Bonding trio

[Nate]

It’s finally time for me to join the community to ask a few questions of the more experienced members.    I’ll try to keep this short and to the point but if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.  

  I am attempting to bond a trio.  Our first rabbit (magnolia) was a rescue from a …. ..breeder that didn’t raise rabbits to be pets.   (Part Flemish and rex I’m guessing)  A short while after getting her home she gave birth to two babies and only one survived (I think he’s part lionhead??).  His name is Chester and he’s the most relaxed chill bunny you could ever meet.  From the moment he started crawling out of the nest we would spend time with him on a daily basis.  We were rewarded with a affection that I was surprised to get from a pet rabbit.   Long story short I did my due diligence and knew the clock (biological ) was ticking and I would have to separate mom and son.   When that happened we had to move Chester downstairs to the garage due to his sniper like skills with his water gun.   

  It took longer then I wanted to find a vet 4-5 months and in the mean time we added another rabbit (olive) with magnolia.  They instantly bonded.   And when olive was ready to be spayed we took her and Chester to the vet.   Now that everyone is healed up I’m testing everything out.   Olive was put back with Mags (magnolia) after healing and everything seems fine.   I’ve been bringing Chester upstairs to get used to the his mom and olive (kept apart with the c n c cage)  Everything seems to be going good.. . No honking, no peeing everywhere (we were nervous as hell) just alot of sniffing through the cage.  Only problem I see is that when Chester is brought upstairs, Magnolia gets real testy with olive.    I know that Mags can get out of the cage if she reeeally wanted to. Yet she just lays next to the cage and watches Chester. Little Olive will come hopping out of the main cage and Mags will turn around and grab a piece of her hair…. 

Anyone have any ideas moving forward?  

P. S  I redesigned the bottom half of the cage with spacers( k-nex) and another layer of grids.  It’s the perfect amount of space so the rabbits can smell each other and not bite.

Thank you in advance! ! 

[Asriel and Bombur]

I have to ask, did you not doing any bonding at all with Olive and Magnolia? Did you really just put them back together? Please clarify this, as this can actually be quite dangerous. Bunnies that were previously happy together pre-spay usually have issues to sort through afterwards. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t fight before their spays as bunnies in general shouldn’t be kept together unless they’ve been properly bonded. As it does sound like Chester is upsetting whatever shred of a bond is with the two girls, I’d keep the girls separate too. Things can get ugly between bunnies very quickly, especially females. I suggesting having all three separate and you do some prebonding for a good month between all three, then start sessions. Bunnies even of the same gender should be kept separate even before being fixed because hormonal bunnies can be quite vicious with each other.

[Nate]

Yes they were bonded (olive @ mags). No, I did not just put them back together after the vet. We went slow and eventually it was back to normal. Now I’m trying to reintroduce Chester with his mom first (Figured that would be the easiest path)

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