Dominance?

[Graeme27uk]

I am seriously confused about my bunnies.

They are all neutered. We have one male, and two females.

They are currently all laying down pretty relaxed, though one of the females (the younger one) is a bit further away. The other two seem to bully her and push her about. She wants to go and cuddle them but they sometimes don’t let her and will charge, though it doesn’t get any where serious (maybe a bit of fur gets pulled out 1/100 times).

But I am worried that the youngest bunny is going to be kicked out or left out and she is already wary of them and sneaks past them if they are about. But then other times the other two will make a big fuss over her and lick her, cuddle up with her and even let her lay in the boxes with them.

Is it just the pecking order has been established and this is how things work in bunnies or is the bond not working and I need to go back to basics?

But then thats the other thing, when I remove them from their bunny room to a neutral area they get along fine, they cuddle up, lick, etc…. I have even taken them all on car rides together to get them bonded further. These things only happen when they are all in the bunny room.

Whats going on?!

[bunnytowne]

Good question I would like to know what the experts have to say on this too. Hopefully someone will come on soon and put a post about this.

[dmh426]

are your two that are bullying bonded and this younger bunny is new to the mix? Which one is predominiantly more the bully? It is male or female? Off the top of my head, I would guess that your older pair are a bonded maled and female, and the younger one is a female. am i right?

[osprey]

Do the pair groom the “outsider” bunny?  Does she ever lay together with the other two?  I know that in my trio, there is always some kind of drama going on, the one female humps the male and pulls his fur sometimes, then he chases her, then the other female chases her, that sort of thing.  When it is sleepy time, however, they all pile together in a big bunny lump or chill out laying side by side.

[Graeme27uk]

Posted By dmh426 on 08/11/2008 11:20 AM
are your two that are bullying bonded and this younger bunny is new to the mix? Which one is predominiantly more the bully? It is male or female? Off the top of my head, I would guess that your older pair are a bonded maled and female, and the younger one is a female. am i right?

The younger bunny is new, though they were all pretty bonded before we took Cookie to be neutered. Its since she has come back. It’s mostly the male, though the other female sometimes does fake charges.

[Graeme27uk]

Posted By osprey on 08/11/2008 11:25 AM

Do the pair groom the “outsider” bunny?  Does she ever lay together with the other two?  I know that in my trio, there is always some kind of drama going on, the one female humps the male and pulls his fur sometimes, then he chases her, then the other female chases her, that sort of thing.  When it is sleepy time, however, they all pile together in a big bunny lump or chill out laying side by side.

The other two do groom the outsider. And they do sometimes lay together, though usually they lay in pairs and sort of take turns. They eat with each other fine and when they go anywhere else other than the bunny room everything is bliss. Like yesterday when we took them to play on the grass they were binkying about and playing with each other.

[dmh426]

When two bunnies resided in the bunny room before the new bunny, they get territorial because it’s “their” room. When bonding, every book says to do it in neutral territory. You be looking at finding a new, neutral bunny room to keep them all getting along…..

[Graeme27uk]

we dont have the space to establish a new bunny room and they were fully bonded within the bunny room and 100% fine with each other before we took cookie away for a few hours to be spayed. As she is so young the problem tends to occur when she wants to get up and run around but they want to sleep.

we did rebond them within a neutral room for a couple of days when cookie first came back and they are absolutely fine in there, but they cannot stay in that room indefinately.

also in our experience the ‘advice’ in the literature quite often does not work as it is all theory and has been rarely put into practice before publication, hence asking on forums to get some first hand advice.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Have you taken them for car rides or shopping cart rides? I found those work like a dream

Also, if they have enough room to get away (ie. some free range during bonding) then they will eventually work things out IMHO. You could also try ‘force cuddling’ sessions, put them togehter touching and rub their noses, let them run off before they nip each other though

[Graeme27uk]

yeah we have taken them for car rides a couple of times now, which seem to work to an extent. the bunny room is fairly large and they each have established their own little areas so we are hoping they will get better as there is less fighting now than a couple of days ago.

we have tried forced bonding, which seems to work between smudge and cookie (the two spayed females) but as soon as cookie is put near frosty (neuteured male) he just grunts at her immediately. smudge is now better since cookie is reciprocating the washing.

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