Trios can be very difficult, and not always possible (or maybe possible, but not worth the stress and risk). The simplest thing to do would be to settle with the pair that appears to be bonded, and keep the other male separate, but I’m sure you’ve already considered that!

In this case, if the males are routinely drawing blood, then I would advise you to stop all sessions between them. If you do wish to bond them, they need a long break to calm down and forget the fighting. Fighting needs to be prevented in bonding sessions, and any fight serious enough to cause injury can cause the buns to hold grudges, making them very difficult to bond.

The main thing I see is that you have been putting them together in non-neutral territory, and moved too quickly from areas where they were doing OK. They also have a history of fighting. One month is not very long, and with sessions of only 30 min to an hour, it just seems like the progression was very fast. It’s very important to establish positive behaviors in neutral territory and make sure those are “cemented” before moving to a less neutral location. This usually means spending several hours or an overnight in neutral space before moving to less neutral.

Given the history of multiple and repeated fights between the boys, I personally would not attempt the trio. Or, take a very long break (at least 4-6 weeks), where they are completely separated and cannot see each other. I understand that housing multiple unbonded buns is complicated. What I’ve done in the past is set up two cube condos, and then I give the buns alternate free-roam time. Not sure if your buns are OK unsupervised, but I’ve done one bun overnight and the other during the day, and it’s worked pretty well. You can also divide up the space with x-pens to give free-roam time at the same time.

Some people recommend only working with all three together, but lots of people have success with working on the hardest pair first, so I don’t think that was a bad idea. If they do well with just the two of them and the female makes things harder, then I think working with all three would probably be the most effective going forward. Sometimes the more calm rabbit can keep everyone more calm. Also remember that there is no one perfect way to bond rabbits, and everyone makes mistakes. The important things are to prevent fighting and help them work out their dominance safely.

One other recommendation, if you do decide to keep trying (and I do for sure recommend a break before resuming sessions), is to work with all three in a very large neutral space. I know lots of people recommend small spaces, but I have always had much better luck with very large spaces. Many members here on Binky Bunny also have had very good luck with large spaces. Margo DeMello of the San Diego HRS (who has bonded countless trios and groups) recommends using a space that’s at least as large as 3 x-pens linked up for trio bonding. The idea is that they can run and chase without it escalating to fighting, which helps them sort out their dominance more safely. They can also get away from each other more easily when they need to.

Yeah, it’s interesting. Many rescues and rabbit welfare organizations now recommend larger spaces, but there are some popular blogs and youtube channels that say small spaces, so that seems to have taken hold. Small space bonding falls in the category of “flooding”, which was a type of behavioral therapy that was used a lot in dogs in the past, but is no longer seen as humane. The basic idea is that the animal becomes so overwhelmed by the stimuli, and that adrenalin and fear can only affect the body for so long and after that, they calm down. You can see how such an approach is stressful for an animal, especially an animal as susceptible to stress as a rabbit. In my mind, if a rabbit’s fight or flight response kicks in, and they have no where to flee to, they will fight. I also think the very act of one rabbit retreating from conflict is part of the dominance establishment, because one rabbit sees “oh, that other rabbit is running away from me, so they are prob not a threat”.

I think with their history, the space needs to be very neutral. So I wouldn’t use any space that they have been in before, or that is within sight or smell of their home turf. I used to live in a studio apartment and would go to a friend’s house for bonding sessions (she kindly let me use her garage). Do you have any friends that would allow you to camp in their kitchen or garage for some bonding sessions?

The garage could be great, as long as it’s not too hot. Perhaps it would be best to do session at night or early morning when it’s cool?

The slippery floor could actually work to your advantage. Rabbits are usually less apt to fight when they can’t get good footing, so as long as the floor is clean I wouldn’t worry about putting down towels yet. For longer sessions I usually put down pee-pads to make clean up easier.

I would not use any litter boxes at first, as they tend to cause disputes. Rabbits can get territorial over their potty spots, even when they are brand new. I usually don’t add litter boxes until we get into 6-8 hour sessions and the rabbits seem to be getting along well.

For short sessions you don’t need food or water at all, but you can add a pile of hay in the center of the pen if you’d like. Pellets can be hit or miss. Sometimes they make the buns happy and distracted, but can also cause one bun to get overly excited and food aggressive. So I would prob start without them.

For water I will usually feed some wet greens in longer sessions. I don’t add water bowls until the sessions get longer than about 2 hours (they just end up knocking them over with chasing anyway).

That sounds like a great plan!