Introducing new bunny

[lylazoo]

I have 2 holland lops, one male and one female that are apprx 11 months old (both altered).  They are completely trained (litter and behavior) and are the best bunnies ever.  I have now brought a baby Flemish Giant into the house aprx 1.5 wks ago.  I have them in separate cages even though the lops only go in their cage when they want to and then at night when we got to bed.  The Flemish baby doesn’t have whole house freedom yet as he is only about 60% litter trained so far, which i think is great since he never saw a litter box before we got him.  

Per some advice we read online, we only let the lops see him and have contact with him through his cage for the first week.  No direct contact.  My male lop really doesn’t care about the new bunny at all, just pretty much ignores him.  My female lop is what we like to call an attention hoarder.  She is a show off for attention and is very friendly and playful.  She has an issue with the new bunny.  She stalks him in his cage and drops poop and even pees by his cage.  She even runs circles around his cage, it’s very funny.  Up until now she NEVER peed outside her litter box, ever.  She even punches him through the cage sometimes but not very often.  The Flemish is super friendly and seems to want the attention of everyone and every animal including her so he doesn’t back down even though she is punching him (she actually stopped the punching behavior after the first 3 days).  

So, after exactly 1 week of him being here, we took all three outside in a closed off area where we let them play thinking this would be neutral ground.  The new Flemish baby went right for our girl bunny to meet her and smell her.  She immediately nipped at his nose (he is fine).  I think this upset him and so they had a little tiff before I was able to get the baby up and away.  He was biting at her fur and kind of scuffling with her.  Again, nobody got hurt, I inspected them both thuroughly.  I put the baby back down and he went right for my male lop and started biting at his fur.  Did not hurt him either, i was right there and got him up right away.

So, they have been seperated since but I don’t know what to do now.  I don’t want anyone getting hurt.  The Flemish baby loves everyone.  He grooms our dogs (he is a lick crazy bunny) and has no issue with the cats either.  He is very loving.  We got very lucky, he is so friendly, I never knew a bunny could be this friendly.  I really need them to get along so they can all three have free roam of the house together and not in shifts so nobody gets hurt.  

What’s the best way to accomplish my goal?  I will be altering the Flemish at 4 months but he’s only 2 months right now, so that’s not an option.

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with other rabbit owners.

[MoveDiagonally]

Are the other two bunnies housed together?

I would keep them separated until the new bunny is neutered. Babies love everyone but when they reach adolescence that can change. I would also make sure they can’t bite or box (punch) through the cages at each other because they can hurt each other by doing this.

When it comes time to introduce them again (a month or so after neuter) you’ll want to move them to a neutral territory, the bath tub is a popular choice. You can introduce them in pairs and then all together (the group dynamic will likely be different than when they are in pairs). When they start being aggressive you can do some stress bonding.

Stress bonding is where you stress them out together, usually causing them to huddle together to feel safe. You can do this by taking them for a car ride or employing some of the techniques discussed in this thread:
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/124529/Default.aspx

But I do really think that bonding should wait until neuter. I would take this time to do pre-bonding stuff likes switching out litter boxes, maybe using surrogates (leaving stuffed animals with each bunny and swapping them around). Another thing to keep in mind is that litter habits are often lost (temporarily and sometimes for a really long time) when introducing a new bunny.

[MoveDiagonally]

I wanted to leave a link to this site’s bonding info page in case you haven’t read it. It’s really helpful when it comes to the bonding process in general.

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/9/PID/940/Default.aspx

[lylazoo]

 Thank you so much for your response.  I really appreciate it.

They are seperate.  The lops have their own indoor condo with an open door most of the time but we have it so they can’t get to the baby.  The baby gets his attention from us and from our dogs, one in particular he grooms and the dog grooms him.  

My worry about waiting until he’s neutered to introduce them again is that by then he will be at least 3 times bigger than the lops and i don’t want anyone getting hurt.  It will be very scary to me.  He is only 9 weeks and is already almost the same size as them.  Is this a valid fear?

I will read up on the bonding threads.  I know they will be helpful.  It seems to be a big deal about waiting until neutered so I will go that route.  Thanks again.

[MoveDiagonally]

There is always a risk of fighting and injuries while bonding but from everything I’ve seen and heard size of the rabbit doesn’t really matter.

Actually, here’s an older thread where rabbit size and bonding is discussed:
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/121867/Default.aspx

I wouldn’t worry about him being too big later.

[lylazoo]

 Ok, thank you.  I appreciate it.

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