I suppose it depends on your definition of a ‘squabble’

When I marathon bonded P & B, on day 5 Peanut tried mounting Buttercup whilst they were in their cardboard castle (in hindsight I shouldn’t have put it down at that point) I think she felt trapped as it is pretty enclosed and so circling ensued. I lifted the castle up as soon as I realised and Buttercup gave chase to Peanut. My partner picked Buttercup up at that point and held her for a minute or two. There was no biting/scratching/boxing but of course they had been circling and there was some fur tufts. When we put Buttercup back on the ground, her and Peanut avoided each other for about 5 minutes. Then they started moving around the room, not seeking each other out but not avoiding each other either. About 20 minutes later, Buttercup was loafed and Peanut went and groomed her

To me, a squabble would be a bit of chasing, circling and fur pulling. Of course all three need to be stopped but I wouldn’t necessarily separate them. I would just monitor their interactions afterwards and make a judgement call.
Anything more than that, so actual biting rather than fur pulling, boxing, bunny tornado etc I would separate immediately. Then calm them down and pet them both before finishing up.

Just popping in to advise no overnight trials until they can spend 8 hours a day for a week without any fighting

Could you do an 8 hour on the weekend, or whatever your day off is?

I agree, it’s best to try the super long ones during the day first, since they will most likely be more sleepy and relaxed. Seems like problems always happen at night!

Typically the prerequirements for their 48 hour overnight trials is spending atleast 8 hours a day for 3 days in a row with absolutely no signs of aggression. When doing the 48 hour overnight trials, youll be sleeping next to them and stopping any aggression (fur pulling, lunging, biting, ect). Youll completely stop the 48 hour trial if theres constant signs of aggression or you see them starting to become too stressed out. Through these 48 hours, since youll need to be with them for the entire time, its best if you get a friend or family member to stay with you to watch them while you shower, eat, ect.

5 hours for several days in a row should be alright. You want to make them spend as many hours as possible together before the overnight trials as some rabbits are comfortable spending shorter times together, but get stressed or act out when spending longer times together. If you can only do 5 hours during the day and 8 hours on weekends, that should be a fair enough pretest before you do the 48 hour trial

The 48 hour trial is done in the place they will call “home”, so the final pen/cage/room they will be living in. If youve only bonded in a neutral area, theyre not ready for an overnight trial, and not ready for the 48 hour trial. Process goes neutral > semi neutral > final. When they can spend 5+ hours for a few days in a row together in the neutral space, move to semi neutral. When they can spend 5+ hours a day for a several days in a row with no aggression, you can move to the final space. After they can do about 5+ hours for a few days in a row in the final space, you start the 48 hour trial

I would try some day sessions in their final area before doing an overnight session. Then it’s kind of up to you and how you think they are going. All rabbits are different so while there are recommended strategies it doesn’t work for everyone. I have discovered Terry is fine bonding in his territory but becomes aggressive when nervous. And neutral territory makes him nervous. So I bonded my group in his territory. I did marathon sessions and went to overnight sooner than recommend.

But definitely slower is better if you need it. You really need to go by their behaviour. Good luck!

I think it also depends on whether you are going to marathon or not…. When I marathon bonded Bertha and Moose, we started in neutral, where there for about 4-5 days, then moved to semi for 5 days, then to their condo (supervised for another 4 days or so). With them though, I didn’t have grooming until 3 days into the marathon (but they had been spending up to 8 hours together during the day with no fights or aggression, and very relaxed, just hadn’t taken the plunge and groomed yet).

With Bunston and Bertha, (after about 3 months of shorter dates…building up to 2 hours), we did 2 very long day time sessions (like 10 + hours), followed by a week of nightly 2-hour-ish dates, followed by having them spend a couple nights together in the kitchen (semi-neutral), and then they were moved straight into their condo.

For us, doing a overnights in neutral and semi-neutral was just a way to have longer sessions. I didn’t want to do an overnight in non-neutral until I felt they were bonded and I was basically just cementing.

For making barriers, storage grid cubes are really useful and cost effective, and you can make them really tall!