Bonding 4 bunnies

[Salem Fluffle]

Hi everyone.

 

Not new to rabbits but semi-new to bonding. I have had a brother/sister pair of Mini Rex that are almost 9 1/2 years old since they were very small babies. We recently adopted two youngsters – a 7 1/2 month old Harlequin girl, and a 5 month old Harlequin boy. All are spayed and neutered – the youngsters are 4 weeks post-op.

 

The youngsters were housed near each other in their own room at the shelter so we kept that set up at home. Currently their pen walls touch and they do come out to play in a small space together as well as spending a few hours together in the same pen. We’ve had zero fights or aggression between these two. In fact we see cuddling and more grooming every day. (About 1 week in of them being able to touch each other after maintaining a small space between for two weeks.)

 

Our minis sleep in their own cage throughout the night and it’s in our bedroom with us. They have free roam while we are home to supervise. They have seen the new bunnies through a baby gate while passing the office the littles are living in, and nobody showed any signs of distress.

 

Ultimately we would like a bonded fluffle of four who will live in our bedroom with us during the night, and have supervised roaming throughout the day/evening.

 

Should I continue to let the new buns hang out together while we wait for all the hormones to die down (since they don’t seem to influence bad behavior w/each other)?

 

I’ve read that some people say to throw all bunnies together rather than bond a pair and then add in the other pair. But I won’t lie, I am very nervous about my minis bond breaking because I love watching them snuggle and groom each other as they fall asleep at bedtime. They’ve always been so attached to each other that it seems sad to me that it could change. Is there any chance of their bond remaining the same since they’ve been with each other for over 9 years?

 

And when we do move into bonding the four – I have a neutral space in the house for time together, but should we have all four bunnies living in our room so they constantly see/hear/smell each other? If I can get the littles to the stage of fully living together, I could set up their pen and stick with the current one for the minis. Would that be acceptable? Or do I need to have four pens set up during the group bonding? (I’m not sure 24/7 bonding is feasible as I have a time-consuming and very demanding job.)

 

Sorry for such a lengthy post. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything right by these little floofs that I love with my whole heart. I don’t want to see anybody hurt or feeling left out of the group. I appreciate any advice you can provide that I can stack on to the information I’ve gleaned from hours of research. 🙂

[DanaNM]

So, I don’t have a quad, but I do have a failed one (now two pairs LOL). My experience was I had a M-F pair, then I tried to add a third (F) for a trio, and the girls just weren’t getting a long. I decided to pause and do more pre-bonding/ reassess. Then I fell in love with this other bun, so I decided I would try for a quad, and if that didn’t work out I would bond him to my single so I wouldn’t have a solo bun. I did a few speed dates with all of them and they went OK. I tried for 24/7 bonding with all 4 when I moved to a new house, and my males just were not getting along. They actually started out really well, with some cuddling and even grooming, but then once my older bun settled in a bit he started trying to mount like crazy and it caused a lot of fighting. He is also 12 (almost 13 now!) so I decided it wasn’t worth the stress or injury risk. So I ended up with 2 happy pairs. In all of that, my original pair never split up or fought, but my male was trying to mount her pretty relentlessly so I actually had to separate them a bit to let her catch a break and keep him from having a heart attack. I will say my original pair seemed very relieved that it was back to just the two of them when all was said and done.

So, I think the fact that your littles and your current pair seem pretty mellow is a positive sign for a possible quad!  I also think it’s a good sign that your mini rex pair hasn’t really reacted to the new bunnies at all. Did you see any referred aggression? This is when a bun is annoyed at another bun, but lashes out at the nearest bun or human instead. There is always the risk that trying for a quad can disrupt the current pair, so if you really want to make sure they stay solid, the safest bet is to just have two pairs.

That said, I think you could start by finishing up the young bunnies’ bond, just to make housing etc. easier. At four weeks post castration, their hormones are probably mostly settled, especially if you aren’t seeing a lot of marking etc. While it’s true that many bonders will just work with the group all together, it sounds like the young bunnies are practically bonded, so finishing that bond might make things easier for you (with the contingency that it might then be upset again during group bonding). It can also be overwhelming to work with all four, so sometimes bonders will try out the different combos to get a sense of which pairings might be the most trouble, and then they focus on that pair the most.

I think it might be helpful to just try a session or two with the pair and one of the new bunnies or both of them if you have a helper with you. You can gauge how your rex’s behave and then go from there.

I do think housing both pairs side by side once you start the process makes sense, you’ll just have to be prepared to separate if they start squabbling with each other. You can also add a visual barrier that you remove gradually if they get overwhelmed with the other bunnies at first.

I think I got all your questions but let me know if I missed something!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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