Bonding 4 male rabbits

[Mel]

We have 2 desexed male mini lops that are 14 months old, Bob and Huckleberry. We did have 3, but one recently died, Finn. Since then Bob and Huckleberry ignore each other as they both preferred Finn, but they do not dislike one another as they have grown up together. We are not sure why Finn died (it could have been myxomatosis as we cannot vaccinate for that in Australia, but he was not sick before he died), but we have taken the other two to the vet and they are both healthy, if not a little sad from losing their friend. They are put away in their hutch at night but have free reign outside during the day in a safe, enclosed area of our back yard, and come inside to play with our 3 daughters (11, 13 and 15) quite regularly.

My daughter who owned Finn wants to get another male bunny, but we thought we would get 2 so he would have a friend. We are in contact with a breeder of the beautiful smoke pearl breed and she has two male babies that will be available in 6 weeks or so.

My main questions are:

Should we really be getting 2 female rabbits or will this not make much difference once they are all desexed?

Should we introduce the babies to Bob and Huckleberry straight away or should we wait until they are fully grown?

If we got 2 girls, should we bond one boy to one girl? And would we have to keep the pairs separate from each other?

We are new to owning bunnies as we only have had the boys for 1 year and have not introduced rabbits, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Mel

[Mikey]

Personality means more than their sex. No matter if you get a boy and a girl, two girls, or two boys, before bonding ANYONE, make sure EVERYONE is spayed/neutered and healed. Hormones from rabbits can easily cause a split between already bonded pairs; even smelling hormones off of the new rabbits can cause a split or scuffles

Ive heard that 3+ is easier to bond then 2 x 2 because the rabbits can pick and choose who they do like, while ignoring who they dont like instead of feeling forced to like everyone

[Azerane]

Hi there, I’m sorry for your loss of Finn. Bonding 4 together can be a very big challenge and it may not work no matter if you choose boys, girls or a boy and a girl. As mentioned by Mikey, your new rabbits will need to be desexed and kept apart (from each other and your current pair) for 6 weeks after to allow hormones to fade before they can be introduced to your new pair. I would suspect that four males together could be tricky, but it may be just fine. In domestic rabbits, females tend to be dominant over males so too many females is I believe often more of a problem than too many males. It is about each individual rabbit though.

As a side note, how recently did you lose Finn? My main concern would be the new strain of calicivirus, RHDV2. The vaccination does not protect against the new strain and often it kills so swiftly that no symptoms are observed at all. You should however always see symptoms with myxo. If it was very recent (as in the past week), I might wait a couple weeks just to be sure your current pair are ok. The other common cause of death without obvious symptoms is gastro intestinal stasis, which is often diet related but is also a symptom of many issues including generalised pain.

[Mel]

Thank you for your advice. We lost Finn 3 weeks ago. It is very scary to not be able to vaccinate against the new strain of the Calicivirus. Bob and Huckleberry seem fine, but it’s still a big worry. We won’t be getting the new bunnies for about 6 weeks, so hopefully they remain healthy

I’m feeling a little more optimistic that we can have a friendly group. Hopefully their personalities work well together.

When keeping them apart for the 6 weeks following desexing, can they see each other through a fence or should they be completely separated then introduced slowly after the 6 weeks?

Thank you

[Azerane]

No problem, it sounds like things are alright then

In terms of keeping them apart, yes you can have them separated by a fence, so that they can see and smell each other etc. However keep in mind that some bunnies do try to bite through fencing, so it’s generally recommended to either have two fences a couple of centimetres apart, or to attach a finer aviary type mesh to the fence panels so that they can’t squish their faces through to bite each other on the nose, which isn’t terribly uncommon.

[Author]

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