How do I bond three bunnies?

[RoryNico&Patch]

I have three male bunnies that I’ve been trying to bond for a long time. They have all been neutered for about a year. After they were neutered I successfully bonded two of them because I heard you should do that first than introduce the other bunny (idk if that’s true or not). But I’m haveing a lot of trouble bonding the third one with the other two. One in the bonded pair is ok with any bunny he has been with, so he’s not the problem, but the other bunny keeps trying to fight the one I’m trying to bond to them. (The one I’m trying to bond is patch, Rory is the one who’s fine with any bunny, and Nico is the one who’s trying to fight). Nico and Patch got into a pretty bad fight before they were neutered (I’m not really sure how it happened because they were separated), would that be why Nico hates patch so much? Patch lives alone right now and just wants a companion so he doesn’t hate Nico, so really the only one who is s problem is Nico. The fight happened a long time ago so I don’t even know if they would remember it. I would love to get another bunny for Patch, but my parents don’t really like animals and we’re gonna build them a shed and I don’t want to have to split it up so they have less room. But yeah, that’s my problem, does anyone know how I should deal with it?

[Doodler]

Hi there, I have zero experience with trios but I will say the bad fight they had could be causing the issues you are having. Trust is so important with bonding so if that was lost it can make it very difficult but not necessarily impossible. Sometimes bunnies just don’t click even without having a prior fight. With that said most bunnies are able to be bonded. It just can take a lot of time, work and patience. I will add, however, that I don’t hear about many trios of all males.

I have seen some people say separating them completely for an extended period of time can help them forget, but then I’ve also heard that bunnies are like elephants and they never forget.

Could you describe what kind of process you’ve done to bond them so far, including anything you’ve done for prebonding? How are there current living arrangements set up?

[Sirius&Luna]

I have a trio, and had a similar problem. I had two boys, who were both very easy bunnies and got along with anyone, then I had Luna, who hates all bunnies until she finally learns to trust them after lots of aggression. She had already been bonded with one of the boys, but their bond broke when I brought the third rabbit home. However, when I started the trio bonding I found she didn’t mind the bun she’d previously been bonded with too much. So I knew that most of my bonding needed to focus on her and making her comfortable.

The first thing to note is that its actually important to work with a trio as a trio, as their interactions around each other change. It might be worth doing a couple of individual sessions with Patch and Nico so you can see how they interact, and work out any triggers for fights, but after that you should work with them as a group. Hopefully Rory will be a calming influence.

Have you done any prebonding to get Patch and Nico used to smelling each other? That’s a really important step that helps calm them down. LIke Doodle said, it would be good to know what you’ve done so far.

What I’d recommend for anyone is very short intros in neutral space. Keep your hand between Patch and Nico if you’re worried they’re going to fight, and literally just get them used to spending a minute together without fighting. Do this a few times a day, and graduallly increase it to 5 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour. If you have an aggressive rabbit, in my opinion, there is no harm in keeping between them and stopping them harming each other. It teaches them that they can be around each other without violence, and teaches them that the other is not a threat.

This will take a lot of time and patience, but it should be possible

[RoryNico&Patch]

Thanks for replying! They live right next to each other in pens. For bonding I’ve been putting them in another pen somewhere where they’ve never been before and letting them bond for 10-20 minutes. For the first like 5 or 10 minutes they’re fine, but then Nico starts to hump Patch and patch doesn’t like it so he runs away and it makes Nico mad and then he try’s to fight Patch. When that’s happens I put a dust pan between them to break them up, but I don’t end the session there because I read that it’s bad to leave it off wth fighting. Then I let them stay for like three more minutes then put them back into their pens.

[Sirius&Luna]

Ok, so since they’re good for the first 5 minutes, I would keep doing multiple 5 minute sessions a day. You can also try and deter Nico from humping before it happens. You can also just gently push Nico off when he starts to hump.

What about a pile of hay or veggies to share?
Have you tried smushing them together and petting them for a few minutes?
Is the third bun involved in this at all?

Bonding is a bit of trial and error, so don’t be afraid to try a mixture of the things suggested above and see what works for them.

[RoryNico&Patch]

I’ll try five minutes a day. I use to give them veggies when they were bonding, but I realized they were fine until all the veggies were gone then they would try to fight so I didn’t think it worked very well, but I can try again. The third bunny is always there but he try’s not to get involved with the other bunnies when they’re being difficult.

[Sirius&Luna]

If veggies cause issues, you could try a big pile of hay instead.

I would recommend doing 5 minutes multiple times a day if you can

[RoryNico&Patch]

Ok, thank you!

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