Broken trio

[Lilly Halloway]

Hello all!
I have a trio of two females and one male.
Two of my females have had an awful awful fight which has left the littlest one with lots of awful bites on her back. What we don’t understand is the littlest one (Lola) has always been the submissive one and right at the bottom of the chain in the group but now she is lock on fighting with our top bun, Bobbie.
We have tried for a week on focusing to rebond them but last night they got into a serious fight and we now have them separated. We are very concerned as our third bun (Charlie) is actually Lola’s brother and they have always had a tight bond but we have made the decision to keep him with Bobbie as their bond was incredibly hard to make and we don’t want to have to start from scratch. However this morning we put Lola and Charlie together and they started circling each other and it looked like they were about to fight which is incredibly heart breaking as they have never ever even had a tiff.

I was wandering what you would do in this situation?
For now we have Lola on her own and Charlie and Bobbie together and we are thinking of taking a break but we worry that if we leave it too long then Charlie and Lola will no longer recognise each other and it will be like bonding the trio all over again. So how long do you think I should leave it?
We are also having Bobbie health checked at the vets as she is an older bun and seems unusual for Lola to be fighting her.
I’d also like to say that they are ALL spayed and neutered and when I say fighting I mean full on lock on fighting.

Thank you,
Lilly x

[Mikey]

Fights with blood means you have to wait two to six months, not a week. You need them to forget about one another completely. They need to be in completely different rooms so they cannot see, smell, or hear one another.

Also note that rabbits dont see family bonds. No bunny will bond better to another rabbit because they were litter mates as theyll see them as any other stranger rabbit.

How long have they all been spayed/neutered? What did you do to bond them the first time? Has anything changed lately (smells, sounds, scenery)?

[Lilly Halloway]

Ok thank you. We are planning on letting Lola’s bites heal over completely anyway which will take a while.
As for the rooms we have Lola downstairs where we can keep an eye on her and Bobbie and Charlie are outside in their bunnie shed so they shouldn’t even be able to smell each other.

Lola and Charlie have been spayed for three years and Bobbie for five.

They have been a group for two years now. We used stress bonding and different ways to bond them as Bobbie and Charlie were very difficult to bond at the start.

As for changes, there are only two things I can think of that may have caused this and one is that they were actually originally a quartet however sadly Douglas died in October from cancer. However when he passed we did several stress bonding sessions with them to cement them as a trio and had them inside for a good month and half till they went into their shed.
The other thing that changed is I let them start to have space in the garden as well as their shed. We have quite a large garden so I only allowed them access to a small part of it at first as was worried about territorial aggression. This seems like the most likely reason for fights to break out however they started to fight two weeks after allowing them access.

Lilly x

[DanaNM]

How heartbreaking and stressful

The extra space outside could definitely have done it. There may have even been smells from other animals or even wild bunnies that set them off. Maybe in concert with a tenuous trio since Douglas passed?

So if I read this correctly, Charlie and Bobbie are still bonded and are together? If so, please observe them very carefully, as it is possible for them to have some problems as well since the trio has been disrupted.

Since they are fighting, you actually WANT them to forget each other. The fact that Lola is fighting and circling with the others means that her bond with them has already broken.

It would be a good idea to have all three rabbits examined at the vet (not just Bobbie). It’s possible that Lola is having an issue that caused her to feel insecure and lash out.

So sorry you are dealing with this. Since the fight was so bad, and they were a tough bond to begin with, you might consider keeping Lola separate, and possibly rebonding her with a new bun to have two pairs. Especially if Bobbie is older, it might be kinder to her to not put her through the stress of another tough trio bond.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Mikey]

Im so sorry to hear all of that Seconding everything DanaNM said. Often breaks like this happen because of health issues or added space. Both are very common for causing breaks. Its really great that everyone is completely separated for now.

[Lilly Halloway]

Thank you all for the responses they have been very helpful

Yes can’t help but feel like Souglas’ passing may be one of the factors to do with this fight. Especially as Lola and Doug were very very close and were always by each other’s side so perhaps there’s been a shift in the bond with his passing.

I think I’m definitely going to give it a break for now. If they still are not getting on even after the break then I will definitely get Lola a friend.

Bobbie and Charlie are still bonded yes. I will make sure to keep an eye on them.

I’ll keep this forum updated on whether one of them turns out to be ill.

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