I believe I have read the same blog, Zombie-Sue! It was incredibly interesting. I also know another lady who rescued 10 buns from a shelter that was going to euthanize them so she brought them all home, put them together, and hasn’t had one problem since. It’s astounding but I’m definitely beginning to believe it gets easier also. It only took a week to fully bond and marathon bond Nora to the quintet!

I mentioned calling off sick because the quintet is bonded so I don’t have the luxury of splitting them up if someone fights with a bonded bunny. I simply have to stress bond and ride it out until they get over their issues. When I bonded the fourth in, I had to spend a few nights sleeping out in the living room with them because Tanger kept picking fights. They are in the bedroom now though so I’d definitely hear them if any trouble started BUT if the trouble continued into the morning and I had to go to work, I’m not sure how I would be able to handle that. It’s a big IF since I never had this problem with Tanger adding in Nora but I also want to be prepared in case this is a hard/stressful bond. It really does get so time-consuming and stressful sometimes!

Hazel, it is SO difficult! LMAO but no, you may NOTTTT have my Tanger! Mainly because I’m pretty sure you’d never give him back!

I’m a little less likely to think he will because his behaviors and personality have DRASTICALLY changed as he’s gotten older. Whether this is because of the addition of more buns or due to age, I’m not sure. It seemed like the addition of Simba really calmed him (after they were bonded). It’s been a long time since he’s been my little troublemaker!

I took the plunge!

So… To begin:

I put Lacey into the x-pen first then added everybun else one by one. 

They all just walked around for a few minutes, getting a look at their surroundings.  Then Lacey started mounting EVERYONE.  LOL.  One after another after another.  She was starting to annoy a few of them, so I pushed her off when she was go for anyone else.  She finally calmed her hormones down.  She was REALLY going after Simba and Nora.  She went after Tanger a bit but he lunged when she tried to mount him and she quickly backed off. 

A few small tiffs broke out among the group but not much, a nip and lunge.  But no chasing or anything that I had to interfere in.  Didn’t even need to squirt with the squirt bottle so I’m really proud of my little group! 

They all seemed to walk around exploring the area and each other for a bit.  Sometimes Lacey would separate herself from the group but then a few minutes would walk back up to them all again (they have tended to flock together for the most part it seems).  Her and Nora seem to be having the most interaction, both demanding head grooms.  They were both mounting but stopped after Lacey stopped. 

Forward a half hour: 

Lacey decided to go hang out in one particular corner and a few minutes later Fleury came up to her and began grooming her face.  Nora followed suit.  And then a few minutes later Simba also came over and began grooming her face.  Tanger was hanging out right next to her while Simba groomed her.  So it seemed to be going quite positively besides the little tiffs they have done, nothing really aggressive just nipping and lunging like before every once in awhile, not every time someone approaches though which I’m happy to see! 

Fast forward about fifteen more minutes: 

It was everyones dinner time so I just went ahead and put their food dish in with them all.  No one seemed bothered by it and everyone was eating out of the same dish!  WHOOP.   None of my buns have been very territorial over their food dishes though so I figured if anyone would create a fuss about it, it would probably be Nora.   But she was good.  Just her usual nipping everyone to get into “her spot” at the food dish. 

They’ve been hanging out in the kitchen in the x-pen for about 20 minutes after I fed them now… everyone is just wandering, munching, and hanging out.  The same as before, a few nips and nudges between everyone but nothing serious.  Nora and her do keep doing the demanding grooms and kind of paying A LOT of attention to each other but it seems neither negative or positive.  Pretty neutral right at the moment.  If I see any problems in the future, I think it will be with those two. 

I find it hysterical that the Tans seem so content and not phased in the least… they were like “another one, mom?” ….. and then went about their business like usual!  Haha!  They must be used to me adding new bunnies all the time by now.

Here’s some photos to go with the description! 

I do find it pretty interesting how the Tans seem to interfere when Nora argues with her – they step in between them.  Tanger and Fleury have both done it multiple times.  Here’s a few more photos of the grooming and eating dinner!    I have to get to work cleaning my house so I will probably separate them all soon for the night.  Unless something amazing happens or I get some really good photos that should be all I post for this session!

Thank you, everyone! I will post more pictures tonight. I did a small session last night (I only bonded for an hour). Not a whole lot happened. But we had people over and so I had to do a quick bond in between people leaving and when they came back home. They did pretty good. Nora keeps nipping and chasing Lacey a bit but that’s about it. It definitely seems like Tanger is stepping up every time Nora does it. He chases Nora away from Lacey and then stands in front of her for awhile after. This continues every time Nora comes up to Lacey and nips. Towards the end of the night, Nora did that and Lacey took off straight for Tanger and shoved herself between his body and the x-pen, haha! I think she may have found a buddy! =)

I ***PLAN*** on doing them for as long as I can tonight. We have to go out to dinner tonight around 5:30 but I’m going to put them all together when we get back home. And see if we can do an all-nighter! =) Any of you who know me when I bonded from before, know that I dive my head right into it. I’m keeping my options open for sure though as I realize THIS time could always be different and what has worked in the past might not work with adding her. BUT this is my plan.

1-2 hours: Keep them in the x-pen in the kitchen with nothing.
2-4 hours: Add in pellets for dinner since I never had problems with feeding them before.
4-6 hours: Add in a litter box and some toys (make it set up for them to spend the night).
If they don’t do well with that… I plan on moving them all to the cardboard box that I used before with adding Simba and Nora. It’s the cardboard box you get when you order the 50 lb. of Orchard Grass. And then I will take it from there.

We will see how it goes! You just never know with these little furbrats!

6 feet by 3 feet is what I have them in currently. I usually do a date in a medium area such as this and then limit space if they keep chasing. To a box that was about 2×2 maybe? I’ll have to measure that box later. Since there has only been nipping and barely any chasing, I haven’t bothered to make the area smaller.

I just put them all in together in that same area. There’s been a bit of nipping but still nothing too bad. I gave them some toys and a water dish. I plan on adding two litter boxes a little bit later (two since it’s less likely they will continue to run Lacey away – unlike with only one). And then dinner after that.

They have ignored each other quite a bit actually.  Which I see as a definite positive.  I don’t think any of them care that she is in the area with him, I just don’t think they have sorted out any sort of order yet.  It’s still kind of up in the air it seems. 

This was my first section they were in tonight: 

They had the water dish and some toys.  Which they were just walking all over, none of them paid attention to much of anything. 

Then I set the area up like this about an hour later: 

I added the two litter boxes in with them.   They went back and forth.  Sometimes they would let her in and sometimes someone would lunge or nip if she went to get in.. but I have seen her in with a bun or two every so often so I’m not too worried with this and how it is progressing so far.  Very normal for them. 

And so then about an hour later, I fed them dinner: 

No one argued over food or anything so that’s definitely a positive sign!  They have been taking turns at the food dish, no one went up all at once but I think they seemed a little excited (Tanger seemed a little stressed) over the whole situation.  But I saw him eating some a little later so I think he is fine. 

Just for fun, here’s an adorable picture.  Tanger was the first one to let her in the litter box without chasing her away!

So finally got everything set up for my all-nighter… had to do some re-arranging in the kitchen!

And THEN… I got on my computer a few minutes ago and I got my first LACEY SNUGGLES!  Like actual snuggles… hanging out, snuggling…

So the all-nighter is finished… and boy am I exhausted. 

They were going exactly the same all night long except for one time around 3:30-4, they all got into a big ol’ scuffle.  Because I had fallen asleep and woke up from the x-pen banging around, I looked over and it literally looked like a whirlwind!  LMAO.  No idea who was chasing who (I’m not quite sure they even knew) because everyone was just running in the same circle at the fastest speed I’ve ever seen them run, LOL!  They all literally looked like a blur.  But when I shook the x-pen they all stopped and had mouths of fur.  So I know they were chasing and pulling fur but I don’t think anyone had a prime target as they all seemed to have the fur of the bunny next to them.    Besides that, Nora keeps nipping at her butt every once in awhile and Simba started also.  Simba mounted one bunny and woke me up because the bunny nipped him away but that was about all.   

Lacey has definitely gotten a lot more comfortable with them though.  She’s started being more involved with everyone and has been going into the litter boxes with everyone except for Nora. 

Isn’t it funny that I thought Tanger would be the problem and it was Nora the whole time!  I’m pretty sure when we brought Simba home, I thought Fleury would be the worst.  But it ended up being Tanger who constantly was trying to literally tear Simba’s face off.  We had to sit with Simba in our laps and Tanger being held on the floor next to us because if we let either bunny go, Tanger would literally just full-on attack Simba with a vengeance.  He kept biting me because I used my hands to protect Simba’s face when I was holding him.  Then when we added in Nora, I remember Sidney was the biggest problem I believe.  Funny, because this time it’s a whole new bunny again.   Kind of interesting.  I think it may have something to do with the disruption of pecking order.  I assumed when it was Tanger because Tanger was quite obviously the bottom bun back with the trio.  So I sort of understood when we added Simba, I felt Tanger was trying to get out of his spot as the bottom.  With Sidney and Nora I’m not really sure.  Nora has a bad habit of nipping everyone in the butt so it’s really not surprising to me that she’s doing it to Lacey so much being the new one and all.  Like she’s trying to put her in her place.  It’s nearly impossible for me to make a decision about who the “top bun” has been since we added in Nora though.  

Here’s a few other pictures from the night: 

I was pretty happy about this picture because Simba had started in on the nipping of Lacey.  But then she was able to get in the litter box without him being nippy or pushing her out.  I **Believe** that Simba nips her because he’s annoyed when he grooms her and she doesn’t groom him back.  He had this exact same problem with every single other rabbit that refused to groom him.  Nora refused to for a very long time but she finally started a month or two after they were bonded.  He just nips at them but doesn’t lunge and I’m not sure he ever actually nips them physically, just nips AT them.  But I was happy to see them sifting through the hay together in the litter box!

And then Simba grooming Lacey!  Of course, afterwards he nipped at her because she wouldn’t do it back, LOL.

I’m thinking about down-sizing the area to encourage more interaction.  I would like to move them into their shared area tonight and see how it goes.  My boyfriend will be working from home tomorrow so he is going to keep an eye on them IF I can move them into the shared  area tonight without having to separate at all.  I’m thinking of making this area smaller for a few hours, then increasing the space again for another hour before setting up the area that will be their shared area and introducing them to it.

You know… with the trio it was really easy for me to distinguish.  It was Fleury, Sidney, and then Tanger on the bottom.  When I added in Simba, I felt it was Fleury, Simba, Sidney, and Tanger.  Although I think it switched between Fleury and Simba every so often because once in awhile the others would pick on Simba and Fleury would put them right in their place.  I remember during bonding with Simba, Simba was terrified of everyone and then in the middle of our first all-nighter, I woke up to the box banging like crazy.  I looked in and Simba was mounting EVERYONE.  LOL.    And that’s when him and Fleury distinguished themselves as the head honchos I thought.  From my perception of their group anyways.  With Nora though, for awhile I thought she was the top bunny because she was always herding everyone around to do whatever she wanted.  Despite the Tans fighting back with her.  But then they got to a point where they seemed to just kind of ignore her demands, LOL.  I’m really not sure anymore though.  It’s really confusing.  And sometimes it seems like it’s another bunny so I kind of wonder if it shifts and changes constantly.   I will keep an eye on their interactions together and talk more about the pecking order, Zombie-Sue!  I find it incredibly interesting also!  

Anyways, I just made their area much smaller to force them to interact more before I try the “shared” area.  I gave them some veggies since they haven’t had their veggies this morning but the area was too small for the dish so I just threw it in the litter boxes.  I’m not too worried as they have had pellets in the dish with no problems together so I assume with the veggies in the shared area, it won’t be much different.  Unless of course I put them in there and they start getting territorial. 

I’m going to clean out the shared area in a few hours and we got the Cottontail Cottage as a Christmas present to the buns so I’m just going to be setting that up today so that it throws the others off when they go inside.  I’ve definitely noticed but each bond that if I through them off a bit with set-up and new things in the area, they are so confused when I first put them in that they don’t have the chance to become territorial about it.  It worked with the last two bonds, so I’m hoping it works with this one! 

So I went ahead and made the area even smaller to see how they’d do being so squished together and forced to interact on an even more pushy basis.  They’ve been in there for a half hour, waiting for my boyfriend to come home so we can put them in their “shared” area together.

“Hey Mom, Let us out of jail… jerk!”

I went inside and cleaned their area out, put up their Cottontail Cottage to help throw them off a bit. And we’ll be putting them all together in there as soon as the boyfriend comes home!  Not sure if he wanted to see how they reacted to the new area with Lacey OR how they would all react to the Cottontail Cottage, haha!  He wanted me to wait though so they are in “jail” for another half hour or so until he comes home.   I’ll let everyone know how it goes!

Oh yes, there hasn’t been any nipping or pushing or bickering in the smaller area. I forgot to add that to the last post.

They are in their shared area together now. Have been for about 2 hours. No real problems at all. A few nips and a couple of lunges at Lacey but that’s all the problems we’ve had. Everyone was VERY riled up about the Cottontail Cottage though so all the excitement definitely could have caused the small bickering. Since they’ve all calmed down they’ve been fine. No problems so far! Keep your fingers crossed that we have a bond!

OF COURSE. Tanger must’ve heard us all talking about him…. The little bratscal….

So he was fine when we first put them into the shared territory. Then of course he begins chasing poor Lacey away whenever she gets close to the Cottage. So I removed the Cottage to see how they do because she’s begun confining herself to one corner of the area because he kept chasing her away any time she came out of the corner. Now that I took the Cottage away there seems to be more interaction again (not bad either). Everyone was intrigued with the Cottage and was basically hiding inside of it not interacting with her in the least.

I’m debating making the area smaller so there’s only a square instead of the interesting little side part they have also. She keeps hiding in the side part that kind of comes off from the square and is separate from the rest of the area. I’ll see though. Fleury came hopping up the litter box she was in and was fine with her there. So was Nora. So we’ll see… I’ll work around them as interact more.

Also, thank you everyone!!! =) We are not out of the clear yet though so keep me in your bonding prayers! Hahaahah. Although there’s not been much aggression at all, I want her interacting successfully with them more before I consider them bonded. The foundation is still a little shakey but I have faith they will get themselves there!

I DO need a Floppy team! IDK how we NEVER ended up with a lop. They’re the cutest things EVERRRRR.

Hahahahhaha! =)

Since I made the shared area smaller they haven’t had any problems at all! She’s even cuddled with a few buns. Whoop! I’m going to leave them in the smaller area tonight before attempting to make it larger again either tomorrow or Tuesday. Will see how they do overnight!

Sorry! Hahahaha. I have been so busy over the past day or two.

Long story short: we have not separated. We left them for an hour on Monday together with no supervision and we were gone for about 4 hours tonight with no supervision. There’s been a tiny bit of chasing still going on but I’ve refused to separate them as nothing has been aggressive enough to warrant separation of any kind. They just seem to be still working out their pecking order. The chasing has definitely decreased a lot though!

I don’t think there will be any need to separate at all. She seems to have more of a bond with Fleury than anyone so far. He’s the only one who hasn’t chased her. But has gotten a lot more confident around the other buns. The first day was her running away from them all scared. So we are getting there!

They must have all heard me talking bad news about them chasing!  – LOL.  So we have spent about 6 hours with them and they’ve had no chasing since we’ve gotten home.  I’ve FINALLY seen Lacey actually cuddling with the others and the others huddling up around her also (as one large group) so I think they are beginning to accept her into their little warren!  WHOOOPPP =)

I’m beyond esctatic with how they’ve been doing the rest of the night.  Earlier today, they kept chasing and so my boyfriend vacuumed their area with them in there to stress them out (and get some cleaning done! ).  I did it again tonight when I was cleaning out there area since they made a huge mess and they all snuggled together.  I haven’t done much stressing at all (actually I don’t believe I’ve done any) since they’ve only been in the x pens the whole bonding process.  So the stressing may have helped send them over the edge I believe into being more accepting of her into their group.   Ever since they’ve been great together.   

Here’s a picture I took of them a few minutes ago – everyone is snuggled together and just “hanging out” which they have all been doing but without her.  This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I’ve seen them all in a group tonight! 

And then Lacey snuggled up with Fleury I believe.  I saw them really quick when I glanced over and took a picture really quick to share.  It’s kind of dark in these pics, sorry!  

Ah, yes.  I will mention that we have kept their shared territory smaller since they kept chasing her into the corner.  We are going to give it a few days to make sure they’re really doing well and bonded before opening it up to the bigger version of where they live.  After a week or two of good behavior, I will give back their Cottontail Cottage since we had to take it away since everyone kept chasing her out of it. 

It was funny since this morning I kept saying “All I want for Christmas is six bonded buns!”  ahahah!  I believe they are almost there… I will need to keep an eye on them for another 24 hours for me to declare it I think.  I feel confident leaving them together though when we go out somewhere so that kind of speaks for itself. 

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!  I just got the buns gifts put under the tree!

I do have to update my signature soon – I called them officially bonded yesterday. She’s snuggling, cuddling, grooming, and interacting like a normal part of the group finally!