Groups of Bunnies – Who has Them? (UPDATE: Pics)

[Andi]

Hey All,

 

Just wondering who all has either bonded groups, or had groups that interact with one another.
I Have 8 bunnies at the moment, all in pairs. I’ve had up to 14 at one time, and for the past two years have been socializing the pairs into outside group play times, including taking them to ‘bunny parties’ that are sorta like doggy parks, but with a group of friends and their bunnies in someones bunny safe yard.

This has been going well with my 8, but recently my smallest bunny PitStop is showing fear to the other bigger bunnies and i have had to remove him from group playtime. He has reason too, as the two largest (and youngest, Spencer & Suzy) are bit of bullies and will chase the other bunnies time to time. I have noticed it has escalated this year a bit more then it had previous. At playtime inside the house with the group, I no longer allow Suzy & Spencer to come out and play with the other bunnies. It used to be THEY were affriad of everyone and everything, now they think they are the boss! lol They leave my next largest bunny Bubba alone, and never hurt anyone, but the fur pulling I want to see stop, and I don’t want my smallest guy who has enjoed the group run time before this, feel frightened and not get to participate because of this fear.

So My questions are;
How do I get my little bunny to be more confident? Honestly he’s scared of the others for no reason, the like him. This is a new behaviour, he used to boss them around LOL
How do i stop the bullying from the two large bunnies?

All the buns are sputered, there are 2 females, 6 males ages from 3 to 8.

 

[Deleted User]

At sanctuaries they sometimes have bunnies who simply cannot be part of a group because they are at risk of being bullied without letup, to the point of interfering with normal routines. I would try socializing the aggressors with the weaker buns in paired session to break their negative attitudes. Sometimes, many times, you can dissolve hostilities that surface in groups by making the involved parties into pairs temporarily.

[jerseygirl]

I have no experience but have been reading a book on rabbit behaviours. So my immediate thought about Spencer & Suzy ( based on theories from this book ) is that they may have shown fear-based aggression that is now a learnt aggression. That is, they’ve learnt that aggression will give them what they want -> being left alone. It seems that they may not be into the group thing. Do you think that is true?

Can you refresh my memory on PitStop? Who is his mate? & was he one of the ones paired to the Does that have now passed away?

[Deleted User]

Some rabbitries experiment with group housing as a means to improve animal welfare as well as saving money on indivudual caging materials. These breeders usually remove aggressive rabbits from a group and deem them unfit for group-living. However, they do not employ any bonding techniques, or introductory sessions.
Andi, is it possible that the escalated aggression you are seeing is a seasonal thing? How serious is the chasing? Does it keep the afected rabbits from engaging in essential routines such as eating, drinking, pottying and sleeping?

My friend has a trio and a quartet and is working on combining the two groups. The trio has one extremely dominant female who poses a problem. We are planning on singling her out this summer when my friend moves to a new location and then re-introducing the dominant female to each rabbit one by one.

[Andi]

Thanks for your replies

PitStop – Pitters came to be a companion of a handicap bunny I had; Ebony. Ebony’s Sister fell in love with Kyoto a foster I have and they were unseprable, so Ebony needed a safe friend. When Ebony Passed, Pitters was alone for a bit before bonded to Mittens & Kyoto, when Mittens passed last year the boys had each other. And today, I allow them play time with Bo (nicest bunny in the world) and Ani (additude).

they may have shown fear-based aggression that is now a learnt aggression

I find that interesting. What book is this? I’d be intereted in reading it myself.
I got to know Suzy & Spencers sibblings as they all stayed with me for a coupld months, every one of them but the rex coated ones (1 male 1 female whos passed) were skittish.
Suzy & Spencer are still a bit skittish, but are much less affraid and more confident now. They are also my largest bunnies at almost 8lbs each.

 

Andi, is it possible that the escalated aggression you are seeing is a seasonal thing? How serious is the chasing? Does it keep the afected rabbits from engaging in essential routines such as eating, drinking, pottying and sleeping?

The aggression – Is mostly just the forward ears, up tail and some chasing. A few times there will be fur pulls. Once or twice there was Spencner & Baby jumping around one another. I wondered if the reason i noticed it more now was because they have not been outside together since the begining of October when the weather was last nice.
In the pen it’s not constant chasing, everyone eats, there is social grooming, marking toys and food, peeing and pooping and binkies.

I think i will try one on one time, say Specner, Pitters and i cuddling on the floor (Pitstop love tobe held but NOT on furnature… it’s very odd)  and then the same with Suzy, and then the other bunnies he’s affraid of.  Pitstop & Kyoto gets out of cage time with Bo & Ani as they are the ones I am hoping to make a 4 some of. My reason for that is Bo & Pitters are both older, and if one of them goes, I want Ani & Kyoto to already have a friend to live with.

If Baby was litter trained and not so messy I would consider bonding all the bunnies or even him and Buba to Suzy & Spencer, as both Baby & Bubba LOVE Suzy lol… And Bubba seems to get along with everyone, no one pick on him.

 

[Andi]

I had everyone out pretty much all afternoon/evening today it was such a beautiful day. Even my Degu Bruce got some outside time.

Everything went really well, though todays pen was super huge (i got as many NIC as i could find LOL) . We had a lot of just hanging out an napping, some on their own, some in pairs or groups, some social grooming and very little chasing if any. Specner stayed pretty much to the hutch for most of the afternoon so manybe that’s why we had less issues? Suzy was very social and wasn’t rude to anyone

So I took some photos, and thought I’d share them with you.

This is the front of todays run

The back

Bo in the crinkle tunnel a favorite amongst all teh bunnies

Baby my Jersey

Bubba trying to lay the mac on Suzy-Q (he’s got a thing for er, so does Baby) lol

“Do you mind? I’m working here!”

PitStop always looks dead sleeping… it freaks em out actually. Here he’s sun bathing in the tunnel

PitStop & Bo napping in teh crinkel Tunnel (Kyoto wondering when he get his photo taken)

Snuggle bunnies

Baby joins in on the date

hehehehehe… such a handsome boy

 

Bubba, Bo & Pitstop all napping in the crinkle tunnel

 

Again my ‘dead’ rabbit Pitters

Kyoto finnaly get’s a photo LOL

 

PitStop Max’n & Relax’n

 

The group

haha… and one of old Bruce enjoying some sunshine

 

[Barbie]

Aw I love the pictures and your commentary!!! And your degu is cute too!

[Andi]

Thanks
Bruce is a very special man of mine, he’s a rescue so we don’t know his age, but we know he’s realy old. Bruce had a blocked tear duct on one side and a tumor behind the other side of his face (it’s not growing thank goodness) but it makes him breath funny from pushing on his sinusis. His bottom teeth grew crooked and overgrew recently, and he got an abscess on his left cheek, he lost a tooth because of it and I thought i was going to loose him, it was a nasty abscess. But a week and a bit later he is back to his ever amazing self. This guys a trooper, and free runs my house when i am home (and supervising lol), he loves my dog (70lbs) but doens’t like other animals. I have 4 more Degus (including Bruces son) in a colony in my rabbit room.

[Kiley Rose]

That’s awesome that they all can hang out outside! Very pretty (and handsome) bunnies

[jerseygirl]

I find that interesting. What book is this? I’d be intereted in reading it myself.

That would be “Why does my rabbit…? by Anne McBride”. I gave it a mixed review in the Book review thread that’s in Q&A forum. tehe! Author is an Animal Behaviourist so much of it based in those theories. A quick read, though I haven’t finished it. I end up reading other stuff online and never get back to my books!

You mentioned Suzy & Spencer being skittish from young age. So my thoughts with the aggression were that that was a response to some trigger that caused fear. If the aggression was successful in removing the trigger/thing they feared – then they may use aggression again to get the same result (learnt aggression). I really don’t know if that’s going on with them, just sharing some thoughts. Even if this was at the heart of it, you would want to break them out of this pattern and put them and Pitters gradually together (As Petzy has said!) trying to create positive experiences and postive interactions.

Another hypothetical: Their “warren mentality” may be that they would chase out a subordinate or rabbit they view as a weakness that could put them at risk. Maybe picking up on Pitstops his size, age and ailments. Are his health issues resolved? This also makes me thing of Karlas rabbit Molly. She would chase/bully Jack when he was getting a UTI and it gave Karla a clue as to when he had one coming on. I think she even said that Molly would stop this once he was getting treatment. Sort of her way of giving Karla the heads-up.

Anyway, it’s probably something simpler that all that! ^

More Qu’s: What sort of scenarios occur when Suzy&Spencer chase? Is it when others approach them or do they intently go after some of they rabbits? Chase them away from certain other rabbits or objects? Is Pitter approaching them because there is somebunny with them that he finds safe – like Bubba or Bo? Or is he off minding his own business?

Great pictures. I can even see a space where I can pitch my tent! By the way, Kyoto and Ani are too funny!

 

[Andi]

I’ll see if I can find that book at the library, may be an interesting read, as I find i know much less about rabbits natural behaviour then other animals.

Pitters will always have health issues, we cannot explain exactly why but we believe it came from bad living conditions before hand, it’s a runny eyes/nose that has gone to pasturella in the past, sometimes he get’s sneezes, but this is now minimal since he’s come to live with us. We monitor it, when bad he goes on Baytril, but I usually try a homeopathic immune booster first. If I can go natural then I do.
I like this theory, as it makes scence to me with my experiance with Gerbils. I would find if I had a ‘declan’ one of the gerbils sometimes would be very ill after or even die of an unknown cause. So i can see that.
I was very happy with our last day out, Spencer mostly kept to himself, and Pitters was social with the other bunnies.

“What sort of scenarios occur when Suzy&Spencer chase?”
If Bunnies come up to them, they will sniff, and if the bunny runs they always chase. Sometimes they will go across the pen to a Bunny with their tail up, I think that agressive stance is enough to make most of my bunnies run, which is when they get chased. Sometimes someone like Baby will stand up to Spencer (he’s much worse the Suzy) and there will be the two bouncing off one another, not in a ball but fighting, no real biting. That hasn’t happened in a while. It’s like some days some bunny is more the trouble make then another, Baby one day, Bubba actually once LOL (He didn’t want to share the crinkle tunnel) and then Ani, Pitters was even a troll when we started, darting out and nipping at bunnies from a hiding hole.

Spencer will also guard places that he thinks are his (outside or inside), in their cage him and Suzy can be very territorial when a bunny comes by the cage (So now Bo has started peeing in front of their home lol, bad bunny). Spencer has done this since he pretty much matured, and his brother left (who picked on him, bit a hole in his ear   ) , but this is a newer trait for Suzy.

Pitters does not approch those bunnies, When i was worried was when he was hiding in a hideyhouse and they would come near it (minding their own business) and he would dart out as if they were going to hurt him, but they were not even paying attention to him. At ths time Pitters was avoiding ALL the bunnies, if i removed him from the pen he was happily running around the whole yard without a care in the world.

Ani is a lunger, she darts and lunges at everyone and everything. She will grunt as well, but never fights just runs away. She is like this in her cage, specially with people she doesn’t know and if they touch Bo. Where when she was a lone bunny, she was friendly to everyone, and liked to watched the hamsters/gerbils play, when she was bonded to Bo she picked up this huge additued (after her spay as well) she once tried to attack a hamster through it’s pen when Bo was near it.  Apparently that is HER Bunny and he needs a do not touch sign.

Kyoto is the oddest bunny i  have ever met, and we’re still working on trust and such, he FREAKS out about everything. He used to take a treat quickly from my hand drop it and spaz away then pick up the treat again, was also very against petting, we’ve come a long way but he’s still got these odd tendencies. He runs away from the other bunnies, never picks on anyone but has now started pushing them out of the way if he wants something. He will let Bo groom him a bit but not often, he has befriended Bo they spend out of cage time together in the house often.

 

 

 

[Karla]

Since you have SO MANY rabbits (you have no idea how envious I am right now), I would really recommend as well that you read “The private life of rabbits” (mentioned in the book review thread as well), as it gives you a really good insight to natural rabbit behaviour in warrens. And as JG mentions about Molly, you will find in this book that they do chase of sick members of the warren to protect themselves. I think with such a big group of bunnies, this book is highly recommendable as I am sure yours probably act very much like they would as wild rabbits.,

[Nibbles_NZ]

Just look at all of these beautiful bunnies! I would love to get another one but I am affraid I would be overwhelmed if I did. I have 3 kids too.

[LittlePuffyTail]

You have some very lucky buns! Great outdoors set up. I dream of one day having all my buns bonded and getting a similar set-up. Great pics too!

[Andi]

*”The private life of rabbits” * – hhmmm, seems a tough book to come by. Couldn’t find it in the local libraries registeries. Did find some on Amazon used to buy. So I will keep a look out for it locally first.

8 bunnies to me is an ok amount as I have had more, with way to many other small critters the last few years. I won’t be doing that again, as it did get overwhelming. It’s still hard to find Bunny sitters though, b/c someone has to come to my home i can transport them all. When I have my own 2 legged kids, I would like to have just two bunnies. I find when you have just one of two of a pet you can spend so much extra time (and money) on them.

[Author]

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