Bonding a baby girl with a bonded M-F pair.

[Deleted User]

Hello everybody,

Newbie here, hoping to share our current bonding story and get some hints at the same time.

After succesfully bonding our little Dwarf male and Angora lop female (initially a disastrous killkillkill relationship, now inseparable), we’ve added a third and final bunny to our household.

She’s just shy of three months old, and being a Giant will grow to be much larger than her two friends.

We let them meet for the first time on Sunday, so today being Tuesday is the third day.

We quarantined her in the bathroom for three weeks, and our ‘neutral territory’ is the hallway in which no bunnies have ever gone.

The hallway has  a babygate at the end of it, to stop our buns going down to the rooms full of cables and tasty things to chew on. (they have the run of the livingroom and kitchen/meals areas).

Our older female has, since the smell of the new bun came into the house, been very upset and reverted back to her icky habit of peeing all over the place, which we’d cured her of after something upset her world again a few weeks prior (no idea what, but we got through it).

So, the two buns are now banned from the living room until she stops this, which she still hasn’t, despite our efforts. I’m hoping she stops it after they’ve all met and bonded….

Meet the buns:

Alfred, first bun. 11 1/2 months old. Small, tubby, very happy friendly fellow.

Gwendolyn, second bun. <2 years old, though age is unsure. Initially very angry and distrusting, having been found as a stray. Settled down noticeably after neutering. Medium-sized, made larger through ridiculously puffy Winter coat. Hates her daily grooming (has started to lose fur in a patch on both sides, we're not sure whether that's due to stress or me grooming her too much)

Tuppence, third bun. Baby, 11 weeks old. The size of Alfred, growing by the week.

So, on to our bonding process:

Sunday = everybody very wary, Alfred terrified of Tuppy, couldn’t get him to come near her. Gwen interested, but not vicious.

Monday= Alfred happy to hop up and say hello to Tuppy and quietly sniff noses, Tuppy overexuberant and doinking all over the place like a mad thing, Gwen trying to reach her through the bars and bite her.

Tuesday= Alfred and Tuppy still very good near each other. Tuppy capering about like a mad little showoff. Very excited. Gwen increasingly angry at Tuppy. She tried to fight her, then inexplicably Alfred got into a mood and started chasing Gwen helterskelter all around the room, she was growling and unhappy. Not sure if it was fighting or overexcitement.

All okay once Tuppy was back in her room. It’s as if nothing happened, everybody is relaxed again.

[Beka27]

They are all very cute! My concern is that, even if you can get them to an agreeable stage, this will change in a couple months once the baby’s hormones come on. And things can become very dangerous at that point, especially with two females. I would suggest you wait until Tuppence has been spayed and been able to heal for a month or two. Once that is finished, do individual sessions with each bunny.

[Deleted User]

Thankyou! I can’t take credit for that sadly, that’s how they were born. 😉 Though Gwen looks nicer when not so shaggy, I think.

Ah yes, I started browsing through other bonding stories here after I posted, and did read some interesting things…my concern was that apparently a rabbit will smell ‘different’ once spayed, so all previous bonding will have been for nothing? 🙁
We don’t think we can keep poor Tuppy in the bathroom for another several months, she loves to be out and running down the hallway so much…
Since it sounds like Gwen will be dangerous to the little bub, we might have to leave it with Gwen safely away in her own hutch, and trial Tuppy with Alfred and see how those two go on their own. If they get along fine until it’s time for her vet appointment, that’ll already be nicer for her than being stuck alone in the bathroom for another entire lifetime!
If they don’t, if things just don’t work out, or if things change and she and Alfred suddenly don’t get along once she gets hormonal, then I suppose the bathroom can be offlimits for another little while…better safe for them, than sorry if anyone is hurt.

[Deleted User]

Hmm, do the vids work at all? I thought I used the correct link from photobucket, but I find embedding vids a little confusing- so many choices of code!

[Elrohwen]

Beka had some good advice – I would wait until she’s completely spayed and healed before starting to bond. Trying her with just your male bunny could break up the relationship of your existing pair, so it’s risky, even if Alfred gets along with her.

For videos, which video source are you using? There should be an embed script that you can copy and paste into the BB window.

[Deleted User]

Mm, I suspect that the Alfred-Gwen bond will break no matter what, as we’ll be keeping Gwen in a large hutch to contain her mess, for the foreseeable future. She won’t ‘clean up her act’ until her feelings about Tuppy are resolved, and that won’t be for another four months or so, until after Tuppence has been desexed and is okay to be introduced to the buns all over again.

So, once Tuppence is fine and healed she’ll go back to meeting the other buns, then we’ll do separate intros between her and Alf, and her and Gwen, and probably, between Alf and Gwen again….and see how everybody feels about the others.

But we’re prepared for it, and determined to make it work.

For now, we’ll let Tuppy and Alfred hang out, and take it from there. So long as those two get along okay, Gwen can think what she wants, she’ll be out of harm’s way and no-one will get hurt.

Re. the vids, aha, it works! Seems that just pasting the code right in here works. Weird! I’ll go back and put them into my first post.

[Beka27]

If Alfred and Gwen are currently bonded, they should be kept together, even if this means confining them both to a safe space (like a large exercise pen) when you are not around to supervise. Bonding rabbits and then removing them from the other can cause depression.

[Lintini]

She is making a mess because she smells the new baby and females are territorial, especially since your new babe isn’t spayed too. It’s not her fault at all, she is simply marking what she believes is hers to this new intruder.

I would not break up Gwen and Alfred. You would be taking a step backwards by doing that. The only reason Alfred isn’t reacting like Gwen is because he’s interested in the hubba hubba part.

Wait till Tup is spayed and then try bonding, it’s really not worth breaking up your pair already, they make a lovely couple and will make an even lovelier trio! Best wishes to your trio journey!

[Deleted User]

Since Gwen will be messy with the new-baby smell no matter where we keep the little girl, we’ll go ahead with our original plan to keep Gwen in a large hutch in the same room she’s currently in (ground-level, wire on the lower floor so she’s still within sight and sniff of Alfred). She’ll be right near him, and in the human-traffic area too, just not able to run around willy-nilly and make a mess. I’ll probably let her out for a run in the evenings when we’re around to keep an eye on her bum at all times…
We’ll keep pondering the question of where to keep Tuppy.
In any case, I’ll report back in 4 months or so, after Tuppence has been desexed and is healthy again, and we then try our mega-three-bunny-bonding-madness…
Cheers all.

[Monkeybun]

Being within sight and sniff won’t be enough, a bonded pair needs to be kept together.

[LoveChaCha]

Your bonded pair will get depressed. Please put them back together ASAP

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