Hello, I’ve been scanning thread after thread over the last few weeks to try and assemble the information about rabbit behaviour, but it’s become increasingly clear to me that I just need to directly ask for some guidance from more experienced people. I’ll include the filled-in bonding template at the end of the post. My thoughts are a bit scattered so please bear with me! I know the post is long but I want you to get a good idea of the situation and to be honest it’s cathartic to write it all down.
We started 24/7 (marathon) bonding almost three weeks ago on advice from the rescue where we adopted all three of our rabbits from. We adopted Panda, a 2 yr old male, in February with the intention to bond him with our female, Gail, but unfortunately she didn’t make it through her spay operation. We knew he still needed a friend so we contacted the rescue to start the process but asked for a couple of months to grieve. We suggested attempting to bond a trio so that the dynamic was different for us and it didn’t feel like we were replacing Gail. A group of baby rabbits had recently joined the rescue and so it was decided that when they were old enough to be spayed, they would come to us. The five babies were living together and are likely related but because they came from a hoarding situation, it’s difficult to know exactly how. The two girls we adopted, Cassia and Anise, look very much like sisters and in any case, all five developed a ‘baby bond’ and were happy living together at the rescue.
Two weeks after their spay, in early April, they came to live with us. I feel like I’ve been a bit naive, as all of the advice seems to be that you should wait 8 weeks to let hormones settle down. The rationale of the rescue was that they were so young when they were spayed that they hadn’t fully come into their hormones yet, so there were few to dissipate. While I largely agree with that, I’ve definitely seen numerous behaviours from them that indicate they’re still feeling quite hormonal, such as chinning, some mild aggressive behaviour (which I’ll come on to later) and what I think is territorial toilet use… one girl will use the litter tray and then the other will jump in straight after to do the same. However, I’ve also read that creating a ‘group scent’ is part of bonding, so I’m also tempted to think it’s just normal bonding behaviour.
Another thing I feel naive about, we were advised that whilst stress bonding was not encouraged, taking advantage of the natural stressors involved in moving house might be helpful in securing the bond, so we didn’t give them a ‘settling in’ period. I realise now that many people are against this, however the fact that they had been living in a small group, coupled with their young age, made me confident that this was the right thing to do. So we set up a small pen on our bathroom floor of 2×3 panels (ft). Everything in my body tells me that the tiny neutral space method of 1×1 or 1×2 panels is wrong, and it reassured me that the rescue agreed. Some rescues in the UK advocate for a much bigger space, but this small (but not miniscule) space is the most common recommendation. It took about half an hour for the girls to settle in and start exploring; Anise was braver than Cassia. Soon after this, Panda took an interest in them and the humping started, although it was very brief and all in all only continued over about two or three hours. Cassia was very submissive and let him get on with it. Anise did not want to be mounted at all, and would run away. He didn’t really chase her at all, he’d just go back to Cassia. Anise would grunt whenever he tried to mount her, or Cassia, which I found really interesting. After the couple of hours he stopped humping, although he would sort of ‘mount’ them from time to time over the next few days by putting his front paws on their back and sitting up. He used to do this to me too so apparently I’m his wife as well!
After this initial dominance display, there was only good behaviour. Cassia was the first to groom Panda, then she would groom Anise, and it looked like we had a relatively clear hierarchy forming whereby Anise would be ‘top bun’, Panda would be middle/male top bun, and Cassia would be submissive. However, after a few days we started to notice Cassia nipping at Anise more, and the hierarchy started to change. At this point we moved them into the same size pen in the living room, so we could stop sleeping on the bathroom floor. This seemed like a good idea at the time but with hindsight it might have upset the hierarchy more. Anise doesn’t really ‘react’ to a lot of the nipping, but Cassia started lunging more and chasing at night. Anise never retaliates, and we’ve tried ‘leaving’ the chasing (i.e. supervising so it doesn’t escalate), and stopping the chasing, although the latter is difficult because it doesn’t really last long, and all we have to do is approach the pen or say ‘A-A-A’ and it stops. Using advice from a lot of bonding groups on Facebook, but against my better judgement, we tried making the pen slightly smaller. That had no effect, the chasing at night continued. Just to make it clear, during the day there is virtually no bad behaviour, just a bit of normal nipping. We also tried increasing the space, in case they just needed a bigger area to ‘get away’ from each other sometimes. That’s had a mixed effect, some nights are definitely better than others now, but it’s still bad enough that I’m seeking help. Me and the rescue have discussed possible solutions, such as extending the pen to a significantly bigger size to see if that helps at all, but after discussing the risk of all the bonds failing, I’m reluctant to try it.
I should also say, they both get on SO well with our male rabbit. They groom him and he grooms them, his time is spent either cuddling both of them, or one or the other. He’s just amazing with them. Sometimes, after Cassia has chased Anise, he’ll go over to Anise and groom her. He’s really so gorgeous with them. That makes things extra difficult for me, because it feels mean keeping him in the pen when his behaviour is so good. He’s normally free roam, and hopefully one day they all will be. It’s also difficult to consider the idea that this trio bond just won’t work, firstly because they are so happy with each other 90% of the time, but also because if I have to return one of them to the rescue (which at the moment is unthinkable), then I have no idea who to send…the bond between Cassia and Panda seems slightly stronger but the one between him and Anise is clearly also very strong. If it wasn’t for the chasing between the girls, I’d be more than happy to call them bonded and leave them alone with each other. As it is, I’m sleeping on the sofa every night and getting most of my sleep from around 12-2am and 6-9am when they’ve settled down.
I’ve probably missed out loads of information, even with the post as long as it is. I tried adding in some distractions, like packing paper and a willow ball, which the girls play with together in the day. They also like rearranging the ‘furniture’ as a group (i.e. the litter boxes, the hay, etc.). I forgot to say that Cassia still does ~80% of the grooming in the group…Panda grooms both of them every day, but nowhere near as much as Cassia grooms the two of them. Anise grooms Panda a little more than she grooms Cassia, but with Cassia it’s just a brief lick on the ears. Cassia has only been requesting grooming by sticking her head under Anise for about a week, and Anise isn’t very forthcoming, whereas Anise always seems to have her head shoved right under Panda or Cassia. I tried the banana on the head trick with some success, but there hasn’t really been a ‘breakthrough’.
I suppose my actual question is ‘how can I stop the chasing and cement a hierarchy?’. I understand that the hierarchy is in conflict at the moment, with both girls vying for position, but what I don’t understand is the process of one becoming submissive, or if there’s anything I can do to help. I also don’t understand why they’re challenging each other, even though it would seem that Panda is ‘top bun’ from the amount of grooming he gets. I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster at the moment; in the day, everything is perfect, they all snuggle up to each other and things seem to be going so well, and then at night all hell breaks loose. It’s never escalated into a proper fight, and Anise doesn’t seem particularly stressed by the chasing, but Cassia seems so intent on climbing the ladder of power that I don’t trust them enough to leave them overnight so I can get some sleep. Has anyone experienced this kind of thing with a trio before? How did it resolve? How long did it take? I have all the time in the world to spend on this bond and mostly I have a lot of confidence that it will work out, but the lack of progress is really affecting me.
Finally, it’s also worth noting that unfortunately we had to deworm the three of them right at the beginning, because the stress of the move caused a flare-up in Cassia. Panda’s also been receiving some antibiotics, but I’m uncertain as to why this would affect the bond between the girls.
Thank you for any help or support you can give!
Spay/Neuter
Are your bunnies spayed/neutered? Yes
If so, for how long (for each)? M is at least 1+ year, girls are 5 weeks post spay.
If not, why not?
Are you aware of reproductive cancer risk in females? If not, please read about it here.
Housing
Please describe your bunnies’ current housing set-up (living together, as neighbors, etc.). Living together in a 4X3 ft panel pen in our living room
Bonding background
Did you allow the bunnies to “settle-in”? No, on advice from the rescue. Reasons given above.
How would you describe your bunnies reactions towards each other (answer for each bunny): shy, scared, curious, calm, aggressive, excited, affectionate, etc.? Panda was excited about both, Cassia was nervous at first but then very calm, Anise was nervous and a little scared. Now I would describe Panda as loving, Cassia as very loving towards Panda and guarded but affectionate towards Anise, and Anise as friendly with Panda, and needy with Cassia. Anise is the most outgoing personality, Panda is ‘away with the fairies’, and Cassia actually comes across as Machiavellian.
Have you done any “pre-bonding” (cage or litter box swaps, etc.)? No.
If so, for how long?
Have you started sessions yet? Yes, 24/7 bonding.
How long have you been working on bonding your bunnies? 19 days.
How frequently do you have bonding sessions, and how long are they? 24/7
Have you tried any stressing techniques? No, but when I clean them out they go into a carrier together for 10 minutes in a quiet room, and we had one vets visit where I took all three in a car for 20 minutes each way. (No unnecessary car journeys)
Store
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