Bonding Bunny trio

[jenna06]

I currently have a neutered male, Dicky, and a spayed female, Eta, who are bonded. I recently adopted a neutered male, Chester. When I introduced the three at the shelter, I thought it went fairly well. There was some sniffing and some ignoring. Dicky put his head down to try and get Chester to groom him. There was no signs of any aggression. When I took him home and tried introducing them in a neutral space, Dicky immediately attacked Chester. I tried later just to introduce Chester and Eta, which resulted in Chester attacking Eta. When I tried putting their cages near each other, this caused Eta and Dicky to start circling, nipping and mounting each other. I was well aware when adopting Chester that it might take several weeks or months to get them to bond, but I am worried about the level of aggression that Chester shows toward them. He attacks immediately when placed with either of them. Dicky also was very aggressive. Should I continue trying to bond them or is it likely to never work?

[Mikey]

He attacked because he is in someone elses territory. Theres a lot of stress and tension, which caused him to lash out. Its a fear response.

If you want a trio, youre going to have to split Eta and Dicky. If they cannot handle their cage next to his without them circling, youll need to split them. Each bunny needs their own cage, and you need to have all three cages set up so they can see and smell one another, but cannot reach one another. You can set their cages up in a sort of triangle with the corners being 3 to 5 inches apart. Youll keep them in this set up for a month.

After a month, youll start swapping their cages. Like this:

Day 1: Bunny1 in cage1, Bunny2 in cage2, Bunny3 in cage3.
Day 2: Bunny1 in cage2, Bunny2 in cage3, Bunny3 in cage1.
Day 3: Bunny1 in cage3, Bunny2 n cage1, Bunny3 in cage 2.
Day 4: Bunny1 in cage1, Bunny2 in cage2, Bunny3 in cage3.
Day 5: Bunny1 in cage2, Bunny2 in cage3, Bunny3 in cage1.
Ect, ect, ect.

Youll do this swapping until they all calm down about it and stay calm for a solid week of switching.

After this swapping, youll start bonding in a small neutral space. Many people use their bathrooms or their bath tubs. Youll start with a lot of quick sessions per day. Put them all in this small neutral space for 2 minutes, then bring them back to their cages. Youll do this about once an hour. The second day, increase time up to 5 minute sessions every hour. Next day, 10 minutes every hour. Then 20. 30. 45. An hour. Ect Once they can go 8+ hours together without aggression in this small neutral space, you can start bonding sessions in a semi neutral area, like the room they are sharing. Repeat with many short sessions slowly increasing until they can spend 8+ hours together without aggression.

You can bond all three at once, or start 1 on 1 sessions between two of them, alternating between sessions. Only increase steps once all three together can spend 8+ hours with no aggression.

If you dont want to split Dicky and Eta, Im not completely sure how to go about this. If they cannot handle Chester being nearby without Dicky getting aggressive at Eta, it means that Chester being there is disrupting their bond. I think if you want a trio, youre going to have to split them. If you dont want to split them, I dont think there is a way to make a trio work.

Outcomes of bonding a single into a bonded pair:
Bonded pair reject the single, leaving you with a single and a bonded pair who cannot bond.
Bonded pair reject the single, and also reject each other, leaving you with three single rabbits who cannot bond.
Bonded pair reject eachother, but one of the bunnies bonds with the single, leaving you with a new pair and a new single.
Bonded pair welcome the single into their bond, leaving you with a bonded trio.

[jenna06]

Thanks for the advice! Before I got Chester, I had Eta and Dicky’s cage in a spare bedroom. I just left their cage door open at all times, so I could just open the bedroom door when I’m home and close it when I’m gone or at night. Right now, they’re still in the bedroom with the door closed and Chester’s cage is in the living room. How would I go about letting them have time outside the cage if I have three cages set up in the spare bedroom? If I let one out at a time, they might fight through the bars. If I take one out of the bedroom to run around the house, that rabbit won’t have access to his/her cage/litterbox. Would I have to move one of the cages outside in the living room every time I want to give one exercise time?

[Mikey]

Youll need to bunny proof so they cant fight through the bars if you want to keep them in the same room to exercise outside of their cages. You can set up some pens that have lids so they cant escape, or get a few pens to circling around the other two cages so they cant reach through the bars while one is out. Or even set up a pen in a different room and alternate them; of course, for this, youll need to buy another set of litter boxes for everyone or move their own litter box with them to the exercise pen.

When I was bonding my trio (single into a pair), I got an extra pen layered around the cage of the bunny/bunnies who were not out.

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