Do you think this trio could work?

[Melissa Rabbit]

hi there. i have two males i want to bond to a female, but im looking for some encouragement because i’ve read that it could potentially break the bond between my two boys. what factors play in to this? 

my two boys (Tibbers and Buffalo) are very gentle and not aggressive. the female (Fern) i’m looking to adopt and bond with them is also not aggressive, but very scared and shy.

everybody is fixed, but i have no idea how old they are because i adopted them from rescues. im assuming they are middle-aged.

Tib and Buffy have been bonded for a year. their bond was almost instant. Tibbers is very sweet, curious, energetic, and loves to explore. the best way i can describe Buffy is content. he just always seems happy. even when i was bonding them, he was receptive. Tibbers did show a bit of aggression twice during their bonding process–Buffy was exploring inside Tibbers’ pen, so Tibbers lunged and grunted at Buffy, but no nipping or anything else. Buffy usually humps Tibbers in the morning, when i greet them and open their pen up.

before Buffy, Tibbers was bonded to a slightly aggressive and very timid fixed female, Annie. Tibbers was very receptive to her but she was not impressed with him for about 8 months. She passed away only two months after they bonded. 

Tibbers is happy with his pal Buffy now, but he has a different relationship with Buffy than he did with Annie and i think both Buffy and Tibbers would love another bunny to hang around.

now i feel like it would be a relatively easy bond, as nobody appears to be aggressive and the boys have been receptive to others in the past, but i want to be aware of all of the things that could happen or go wrong. could Tibbers become aggressive towards Buffy after a female is introduced? could Buffalo become jealous? what exactly causes a pair to break their bond?

thanks in advance! excited to hear some opinions

[Sirius&Luna]

Hi,

I am currently bonding a trio. I had a male/female bonded pair, and got a third boy. Having the third boy in the house in a separate room did cause my female to start being a bit aggressive with her bonded pair. Eventually I had to separate them after she bit him (she did also have stasis at the time, which was making her extra grumpy, but I don’t think it would have happened without the other boy in the house). My girl is very territorial and pretty aggressive, so I guess I should have forseen it, but I did think that they had a pretty strong bond so it would be okay.

Now that I’m bonding, I’ve found that the original pair are pretty much fine with each other, and the two boys LOVE each other. It’s just new boy and original girl that still needs work.

As for what makes some pairs break bonds and others not – I guess it’s all about personality, but you can’t know how they’ll behave. My pair’s bond was fine for the first month or so or having a new bunny in the house, but then it did break (plus other factors like illness were involved). Any of the buns could get jealous, they could decide the new bun suits one of them better, and one of the previously bonded buns could end up being left out, etc. But, there are many people with happy trios, and you could also eventually end up with a trio. But it will be a slow process, and it’s a lot of work. There is poop all over my flat where they’re all marking territory, it’s difficult to give them as much free roam time as i’d like, it’s three times the cleaning, etc.

[Melissa Rabbit]

thank you so much for your input! it’s always good to hear first-hand accounts, especially in situations where the bond did break. your progress must be exciting. good luck to you!

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