Trio bonding - adopted bun was pregnant

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

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 2sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 7 months ago by Sirius&Luna.

Viewing 2 reply threads

Author

Messages
- 04/22/2018 at 9:57 AM
  Blob
  Participant
  1 posts
  I know there is a lot of topics on this but I’m new to bonding and see a lot of conflicting info online so I’m really confused.
  
  My two bonded bunnies are Dean and Clover. Dean is a black and white netherlands longhair dwarf and clover is probably an eastern cottontail or american chinchilla since she has chinchilla color fur but still unsure. Both are 3lbs with Clover being slightly bigger and heavier. Dean is roughly 9 to 10 months old. Clover is about 7 to 8 months old. We’ve been raising them since 1-2 months as bunnies. They were bonded and really had no issues. Dean is neutered. Clover was spayed about 3 months ago. We just adopted another rabbit and are trying to bond them. The adopted rabbit, Almond, was pregnant, gave birth 2 days ago and was spayed immediately after. I adopted her yesterday and took her home. Since she was just spayed, I put her in her own hutch for now in the bunny room. She’s 2 years old and seems very relaxed and chill. Dean seems to be trying to mount everything including Clover (I assume due to the hormones left from Almond’s spay that he is chasing Clover but luckily not too much). I can see that Clover probably feels threatened as she is purposely peeing all over the place, especially near the hutch entrance. Again, Almond still seems completely unaffected and relaxed (just shows curiosity since this place is new) and she is laying down, stretches out often, etc. Literally no aggression at all. I was wondering how to get Clover to stop feeling threatened by Almond. Not so worried about Dean since I know he will stop once the hormones are gone, trying to bond Clover and Almond first. Please tell me if I am doing something wrong as I am new to this. The bunny room is my brother’s bedroom which connects to my room (my room is neutral as they barely come in here). The bunnies are on the 2nd story of my house and we keep a gate up to prevent them from going downstairs. I originally had Almond’s hutch in my room since it’s more neutral than the bunny room but felt like they weren’t seeing each other enough to actually have any bonding.
- 04/22/2018 at 8:35 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9054 posts
  Hi there,
  
  Yes, a new bunny in the house (even a spayed or neutered one) can cause some issues in a bonded pair.
  
  Are they in the same room? Since her hormones are still draining, I would move them to separate areas of the house for now, and try to minimize smells so as not to upset your pair. Once her hormones have settled, then you can try pre-bonding again and see if Dean has the same reaction.
  
  If Dean and Clover are still having issues, you’ll want to separate all three and bond them as a group to ensure a real fight doesn’t break out.
  
  Trio dynamics are different than duo’s anyway, so it might be the safe option either way. Member Sirius&Luna just went through this with hers. When she brought home the third bunny, she had issues with her pair, so she separated them. She recently successfully bonded the group of three.
  
  Here’s the thread where she decides to separate them: https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/164686/Default.aspx
  
  And here’s her bonding journal: https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/165467/Default.aspx
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 04/23/2018 at 3:42 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  Yepp, just popping in to say hi!
  
  I’m also wondering what’s happened to Almond’s babies? If she only had them two days ago, surely they’re still with her? In which case, bonding will need to wait until they’re weaned.
  
  I agree with Dana though, give Almond a bit of time to recover from the spay (and look after the babies if there are babies!) and settle in to her new home, without the other bunnies nearby.
  
  You also need to keep a close eye on the existing pair, and split them up if the aggression escalates.
  
  If there are no baby bunnies, then in a couple of weeks, you can start prebonding, by swapping the bunnies between areas. Keep a very close eye on the bonded pair at this point, as it may cause aggression and they may need to be separated.
  
  After about a month of prebonding, you can start the actual bonding.
Author

Messages

Viewing 2 reply threads

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.