Bonding my quartet

[Silwerkitty]

Hi all. 

I have three loosely bonded, free roam house bunnies. I started with a nethie boy (Renji) and bonded him with a nethie girl (Suki). They’re both fixed and their bond is very sweet and loving and they’ve been together about a year. I rescued a cinnamon boy (Mickey) in February and I could only get him fixed about two months ago, bonding the three went okay, but I’ve basically been sleeping on the couch in the lounge since then because, even though they get along fine during the day, every night before bedtime, Renji chases him up and down the lounge, sometimes Suki joins in and i’ve felt a tiny scab on his leg where I believe he was nipped. I’ve tried to rebond or keep bonding for a while, but it’s the same basic thing no matter what I do, all’s hunky dory until the sun goes down, which I know is one of their most playful times of the day. The weird thing is that they groom him and snuggle with him when they’re not chasing him. Does anybody know what this means? Mickey isn’t too big on grooming the other buns, could it be that they get miffed at him for that? If that is the case, I am hoping it’ll soon end because I saw him starting to groom Suki a few days ago for the first time.

Anyway, so I recently decided to get another female for Mickey to bond with and am planning a blissfully bonded quartet where my little Mickey isn’t the ‘outsider’ anymore. I got the new girl (Bella) spayed last week, and she’s been caged in the other buns’ area since I got her (so two weeks now). As expected, I’ve been cleaning up the poop wars daily, there was some extra chasing within the trio for the first day or two, but nothing serious. Bella is a sweetheart, a very calm and sweet New Zealand black, and she has no aggressive response when the other buns peek into her cage. She and Mickey seem to already be hitting it off through the cage bars and even my nethies seem to have calmed down a lot when it comes to the new girl.

My question is if there would be any sense in bonding Mickey with her first? Or do one-on-one bonding sessions? I guess my fear is if I bond him with her first, he’ll be completely rejected by the other two and I don’t think he’ll like shacking up with Bella in the cage while I bond the rest of them, since he luuurves binkying all along the couches, up and down the lounge. My little bun-monkey. I do think bonding them all at the same time is the best way to go, I’m just still worried about the nethies chasing him.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[LongEaredLions]

You can do a mix of sessions, some can be the group, others just one or two bunnies. I would start with them all together, then do individual sessions based on how they react. During bonding gently break up chasing so they know that’s not ok.
Also be sure to wait a month after Bella ‘s spay before bonding.

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