Bonding 2 male babies to young adult female

[Mommatron]

Hello all!

I’m new to the forum so please forgive me if this has been asked already!

Our Nova is a beautiful 9 month old (spayed) New Zealand – Flemish giant. She is a super affectionate lady, but also head strong

A month ago we rescued 5 babies from an un-spayed (grrr!) female whose been wandering our neighbourhood for the last year. We decided to keep two lovey little boys who are very bonded to each other. They are about 12 weeks old (guessing of course).

For now, we are keeping Nova separated from them – The boys have the living room, and she has the rest of the house. She often lays outside the gate and watches them, and they occasionally touch noses through the gate. But on a couple of occasions, one or the other has escaped and she has chased him furiously and grunted at him.

We plan to work actively at bonding them once the boys are bigger and have been neutered. I’m just looking for a few tips on how to do this, and my biggest question is – should we work on bonding them both to her at the same time or separately?

Many thanks for your suggestions!

[Sirius&Luna]

Hi!

It’s great that you rescued those buns!

Unfortunately you’re going to need to separate the boys too. At 12 weeks, they’ll be starting to get hormonal, and two hormonal boys are very likely to have vicious fights! I know they look loving and snuggly now, but it can change very quickly!

Once the boys are neutered, spend some time pre-bonding. That is swapping them all between cages/areas to get used to each others scents. After a month of that, you can try introducing on neutral territory.

I recently bonded a trio, and introduced each pair separately to get an idea of how they would interact, then worked on them all as a trio. I knew that there was one pairing I had to particularly work on, but having the third bunny around helped to calm the situation, but it depends on the bunnies really. Generally, the advice is if you want to bond a group, keep them as a group during bonding.

[Mommatron]

Thanks for the info. We haven’t had to separate the boys yet but will keep our eyes on them. Unfortunately we still have a few weeks to go until we can get them neutered. Fingers crossed it works out btwn them all afterwards!

[Sirius&Luna]

You really shouldn’t leave them together until they fight – they can have really awful fights, and can literally go from cuddling one day to fighting the next.

[EmeraldDove]

Hello!
I am going to follow this thread instead of making another because this is similar to what I’m going through.
I have one female, who is approximately 9 months old. She is spayed. My bunny is still fairly aggressive though, and will nip and bring it you touch anything of hers, which is understandable.
I made a bunny no no however, and I agreed to “adopt” two bunnies from a woman whose children are allergic. To my knowledge, they are not neutered. One is three and the other is two, and they get along well together. They each have their own cage so all three have their own space.
I will be moving to a new house soon, so I figured it would be a good time to let them start getting to know each other in a neutral space. I pick them up next week. I feel like things are going to be tough, and I am annoyed with myself for making a snap decision (not planning) but I think with patience i can make it work.
Is there any advice that y’all can give me? I want them all to be happy and healthy.

[Asriel and Bombur]

You can’t introduce them until they have all been fixed. Meaning the two that you are getting that are not neutered should not be allowed to play together or live together, or play/live with your female. Get them fixed first, do a month or prebonding, and then you can begin doing short sessions in neutral territory. Let the two new ones settle in a room away from your female. Females are notoriously territorial, and it will be stressful on them to enter a situation with a potentially aggressive bunny.
Even if they get along well together, your bunny being thrown into the mix is sure to rattle two un-neutered males and make them act hormonally. So keep them all separate until the boys are fixed.

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