Just takes time…

[Starfuzz]

After 6 months of what seemed like endless multiple playtimes…

After 6 months of enough hair flying fights that we could have build another bunny from the hair clumps…

After 6 months of wondering if they will ever be together peacefully…

Just remember patience pays off, and as of Monday night…

Just remember not to give up!

 

 

[jerseygirl]

Congratulations! I have to admire your persistance – I cannot imagine bonding that long. What a comical picture! It’s begging a caption but I’m at a loss. I can’t believe how similar the brown/white lops are!
Well, may you enjoy many peace filled bun days ahead!

[MimzMum]

Oh my goodness…bookends! ^_^
Oh that is an ADORABLE picture! Congratulations! ^_^ Oh I hope I can eventually get my three together like that!

[BinkyBunny]

Congratulations! I am so glad your persistence is paying off! They are adorable! Mimzmum has three that she is also hoping will work out. Can you share what you did Starfuzz? Did you bond all at once or in pairs or ????

[Starfuzz]

Well it all pretty much begins with how we got them. There are all siblings, but had been seperated for a while at the shelter, so pretty much no bond existed. We picked up the boy and one of the girls in October (that is a story in itself) and my wife and I made an agreement that if the other sister was there in November we would go back and get her. So Thumper (boy) and Marble (female, the brown one) were worked on first for bonding. That took a little time, but was fairly easy with minimal fighting.

When we brought Mopsy into the fold we knew we had to take it slow to preserve the bond between Thumper and Marble. Thumper and Mopsy were fine with each other, but Marble and her were another story. They would get into pretty aggressive spiraling and chasing, leaving hair everywhere. We really didn;t do too much of direct interaction. What I believe was the biggest help was the fact that all of them are in the same room, and next to each other in their own areas enclosed in pet fencing. That gives them all a little area for running and playing whenever they want to, plus they are all inconstant view with each other.

Now, we never let Mopsy out with only Thumper. As far as we were concerned, Thumper and Marble were bonded and we were not going to allienate Marble in that way. Mopsy was going to be bonded in essence to their existing bond. It was rough at some times with Marble (who has a natural attitude built into her) making sure Mopsy knew her place and they would start fighting, then of course Thumper would want to get into the mix. I wouldn’t recommend doing it this way unless you have 2 people in the room ready to help break things up.

So really there is nothing much to how we did it. Just patience and keeping them constantly together in one way or another so they get used to each other. We have had no incidents for a few days no, even with the hours they have been together each night. They will start to get a little rowdy, but all I have to do is stand up and they know to calm down.

The next trick will be bonding the female Californian we have to the trio. We took this one in after a family brought the injured baby to our vets office. The entire litter was attacked by a cat and she was the only survivor. We were the only ones our vet knew of that would be willing to care for it and give it a good home, so she asked us. In about a month she will be able to be spayed and then we can start looking at getting her involved with the others. Just like we did with Mopsy, she is in the living room with the rest of the bunnies, able to see them the entire time, and able to interact with them at the fence when it her or the other’s playtime.

This method of course night not work for everyone of course, bacically one half of the living room is dedicated solely to the bunnies. The advantage of it is that you are not having to work at bonding so much as you are just waiting out their acceptance and letting them interact on their terms. That way if they are having a bad day, they will just stay away from each other. Believe me, we knew when Marble was having a bad attitude day and that was NOT a day for bonding.

[ZooLady]

This gives me great hope regarding my two male rabbits. They just had a fight that left my living room looking like a patchwork of black and white fur……seems it’s normal. :/

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