Four single Buns!!! help on how to go about bonding

[kendall]

Here is a quick background of how me, a first time rabbit owner, ended up with four 🙂

I got Theo, a 4 lb holland lop in May. I wanted to get him a friend, and there happened to be a rescue in my area that had some. We went there intending to only get one, but the rescue had had no interest besides us. Long story short, we had the means and now they live with us. Rosie (harlequin rabbit about 5 lbs) and Calliope (dutch rabbit about 5 lbs) I tried to do a trio, but the girls hated each other due to their past owner not knowing enough. So, I tried to bond Theo and Rosie, but I pushed it too fast and they ended up being separated because it scared me (it was just chasing and a bit of biting/nipping). While they were “bonded” I got a fourth rabbit for Calliope. They are a french lop, they are not fixed yet and we don’t know the gender, but will soon enough, and will get to be about 10-15 lbs.

I want to have at least one pair within my rabbits, and Rosie and Calliope get along great with Theo (I am not interested in trying the French Lop with Theo because of the size difference and my inexperience.) My only thing is that I don’t know how to determine which pair will be the best. They are all in one room each of them in their own pen about 3 inches away from each other with a walk way down the middle, so only two sets are really close but they can all see, hear, and smell each other. I really want Theo to have a buddy because I think it would be awesome and easier for me, but I would LOVE to have two pairs so how do I figure that out with my french lop.

Rosie and Calliope can not be together, but they are doing ok with my other buns. There has been some territorial behavior from Rosie and Calliope towards the French Lop but nothing severe. I think it might be due to the possibility that it could be a girl (even though I wanted another boy). I was thinking of swapping their pens about once a month to see the different pair possibilities interact or waiting until my French Lop is fixed and then do bunny speed dating of my own in a neutral space in my home. In my experience though, Rosie and Calliope don’t act naturally because they are not confident enough to be moved like that so I can’t get an accurate representation of how they feel.

Do I just pick a partner for Theo and hope all is well when I attempt to bond my French? Do I try Theo and Rosie again (looking back I gave up too soon on them so it wouldn’t be a big deal)? Do I do bunny speed dating even though it might not be very accurate? Do I just start prebonding all of them?

I am not in any rush and was going to wait until Christmas Break from school and next summer before bonding anybody but I was going to prebond up until then if possible just to reduce risk of complication. I was planning on doing Theo’s bond first because it will definitely be easier and then the French lop bond in the summer.

 

Sorry if this is really confusing, maybe this will help: Possible Pairs

Theo : Rosie      French Lop : Calliope

Theo : Calliope     French Lop : Rosie

 

Here is a rough Idea of how my room is set up each number is a different pen

 

111111    222222

111111    222222

walk way

walk way

333333    444444

333333    444444

 

 

 

[Asriel and Bombur]

Honestly it could be a good idea to house all 4 in separate rooms for a good months so none of them really remember each other. That way you can take your buns on their own version of a speed date. Each buns personality might mesh with someone different than you’re expecting. Even the girls may overcome their issues with no contact for a month. I wouldn’t discount the lop pairing. Size difference won’t really have an affect when you’re bonding, as with bonding buns of the same size, just be ready to intervene with a fight. The issue with bonding is you never know who is going to work out and be a good fit for another bun. My boys came from the same breeder born days apart, and have lived together their whole lives, but they refuse to bond after multiple attempts. They’re both too dominant. They make great friends through a barrier, but not much more than that. So you’ll really have to play around with things.

[Asriel and Bombur]

i also just want to mention, bonding requires an incredible amount of patience. Some bonds can take only a few weeks to solidify, and other can take months of sessions before there is even a breakthrough. It really is a very involved process.

[kendall]

would it be ok to put up cardboard or something between all of the pens? I don’t really have the space to move them all out of the room and give them a room with a window! I can keep one rabbit in my bedroom but that’s about it. Also how long should I keep them separated? one month? I don’t know how well rabbits remember things but I would imagine it isn’t terribly long. One more question, can they still use the same exercise area? Again, it’s hard to accommodate all four rabbits in their own territory and space and supplies can be an issue.

Thanks for the bonding help, I have definitely learned from my first bonding flop 🙂

[kendall]

Thinking about it more, Rosie holds a grudge, and I don’t think that she will be a good match for Theo at this point. I would like to see how the French Lop and Theo get along but, to do a bunny date do I have to wait until the French Lop is fixed? I am assuming so because hormones, but they haven’t kicked in super strong yet because the Frenchy is still 2.5 months. Would I be able to do a date at this stage. Not start bonding, that I would wait an appropriate amount of time after the surgery for, but just to do a date and see if they are a better match than Theo and Calliope would be.

[kendall]

This is kind of a lot, but I was letting my french lop out for free roam time and she saw Theo and both of them were asking to be groomed through the bars. I have had this issue with all of my buns, and it’s difficult to see how they will actually respond to each other. Calliope is very scared around Theo and the French lop is very outgoing. I don’t know which will be better. I know the Lop and Theo might act differently after the surgery and in neutral territory, but I can kind of predict how it will go. I just don’t know how to go about choosing. There is hope if I choose Theo and Calliope that Rosie and my French can bond, but i don’t know if that is the best option.

[HipHopBunny]

Hi @kendall

I would wait until the French lop was fixed before a speed date, for after buns’ are fixed, their scent changes, so then it could potentially be like starting all over again.  I agree with @Asriel and Bombur, waiting a month or so so that they forget each other, then doing bunny dates, is a good idea. 🙂

Here is a website that might help https://binkybunny.com/infocategory/bonding/

I wish you the very best of luck!

[Asriel and Bombur]

I really do think you’re jumping ahead trying to plan a specific friend for each bun. You really can’t predict who is going to get along until hormonal behaviors die down and they get used to new smells (fixed buns have a different scent after the surgery). I know you may have your heart set on a certain pairing, but especially in your case with 4 buns, you really need to be open minded to behaviors and dominant/submissive pairings. How they act for a five second meeting could be very different than a full out session for 10 minutes. I wouldn’t do any prebonding until the French lop is fixed, and after about 2 weeks I’d start litter box swapping among all 4 of them. Also having them interact through a barrier like having them in their own separate xpens near each other will help eventually. It’s important to also make sure you have a neutral space to bond them, when you get to that point.

[kendall]

Ok, I will take a step back and make sure that I am doing what is best for my bunnies, thanks for being straight forward, I needed that. I will wait until after the French spay/neuter to start prebonding. With prebonding, I can only keep two of them really close to each other. They can all see, hear, and smell each other, but would it be beneficial to swap the cages they are in every couple of weeks so every-bun has a chance next to every-bun? I was going to do litter box swaps every couple of days to about once a week, but should I swap entire cages every couple of weeks? like every other week to once a month? I would be prebonding from September to at least Christmas if not all the way to summer break again so it would be anywhere from 4-9 months of prebonding.

I think that this plan would work for me, but let me know if I can make adjustments!

• prebond all 4 buns from Sept-Dec. (Christmas Break) (4 months) making sure each bunny gets each bunny litter box
• Do bunny dates over Christmas break and see which ones go the best
• After the pairs have been chosen by the buns, put the two pairs next to each other and prebond each pair individually
• Prebond the pairs from Jan-May (5 months)
• Once school gets out, start the actual bonding process for the pairs (one at a time of course :)) starting with the one that I think will got the smoothest to get myself used to the whole thing!

I would love to not have it take almost a year but I don’t think that my schedule will allow long bonding sessions everyday of the week. If I did bonding during the school year, I would only be able to do sessions Wed-Fri-Sat-Sun. I don’t know how well that would work, it would probably take a lot longer to bond but I am guessing that it would be possible. Just let me know your thoughts! Thank you!

Just a quick question, if at the end of the really long prebonding time all of the bunnies get a long beautifully would it be a good idea to bond all four of them? This is completely hypothetical and I probably won’t do that, but I am just curious. I know you can keep rabbits in trios quite successfully, and mypamperedpets did 5 for a while so I would assume 4 would also work, Just curious your thoughts!

[Asriel and Bombur]

Its totally fine to prebond for a long time and swap cages! In fact that might be great if you do want to bond a quad eventually. There are some members here who have a bonded trio, so hopefully their posts can be of help to you 🙂 Depending on where you live, there might also be options for professional bonders too through places like the SPCA. Hope everything goes smoothly!

[kendall]

There aren’t any professional services here or rabbit rescues to really ask for help, but I will definitely be using this forum more! It was so helpful to be able to ask someone with rabbits for help. My last question is if 3 of the 4 get along really well, would it be better to do a trio and then a single or should I split them evenly and do two pairs? I would keep the single in the same room as the trio so they could get some bunny interaction but would that be enough?

[Asriel and Bombur]

That would be totally fine too! They can still get enrichment from being around each other even if they aren’t bonded. My boys are like that. One free roam in the bedroom and the other in the living room and there’s a gate between them so they can interact.

[kendall]

Ok! thank you so much for all of your help, I definitely have a better understanding of where to go from here! I hope everything goes well for the next few months :)!!!

 

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