Bonding a third rabbit to a pair

[Corrie]

Hi everyone,

I posted a while back about bonding Pellet, a male, to Betty, a female (both fixed). It took a while but all went well and now they are inseperable!

Pellet follows Betty around everywhere.

About a month and a half ago I found yet another bunny abandoned outside. ‘Gloria’ is a female and had ear mites and ear fungus when we found her. We had her treated and got her spayed about 4 weeks ago. She is fully healed and none of the buns have signs of mites. We have decided to try and bond her iwht t

We have been doing cage-switching for about 2 weeks and want to start the dates. My boyfriend did a quick one with the two buns and Gloria and all they did was try to lunge at her while she sat there scared. We have just continued with cage switching since.

I am wondering if it is best to introduce the buns one by one and if so, which one I should start with?

Betty is obsessed with Gloria. She sits outside the baby gate that seperates their spaces and just stares at her for hours. She wil try to bite at the gate when Gloria comes near. Pellet seems less interested, but will also try to bite at the gate when Gloria comes close. For the record, Pellet was the dominant one when I started bonding him with Betty.

Also, once in a while Pellet will start chasing around Betty and rip out some of her fur. The next minute he is their grooming her. I wonder if he is confused by Gloria’s scent. He isn’t the brightest little guy.

Thanks for any advice!

Corrie

[Deleted User]

Hello, and welcome back! Trios are such a bonding challenge. It doesn’t matter which one you bond her to first.. I like to get the harder bonds out of the way, but sometimes an easier third bond will help bonding the harder pair in a trio to each other. I think this sounds very confusing.. I mean bonding your male to Gloria to help bonding the two females because they sound to be the harder bond. Either way, you must have neutral territory and use stressors such as carrides, or bathtub meetings with running water in the background.
Have you read some trio threads on here? Some of them are very long but worth looking over.

[Deleted User]

You may also find these links useful from BB’s bonding info

https://www.binkybunny.com/LINKS/tabid/67/Default.aspx

about Pellet chasing — it is not at all unusual. If he started this around the time Gloria arrived, it is her scent that’s setting him off. Chasing spurts do happpen in bonded pairs though, and as long as it’s only fur being pulled, it should not be a cause for alarm.

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