Bonding Trio – Stuck!

[JackRabbit]

I think I’m in a similar bonding rut as Sharma but mine is a
trio (Sharma – I’m feeling your pain!). 
We’ve gotten to where the girls (Kieko and Marlee) are OK, but Kieko and
my boy Moshi are not so good.  We’re
still at the point where Moshi grooms Kieko, Kieko won’t groom back (she won’t
groom anyone but us), so Moshi bites her. 
He was just going for under her tail but now he has nipped her foot, her
belly (she was laying down), and still going for under her tail.  Kieko is now thumping at him and running away
when he comes near her.  She’s even
getting jumpy when Marlee approaches her and all sweet Marlee does is groom
everyone.

We’ve moved from the slick bathroom floor to a small hallway
(both neutral), tried putting the two of them in a box together (tried shaking
it and not shaking it), tried banana on Moshi’s head, tried strawberry treat on
Moshi’s head, tried forced snuggles (multiple times during every session),
tried willow sticks for everyone, tried sharing a plate of hay (plates of
anything edible aren’t good – Marlee climbs onto the plate to eat and she
automatically poops and pees when she eats so we end up with a poop/pee covered
plate).

I understand that some bunnies will not groom back, but is
there anything we haven’t tried that might work to get Kieko to groom
back?  If not, is there anything that
might get Moshi to let go of being top bunny (he’s top bunny in his bond with
Marlee and seems intent on staying tops)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[tanlover14]

How long are their bonding sessions right now??

Usually when my rabbits are having an issue like this that they can’t figure out, I’ve had more success with extending the bonding sessions – going five or six hours. Besides the nipping is there any other aggression?

I have rabbits who do the same thing myself, the longer bonding sessions worked to get them over the hump and not so obsessed with getting their heads groomed.

[JackRabbit]

Sorry it took so long to answer — work project, shoveling snow, etc.  Our bonding sessions last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.  Tonight’s session included only Kieko and Moshi.  Same old same old.  Kieko runs from Moshi except to occasionally go to him and thump.  Moshi checks everything out, grooms Kieko a bit, and them bites her which sends Kieko running from him, etc.  Tonight ended with both laying down across from each other.  No actual fighting, just Moshi being a brat.  I don’t think Moshi will ever give up being top bun, particularly when he has Marlee at his beck and call.

How do you go 5 or 6 hours?  Maybe we’re doing something wrong.  The sessions consist of me at one end of a short hallway and my husband at the other with about 3 or 4 feet between us.  We tried the bathroom (much larger than the hallway) and all acted the same.  My husband and I sit or lay on the floor, gloves on, watching every move, and intervene when Moshi bites.  My joints are too old to sit like that for 5 or 6 hours!  Should we be intervening or not?  Could we move to a semi-neutral territory (a part of a different hallway where Kieko played when we first got her and where all three pass through on their way to the current play area)?    Marlee and Moshi do not appear the least bit territorial (no territorial poops in the common play area from them), don’t care if anyone goes in their cages, but Kieko is extremely territorial — growls and lunges if the other two come near her condo, poops (*hundreds*) everywhere in the play area, chins and re-chins everything, and squeezes every drop of pee she can muster in the play area litter box. Would the semi-neutral area give Kieko a little more confidence or likely cause fights?

Moshi and Marlee each have a 24×42 dog crate right now and Kieko has a 3-story 4×2 NIC condo.  We have space in a neutral room to build the mother ship of condos with an attached play area surrounded by x-pens as “walls”.  It’s killing me to have M&M in those little cages all day (except for nightly play time), but if I move them to the new area it will no longer be a brand new neutral area for them all to start living together.

We are at a complete loss on what to do next.  Is the only option for me to take a ton of ibuprofen and tough it out on the floor for 5 or 6 hours?

Thanks for your help!

[Author]

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