Bonding two pairs

[GillT]

Hi everyone, I’ve been reading a lot of great stuff on this website about bunnies which has really helped my husband and I care for our bunnies better, so thank you!! I just have questions about trying to bond two bunny pairs together. Here’s the background:

– We got two buns over a year and a half ago, both babies, one male (a French lop) and one female (we think she’s a mini rex). After a few days of bonding, they adored each other and have done ever since. Both are neutered.

– One week ago, we adopted a 10 month old bonded pair of Netherland dwarves who had to be rehomed due to their owner falling ill. The male was already neutered, and the animal rescue centre neutered the female before she came to us.

– Before the new buns came to live with us, we had a bunny date where all four buns met. We made sure to set up neutral territory for this, and it went pretty well! Some humping, but no real fighting.

– When we brought the new buns home, we set them up in a cage beside the other two rabbits but gave them a day of not being able to see each other so that the new buns could settle in. We did this just by putting a wooden panel between them. The were very comfortable very quickly, they had obviously been very well cared for, and they love cuddles.

– When we tried to introduce all four buns again in neutral territory, fights broke out immediately. Our male lop ended up scrabbing the new guys nose and leaving a wound.

– we left it for a few days after this, but without the wooden boards up so that they could see and smell each other, but they kept trying to fight each other through the cages. We had to move the cages furthur apart so they wouldn’t injure each other.

– we tried bonding the females separately, and our mini rex was very dominant. The new girl was very submissive. There was a fair bit of fur pulling by our rex, but she also ended up grooming the new girls ears, so this was the most positive reaction so far.

– we tried bonding the two males separately, and although the new guy was quite submissive, our lop was very agressive with him, and he eventually got fed up and fought back. We stopped the session immediately as our lop is much bigger and even one hit from him can cause a lot of damage.

– Today we have swapped the buns habitats, making sure their was used litter trays in both. Noone seems to be too annoyed by it – they actually seem to like wrecking their new areas and are doing half binkies and flopping down happily. They are still staring each other out though, and the agressive behaviour is still evident.

Does anyone have any advice on what we can do to make sure the process is successful? We aren’t too sure on timelines for when to start bonding in a neutral territory again, whether it’s better to have all four together or to do separate two-bunny sessions with various bunny combos, and if we should be trying stress bonding by taking them all out in the car?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[vanessa]

Bunny dates outside the home typically go differently than in your home. I read a lot about letting bunnies “pick” their pals through speed dates at a shelter – but I would personally not do that – as it seems pointless to me, since they react differently once you bring them home. I know others on this forum subscribe to that, I don’t.

I think you need to do some prebonding first. Let them get to know eachother through the fence, swap their litter boxes, swap their toys, even swap cages. Do this until territorial poops die down, and aggression stops. Separate the cages if they are close enough to have aggression.

Personally – I have not tried a quadruple bond. I am working on a trio, and from my first attempt with this same trio, I’m doing it differently this time. One-on-one first – before introducing the bonded pair. Just my experience. But definitely do prebonding first, it will probably take a few months. I wouldn’t let them meet before then…

[GillT]

Hi Vanessa, thanks for getting back to me! Sorry I’m only getting to reply now, our internet has been down.

I know what you are saying about the bunny dates, but we actually set up a neutral area in our house for the initial date, and then when all bunnies were living in the house we used the same area to try the bonding.

We have set up our bunny area more suitably now for the pre-bonding, so we can swap the buns between cages. The territorial poops had died down until we gave them a wooden platform thing – the original two buns spent all night pooping and peeing on it! The newbie buns dont seem to be doing any territorial poops at all now.

Another quick question – when you are pre-bonding, is there a specific place you put the litter tray, food etc? I’m not sure whether to put any of this at the partition between the two cages, or to put it at the opposite end of the cages.

We’ll maybe try the one-on-one bonding when it comes to properly introducing them all. I suppose it will be a case of trying different things and seeing what works!

If you have any other advice we would really appreciate it

[vanessa]

like to put the food/litter at the partition, so they have to socialize over food/litter. There really isn’t a one-size fits all. The basic rules are spay/neuter, wait, prebond, bond. For prebonding – there are a number of things you could do to get them used to having each other’s scent in eachother’s space. Even with bonding – find what works and stick with it. Prebonding coudl include getting them stuffies and swapping them, swapping blankets, food bowls, water bowls, litter boxes, toys, blankets, cages, beign able to see eachother but not touch, getting to know eachother through a safe distance.
I’m tryig one-on-one bonding with my trio – I tried putting them all three together a while ago – it didn’t work. Others have managed to bond a trio by putting them all together. But each case is diferent. l
I personally prefer to try only 2 at a time – just because if I had to break up a fight with 3 or more, it would be tough. So I’m doing Guin/Avalon first, because I think Avalon will be the toughest. Then I’ll do Guin/Morgana. Then I’ll put them together.

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