Hi there,

Just so I’m clear on the timeline, the babies are 8 weeks old? So, usually adult rabbits get along with babies, but this isn’t a true bond, and once the young rabbits hormones start to kick in the adult rabbits will usually fight them off. 8 weeks is a bit young for this to start happening, but it could be that since the babies are weaned the mom is just “done” with them. Or if you are talking about the dad attacking them, he could view them as a threat. Rabbits don’t recognize family relationships.

You should keep the babies separate from the adult rabbits at this point, but the 2 you have left can stay together for now. Once they hit 12 weeks (if you still have both), they should be separated from each other as well to prevent another accidental pregnancy and to prevent fighting when they hit puberty.

For rabbits to live together and be “bonded”, they should all be spayed and neutered. I’m assuming you are working on getting the parents neutered and spayed?  Once all the bunnies are neutered and spayed you can work on bonding them together as a group. This process involves supervised “dates” in a completely neutral area (where none of the rabbits have been) to allow them to work out their dominancy hierarchy. During dates you would supervise closely and prevent fighting.

Gotcha! Yes I think dad needs to be kept separate from mom and babies. He could hurt a baby very easily, and wouldn’t be able to properly bond with them yet anyway (since they aren’t mature). Since he and the mom weren’t castrated before, it’s also likely that they weren’t fully bonded (as they were just getting along for the purposes of mating).

If you aren’t familiar with the bonding process, you can read about it here: https://binkybunny.com/infocategory/bonding/

Is your female spayed now?  Both rabbits should be castrated for the bond to be stable. Female rabbits also have very high rates of reproductive cancers if they are not spayed.

How long have the bonding sessions been? In general, bonded rabbits should show a lot of positive behaviors (cuddling, mutual grooming, sharing food and litter box), and no negatives (aggresive chasing, hard nipping, lunging, boxing, grunting, fighting etc).

The usual progression is that you want them to be happy together in neutral territory for 48 hours (no aggression or fighting, with lots of positive behaviors) before moving them into their final area. (Ideally you would also have an intermediate, semi-neutral space). Then you should supervise for another 48 hours to make sure there is no fighting. It is also recommended to clean and deodorize their cage as much as possible to make it seem more neutral when you move them in together. Basically in each new location, they should be supervised for 48 hours to make sure the change in location doesn’t trigger fighting.

I do think it is important to get her spayed before you consider them fully bonded. Aside from the cancer risk (which is close to 75% by age 4 and goes up after that), the hormonal fluctuations that she will go through can trigger issues with the bond. The male might mount her excessively, which can be stressful to her, and she will also probably have false pregnancies, which is also stressful for her. In the worst case she could lash out at him and they could fight and hurt each other badly.

Can you house them side by side? I can see that she could be lonely, so having him nearby should help with that.