Adding a female while bonding two males?

[BofiSofi]

I have two male rabbits who I’m currently in the process of bonding. It’s going okay, but whenever I think we can move to the next step, my small white lionhead mix, Thyme(Ty), starts to grunt, nip, and hump my minilop Honey(Hun Bun). My local shelter has a few female rabbits and I was wondering if adding a female into the mix would help. I read somewhere that adding a third rabbit if the bonding wasn’t going anywhere helped, but that was only one source so I wasnt sure to trust it.

[Pinkbun]

Hi
I’m surprised your getting the males to bond as I remember bonding to males YEARS ago! (Now that was fun!) make sure the males are neutered earlier for best result. One of them was always more ‘dominant’ than the other and the other would be submissive. However you say yr going to add 1 female bun… In my opinion and experience that’s a BAD idea… Trust me. You should have atleast two female buns for each male. As males will fight over females! My buns fought over me (I’m a girl.. I know) and my original bun Thumper was always more dominant. Nibbles (my brothers bun who became my adopted bun) was always more submissive. The grunts,nips and humps are probably just dominance behaviours towards yr female (I’m assuming Ty is a boy and honeys a girl?). But if you see these behaviours between males these are dominating behaviours eg thumper would nip nibbles occasionally to make sure he knew who was incharge. You can’t get rid of these behaviours unfortunately… I guess guys just have urges XD. If you see extreme fighting behaviour separate them as they’ll hurt each other. I would add atleast 3-4 females so that the guys don’t fight. But do not add just one, this will make the situation much worse.
A good tactic I used for my two guys was letting them roam on neutral territory (because males scent mark, well mine did). If you get them bonded on neutral territory (unmarked territory eg somewhere they’ve never been) and then introduce them to each other’s territory this will help you. As male buns do not like there territory being invaded. That’s why nibbles was submissive when I got him from my brother. He didn’t have any territory at my house, it had all been marked by thumper. This is why nibbles was very submissive. But give each of your males there own area if you get what I mean. I hope it helps !

[BofiSofi]

They’re both males and have been neutered. I’ve gotten flops and Honey grooms Ty, but whenever Honey moves, Thyme lunges, and occasionally Honey will lunge back (but not often.)
Thyme is the dominant one and Honey is real laid back and will tolerate most of it.

[Pinkbun]

Hi
Yea I remember the lunging. It’s sounds like ty is telling honey to be aware of Being on tys territory. As honey doesn’t lunge back often this means honey doesn’t have much territory. I’d suggest giving honey a ‘safe zone’ a area only accessible to honey so he can have some territory as you may get some unwanted behaviours. Eg my submissive rabbit nibbles used to wet himself every time he was on ‘thumpers’ territory. Maybe he had a weak bladder but I think he was scared. So I gave him a safe zone and this helped him. You will probably see the lunging often between males as the nips are a way of disciplining the submissive rabbit. Thumper always used to grab a tuft of fur….. Even if you give treats you’ll probably see it as the dominant animal will always eat first. Submissive animal always is second

[Asriel and Bombur]

To be honest, I wouldn’t get a third bunny. There’s no guarantees you’d be able to bond her with anyone. Can you keep 3 solo rabbits? Do you have the time and the finances for it? If not just keep your males solo. Give them time, go back to prebonding for a month, then start the bonding process over

[Pinkbun]

hey

i agree with this as because theres 2 males you wouldnt just need 1 female you would need atleast 3-4. as males will fight over the females.

[Asriel and Bombur]

That’s not really true. Most trios are in fact 2 males and 1 female. Females are typically pretty aggressive and territorial with each other, whereas males tend to be pretty docile. I’m almost wondering if Thyme isn’t fully neutered? Or maybe if he’s even having bladder stones? Sometimes bunnies with bladder stones get pretty humpy. But then grunting and nipping almost make me wonder if he wasn’t neutered properly, if at all.

[Pinkbun]

https://ficampbell.com/2015/06/20/bonding-a-trio-of-rabbits/
hi

i didnt know that most trios were 1 female and 2 males. im still learning! i only had 2 males so thats probably why they should there masculine behaviour. i found something though on how to bond a trio of 2 guys and a female (sry it pasted above)

[Asriel and Bombur]

Sirius and Luna bonded a trio with her boys and Luna. The boys were so chill with each other and Luna was the troublemaker ? her thread is here somewhere.

But yes, sometimes neuters and slays are incomplete. Sometimes the vet doesn’t get everything so they still are very hormonal. So it could be a possibility. We’ve seen it quite a bit in the forums.

How long ago were they neutered? Cause timing could be a factor. If they were neutered less than 2 months ago they’re still going to be pretty up and down.

[BofiSofi]

We adopted him from our local shelter and we’ve taken him to a vet (that wasn’t the one who fixed him) and both said he was neutered. He was neutered about a 16 months ago (hes turning 2 years in february) 

We’ve noticed he’s been mostly aggressive whenever I went in the cage, he likes to jump up on my lap and then leap off and lunge and Honey

also apologies for the late reply, we just finished up exam week. We probably won’t get the third rabbit and just keep trying to bond them

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