bonding a trio

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This topic has 6sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 11 months ago by charlie82.

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- 01/01/2008 at 2:44 PM
  charlie82
  Participant
  295 posts
  Hi,
  
  I’m hoping someone might be able to give me some advice. I have successfully bonded pairs of rabbits before and only even encountered a problem with one bunny.
  
  One of my bonded pairs are two neutered males that met be ‘accident’ and fell in love immediately. Teddy is very very placid and gentle, whereas Thumper is the cheekier of the two although I still wouldn’t say he was very dominant. I also have a spayed doe living in the same room as them who is very aggressive to other bunnies. She tolerates their presence but will try to fight with them if she were out in the same room. They don’t seem the slightest bit interested in her and don’t even bother to go over and sniff her or vice versa. Thumper has dental issues and has to undergo and anaesthetic every six weeks, and after losing my old bunny this way I thought it might be a good idea to try and introduce a third bunny. Teddy I know will not cope very well if anything should happen to Thumper and after his last mate left him he had to be syringe fed.
  
  I have adopted an eight/nine week old baby rabbit and was hoping they can be a threesome. Initially in my first session I allowed them all to be in the same room together since I know that I can stop the boys from doing anything nasty should they choose to. They basically just ignored her while she hopped around. I could see Teddy was very curious but wouldn’t pluck up the courage to introduce himself while THumper just seemed oblivious that she was there and dozed. I thought this was a good sign.
  
  The next day I tried Teddy and the new bunny together alone since he had shown the most interest and he seems to like her. He gave her a couple of nudges and began to hum when next to her and was quite happy for her to sit in the litter tray with him eating hay. Again I was pleased. Yesterday I tried Thumper with her. I put her cage on the floor so he could go up to her as I wasn’t too sure about how he would react and he was very interested but when she went to see him through the bars he tried to nip her a few times, although no vocal sound/lunging/aggressive body language was displayed. I let her out to have some excerise while he sat in the litter tray and I stroked him, again he just ignored her.
  
  Tonight however I let her out with them both (maybe a mistake) and both the boys sat in the tray as usual. When she went up to them Thumper sniffed her then growled although I didn’t give him the chance to bite. I would hate her to be injured as she is so small so I can’t risk letting him just go up to her on his own incase he is aggressive. I didn’t end the session as I didn’t want it to end badly so I just let her run around for half an hour and stroked Thumper. She continued to come right past his nose and he just ignored her as he was enjoying being petted but I am unsure if I am doing the right thing.
  
  I know bonding her with Teddy won’t be a problem but I am very wary of putting her on the floor with Thumper and allowing him to roam. What should be my next move and does anyone think I am wasting my time? I would hate to have her living on her own an even if it doesn’t work out between her and Thumper should I continue to allow her to spend time with Teddy on her own???
  
  Please help!!
- 01/01/2008 at 3:20 PM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  I know Osprey has a bonded trio so hopefully he will chime in and give you ideas for when she is older.
  
  I do know however I would not put a baby bunny that young with 2 adults until she is much older! The risk is very great for her to get injured – wait until she is at least 6 months old and she should be able to be spayed by then (around 5 months old is good). But the risk of injury to a baby with adult rabbits is just too great of a risk.
- 01/01/2008 at 3:30 PM
  charlie82
  Participant
  295 posts
  Hi,
  
  Thank you for your advice. I certainly wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I’ve bonded many babies to adults because it is usually easier, but would never take the risk if I thought the adult would be very aggressive to the baby. I may just keep allowing Teddy to have supervised sessions with her since he is so gentle and I genuinely believe he wouldn’t hurt a fly! He has never ever shown aggression towards any other rabbit and I’ve had many foster bunnies come through the door. I might have to only allow Thumper to meet her through wire mesh that he can’t bite her through. Even if they did appear to get on with her fine I would never risk leaving her with them until she is grown, although starting introductions now makes the transition easier in the long run. I’ll be having her spayed as soon as she is big enough! 🙂
- 01/01/2008 at 3:34 PM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  I know you wouldn’t Charlie :~) I think as long as you supervise it will be fine. I understand that trying to bond them separately like you are suggesting with the bonded pair is the best way to bond them. Trying the single with each rabbit from the bonded pair.
- 01/01/2008 at 3:43 PM
  charlie82
  Participant
  295 posts
  Thanks Sarita,
  
  I agree, i’m just nervous about Thumper with her being a baby, if she was an adult I wouldn’t be concerned. I think signs are positive in that he mostly just ignores her, but I don’t think I’ll take the chance of letting him hop around with her while she is so small. Her cage is somewhere they can’t reach at the moment so perhaps I’ll maybe put it further down in a couple of weeks, and allow them to be able to see her in the room. I just want her ato get used to them being around too so she is more likely to accept them as friends 🙂 I wish bonding weren’t so complicated!! guess I just wanted to have reassurance that it is possible to have a trio. My friend is a rabbit vet and she said it may take time but is possible, yet every one else insists it isn’t!
- 01/02/2008 at 4:20 PM
  osprey
  Participant
  2065 posts
  Hi Charlie,
  
  I have a bonded trio, 2 girls and one boy. We started out with the male, then bonded him with one of the females and they lived that way for a while. My wife fell in love with one of our foster bunnies, so we tried to bond her into the existing pair. I can give you some tips based on my experience.
  
  I started by introducing all 3 at once. This was a big mistake. Our boy DJ went nuts with 2 girls around, chasing and humping everyone. After that, I reintroduced them in pairs. DJ and Deanna (Deanna was the foster) hit it off right away, but the two girls were more trouble. Curly Sue was petrified of Deanna, so it was hard to get them to interact. To this day, they still nip and chase each other occasionally, even though they are together 24 hours a day.
  
  Neutral space is a must! I worked with our three in rooms that the pair had not been in. The pair will feel they have to defend their territory from the invading bunny, so putting them in a place where they are not comfortable was important. I even set up a play area for the three of them to use once the introductions were over. I used a couple of XPens and put in boxes, ramps, wood to chew on, shelves, all kinds of things for them to run around on. None of this stuff smelled like the pair had used it, so all three got to play together. I also fed them in there to force them to share food.
  
  Once they were doing well in the play area, I moved Deanna’s pen into the same room as the pair’s pen, gradually moving the two pens closer together. After a couple of days of that, I let them out in the family room (the pair’s home turf) together. On day 8 or 9 I was comfortable enough with them all together that I allowed Deanna to spend time with the pair in the pair’s pen. Around day 10, she moved in for good.
  
  Another thing I did, which I liked and might have helped some, was to cuddle all three of them together. I’d line the three of them up on my chest and cover them with a blanket, giving them all pets and nose rubs. This calmed them down, and got them used to each other’s scent.
  
  Bonding a trio can definitely be done. In your case, having an unspayed female in the mix may make things different. I think you should keep up with the bonding sessions (supervised) to get the two boys used to the girl. When she approaches the time to get spayed, she may get aggressive, so be careful as she grows. Good luck, and feel free to ask questions!
- 01/03/2008 at 2:49 AM
  charlie82
  Participant
  295 posts
  Hi Osprey,
  
  Thank you for your advice!! We’re moving house at the end of the month so I’m hoping that the change of scenery etc might even be enough to make Thumper more accepting. He doesn’t mind her being in the same room as him at all and is quite relaxed about it, but it worried me when he growled at her. I’ve kind of hit another snag now. Milly, my aggressive doe who lives in the same room as the boys but penned absolutely hates the baby bunny, she hasn’t even met her but the smell alone is making her go nuts. If the baby is in her cage then Milly doesn’t have a problem, if I let her exercise in the room then she goes ape trying to get out and I think could possibly do herself some damage in her attempts! She tolerates the boys there but obviously the smell of a baby female she just can’t stand. I don’t know if she will ever learn to accept her presence and I don’t want to keep having to worry about the baby or Milly getting hurt, or Milly becoming so stressed all of the time. I have another bonded pair male/female so it may be that I have to attempt to bond her with them. I’m not sure how that would work out though and again with her being so small I wouldn’t risk putting her face to face with them when I am unsure what their reaction will be. Teddy is just an angel and will be nice to anything!
  
  I’m going to stick at it and hopefully something will work out. I’ll have her spayed as soon as she is big enough rather than waiting for hormones to kick in! 🙂
  
  That’s the thing about fostering, you end up with more than you anticipated!! that’s the truth in my case, it’s too easy to fall in love with them 🙂
  
  Your bunnies are so cute by the way! The black bunny on the left is the image of my old rabbits Charlie 🙂
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