Trying again with a larger bonding area. I was out of town for a week so things backtracked a little (although hubby did do 1 session with them thankfully), but I’m going to try to marathon again as they usually seem to get better the longer I can have them together. I have 5 days until I start my new job… so hoping for a miracle LOL. I don’t think I’ll have that much time off in a row for a while so I figured I should give it a shot. Basically if they are showing signs of improvement over the next 24-48 hours I am going to keep them together, but if the first 2 nights are rough and they aren’t improving I will go back to the slow approach (or reassess whether this trio is actually going to happen).

Coop is causing a little drama but hopefully they get it out of their system. Both girls have groomed him but he’s very demanding!

Welp, that didn’t go well at ALL. 😥

Everything was going fine until about 3 am. Then seemingly out of nowhere Myra started really instigating fights with Bonnie, which then caused Coop to get involved an all fired up (he tends to really fight aggressively when he fights). Some of the worst fighting I’ve seen since starting to work with them. I know that bonding can often be 2 steps forward 1 step back, but I think I’m going to pause bonding for now as it’s clear my current strategy isn’t working. I really haven’t seen any positives between the girls aside from tolerance at first, but that then deteriorates. I am also probably not in the right head space for a tough bonding process.

Considering how easily Myra bonded with Coop and Bun Jovi, and how easily Bonnie bonded with Coop and Bun Jovi, it seems to me that they may just not be a good match. It’s weird because they don’t immediately attack each other and will give each other their space at first, but as the sessions get longer they become a lot less tolerant.

For now I’m going to to focus on re-bonding Coop and Bonnie so I can move them to the bunny room, and am going to move Myra back to the living room. The rescue here is considering spinning up bonding services, so I may enlist someone’s help in a few months if I still want to try. Or I will adopt another bun for Myra, but want to give it some time before I make that call.

Thank you Susanne <3

Yeah it’s tough because I had to separate Coop and Bonnie, and there isn’t a ton of space 3 pens to be in one room, and it’s difficult to let them exercise that way. But then I’m very sad to see Myra alone in the other room, while simultaneously being happy to have her back in the living room? Its hard to not feel like a failure but I feel like I just don’t have the stamina right now. 🙁

After a few days at my new job I decided I want to keep trying for the trio because it’s really hard to spent time with the buns in different areas of the house now that I’m not working from home every day, but I’m going to have to rethink their housing set ups during bonding. Having all three in the kitchen wasn’t working, but having them split between rooms isn’t great for bonding (and Myra is likely bored and lonely). I am thinking I can try all 3 in the living room, but will have to make their pens smaller than I’d like to, and that means it will be harder to let them out for exercise.

Anyone have creative ideas for 3 side by side pens? In the past I’ve built condos…but they can be really hard to clean and this is hopefully only temporary. plus the area I’m considering wouldn’t really work for a condo as it’s going to be in front of a bookshelf that we need to access.

That’s a neat idea with the bed frame! I’d like to avoid splitting the area with fencing and gates if possible… we already have so many gates! We will have a roommate for a few months and I don’t want to subject her to our craziness lol.  I think in order for me to not give up the set-up has to feel very “live-able”.

Maybe I need to consult my architect friend LOL.

They are now all set up in the living room, and I think it’s for the best for now. The nice thing is they are all waaaay more active exploring the room, and I think being exposed to each other is going to be helpful.

I head to sea for work for 2 weeks so hubby is going to rotate them every few days. We are aiming to give each bun at least 4 hrs of roam time per day but some days it will be closer to 2, which is far from ideal. However, I notice during that time the buns are zooming and running around, so at least they are making the most of the time! In the past I’d open the pens and they would just lay around.

Here’s the new set-up (Myra’s turn to exercise):

Thank you! I am still really second guessing whether this is the best thing to do (or whether I should just go back to the way things were). There is a lot of discouraging info online about trios… 😕

I am planning a consult with a bonding person at the rescue here. I think getting an outside perspective on their behavior will be helpful.  It has been trickier to give them all exercise time in the same room, as I expected, but it has also been nice hanging out with them on the couch.

I’m hoping this additional prebonding does help. I am planning to start doing some very short daily bathroom sessions with just the pairs in dif combos once the girls calm down with the pre-bonding (they are still running the fence etc.).

omg ducklings?!  that’s great you were able to help them!

And you’re right, at this point the damage to Coop and Bonnie’s bond has been done so might as well keep trying! I’m tempted to do some easy sessions this weekend with mine but I think i’m going to wait till they are settled with the side-by-side pens. Gotta take my own advice!

I had the consult with the bonding specialist yesterday and I think it was helpful! She thinks that working with them in pairs is the way to go, and recommended doing short sessions as often as possible. While she was here we put Bonnie and Myra in a pen in the bathroom (they hadn’t been there before) and did lots of petting when they approached each other.  Bonnie actually groomed Myra for a second! I couldn’t believe it! I think Bonnie even forgot herself for a second LOL. So I call that a win and will be trying to repeat that as much as possible. It’s also possible that the new housing set-up has helped.

She also suggested having two people so one of us can be on each side of the pen. That way we can intervene very easily without being in the pen with them. For short sessions this should be much easier to manage.

Then we swapped Bonnie for Cooper (so it was Cooper + Myra), and they also did well. The bonder suggested doing pairs just like that where I do all the combos in a row for short sessions. She also suggested getting a stuffy to swap between the girls, so I did that as well.

She said she thinks they are like 85% of the way there, but still thought it could take a while to get them the rest of the way, so I’m ready for it to take a long time. I may have to travel for work next week so if that’s for sure I probably won’t start really doing sessions again until I get back.

It was nice to have an outside perspective and confirmation that working with them 2 at a time is prob the right move for now. 🙂

Well it’s been over 2 weeks and I haven’t worked with them at all. Combo of being busy with work and just not being motivated to work with them. But simultaneously I realize the current situation (no one is really gettting enough exercise) isn’t good long term!

I’ve reached back out to the bonders to see when their availability is, it seems like realistically getting some help is going to be important to move things forward. I really need to get into the habit of working with them, but it’s been tough! Especially now with the summer weather the last thing I want to do after work is sit in my bathroom supervising bunnies. 🙄

So, the last week or so I’ve been working with the buns again. Not exactly daily, but maybe 5 out of the last 7 days. Started with 15 min sessions for each pair, lots of petting. Now am at 30 min sessions for the M-F pairs and 30 min- 1.5 hrs for the girls.

The sessions with Cooper and Myra are great. They snuggle and groom each other almost the whole time.

Cooper and Bonnie are pretty good, but there’s a lot more mounting attempts from both Cooper and Bonnie.

Myra and Bonnie are OK. Bonnie usually tries to nip at first so I have to pet a lot to stop it. Then they’ve been settling down apart from each other and spend the rest of the session like that. This is very similar to how they were in the longer sessions.

I have a plan to take them to the bonders in Aug as I will be out of town for 6 days or so. I am hoping I can get them pretty far along before they go to her… I think I need a breakthrough with the girls though if I’m going to feel optimistic.

I’ve decided if they don’t make real progress with her I’m going to quit trying the trio. I’m wondering if I should have a backup plan for her to work with one of the pairs if the girls aren’t progressing? It kind of breaks my heart, but Myra and Cooper seem like a love at first sight pair (they were like this when I first tried to bond the quad with Bun Jovi years ago). Would it be better to re-bond Cooper to Bonnie, or bond him to Myra? I would end up getting a 4th for the solo bun either way.

Cooper and Bonnie have had some hiccups in their bond, with lots of food-aggression from Cooper, but idk if that’s just him, or if it’s a consequence of their bond not being as strong? I would feel sad separating Bonnie, but I’m trying to go the path of least resistance here, and I would get her a companion once the other bond was cemented.

After the bonding session last week Cooper and Bonnie did well so now I think I would just go with them, LOL. I think I’m just ready to have the buns in a “settled” situation, as the current housing set-up is not good for them long-term. No one is getting enough interaction or exercise, and although a trio would be ideal, going back to two pairs would at least mean everyone would get enough space and exercise.

Plus there are of course some very cute male buns available for adoption…. 😎

I’ve been doing some sessions when I can and they have been mostly peaceful. Yesterday I started out with Bonnie and Cooper together for about 2 hrs. They mostly cuddled the whole time. Since they were so relaxed I decided to try adding Myra back in, and it was mostly good. Bonnie kept sleeping, Myra ignored her, and Cooper had some normal grooming/mounting interactions with Myra, that settled down after a few minutes. The three were together for about an hour.

I’m taking them to the bonder this Sunday, I’m really hoping for a breakthrough with these girls!!!

Well, I am officially throwing in the towel. At the bonder’s the girls were basically fighting every 20 minutes for the first 48 hrs, so we agreed it was not a good match. She said that usually in a new place it helps them bond together, but the girls showed no interest in being bonded. She was open to keep trying if I wanted to but I felt that this was the final shot at making it work and if it was going to make a difference it would have right away. She said Cooper and Bonnie were acting very happily bonded so she just kept them together and kept Myra in a separate pen.

So, Cooper and Bonnie are in the living room and Myra is in the kitchen. Everyone seems very happy and relaxed, and relieved to have more space again.

What an ordeal! I feel somewhat bad for putting them through all of that but I did feel like I had to at least try. Thankful to have things back in order again though.