank you guys! Is there a specific way to begin? I will begin in a few weeks and I am building a massive multi-level cage for them.

[Vienna Blue in France]

Ooooo tricky one – I have NO idea how to help but I think Azerane’s advice is a good start.

If it were me… hmm I would try and get atleast 2 other rabbit savvy friends together, equip all of you with gloves and a spray bottle each, and put them in together and see what happens….
If you see it’s not going to work, then you have many hands to separate them immediately…. picking up from under belly and under bottom of course

As bam says – maybe as they are a group, they may not be able to concentrate on just one to fight and just get on with life…. who knows….
Keep up udpated please Dylan

[Author]

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