Possibly wanting a 3rd rabbit?

[Rachel_x]

Hello!

 

So, I bought my two lovely fellas Russell and Dorian in May – they’re two boys but I’ve been mega lucky and they have never fought or shown any aggression to each other! They got fixed about 2 weeks ago. I am wonderign whether it would be a good thing maybe to adopt a female rabbit from a rescue to add to my bunny clan!

If I were to do that, how would you guys suggest I bond it with the rabbits I already have? My boyfriend is an experienced rabbit owner, and he managed to bond his current two really successfully, but he doesn’t live with me & he’s never had 3 rabbits at one time. Any advice would be helpful!!

 Also, and I hate that this is a concern but sadly it is, I’m wondering how much more it would cost to have a 3rd rabbit?? I know having owned dogs before that a 3rd dog doesn’t mean 30% more money spent on food etc etc, but I’m wondering if it’s the same? Is buying larger bags of food OK or is it bad for the rabbits?

 

Anyway, thanks for reading this Hope to hear back!

[tanlover14]

Hello and welcome to BB!

I have a bonded trio and they are AMAZING to watch together. I also have two boys and a girl! The boys were inseparable from the moment they met while my girl had to get to know the boys on HER terms… and only then would she begin the bonding process with them! LOL. If you decide to get a female, I would suggest an already spayed female. My girl was unspayed when we introduced her to our boys and BOY was she just a little brat. She thumped at them a million times and would bunny-butt them every time they tried to come up to her! Then finally she became curious and started to follow them around sniffing. Hahaha.

I would at least wait another 2 weeks if you plan on bringing another bun in to ensure ALL hormones are gone between all so there’s no hormone aggression issues. A MUST is you have to bond each pair separately before putting all 3 together. I would suggest getting a third bun ONLY if you have the time, energy, and patience into giving the bonding process the time it needs.

The cost of the third rabbit really depends on your area. You, of course, have to add in the cost of any extra vet visits for the new little girl but as for feed, we just began buying the bigger bag. Since our 3 has turned 7 months and now get limited pellets the pellet intake isn’t very expensive. (A TON less than when they were babies.) There is of course the added cost of hay — but we pretty much completely eliminated the extra hay by buying much bigger bags (Oxbow) to save money. We now spent about $2 for a pound of hay rather than the $5 we were originally spending so it’s actually cut down on our hay cost if you can believe it. If you give them veggies — then that cost will obviously increase. My buns all get a cup of veggies a piece a day and we spend about $7 a week on all 3. And last but not least, litter! Our litter increased because we began using CareFresh but we had made the mistake of putting it down as bedding also so we were flying through it. Now that we ONLY use it in the litter box it’s a lot cheaper. How is your bunny set-up now? We had 3 cages but ended up building (a much cheaper AND bigger) bunny condo when they were all bonded. There are a ton of cheap ideas for building bunny houses and extra bunny toys on the forums also! You will be adding on the SAME money that you do for each bun — but we elimiinated that cost by searching around for cheaper options and now end up saving more money than we originally were with two! It depends on how you budget and look it at the cost of each of your items and how you can buy in bulk now to make up for the extra cost.

Hope this helps — if I missed anything or you have any other questions feel free to ask! I love answering questions about the bonding of the buns and this website has really given me lots of ideas and thoughts on saving money for the buns!

Also, pics are a must when you post on here! Would love to see pics of your little boys! How old are they? And what breed?! Squeeallllll. New bunnies to gawk over!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I would suggest you bond your two boys and hold off on a third rabbit for now. Trios can be a hard and lengthy process and there is no guarantee that you will be able to bond them all. Then you would be stuck with a bonded pair and a single rabbit. If your boys are bonded now, adding a third rabbit can break their bond, making things even more difficult. I hate to discourage but I just don’t want you to bite off more than you can chew. It would be very sad if you adopted and then had to give up a third rabbit.

How old are your boys and are they currently living together?

I had 3 bunnies for many years and, yes, the cost will go up. Extra food, bedding and your third bunny will need separate housing until fully bonded. Adding another bunny also puts your cost of vet bills up, because, eventually, all bunnies will have health problems that will require vet attention.

[Elrohwen]

Cost is the easy part – one more bunny equals adding 50% to what you’re already spending. The third one doesn’t cost any more than the others individually, so if you can afford veggies and pellets and things for one more rabbit, you’ll be fine. There are often ways to buy in bulk too. With one bun, I bought the expensive bags of hay in the pet store because they were convenient. When I got two, I moved up to a 50lb box from an online store (still more convenient than a bale, but less so than bags). If I had more, I’d start looking for local bales of hay which can be super cheap (usually under $10). Each of my bunnies only eats 1/8c pellets, so a big bag of pellets would last a very long time even if I had more than two. Make sure you have enough for vet bills because paying for 3 bunnies to have expensive procedures at one time can be really tough if you don’t have a good emergency fund.

The harder part is going to be the bonding. Some people have an easy time of it, some have a very tough time. We have had members here who intended to bond a trio and ended up with two pairs (new bun didn’t fit in with the original pair, so they separated and got a new bun to be friends with him). So just be prepared to end up with 4 bunnies instead of 3 😛

My opinion is that all bunnies can be bonded and it’s really about your experience and level of commitment to bonding. Getting another seems like a great idea until you’re three months into stressful daily bonding sessions, so just keep that in mind. I, personally, found bonding to be very stressful and I had a very normal and fairly easy bond that took about a month. If you’re really committed to making it work, I believe you can do it, but it will likely be a lot of work. Definitely stack the deck in your favor by doing some bunny dates to find a third that already fits in fairly well with your pair.

[luvmyhunybuny]

Bonding a trio has been hell for me. I have 3 single buns, so no one was bonded to anyone. I am having issues with one female (2 females and a male) who gets along fine with the male but keeps bullying the other female. I had to take a break as it was time consuming and stressful for me to see my one girl get picked on. At this point in the game I would be willing to pay someone, with bonding experience, to bond them! Ugh!

[Sam and Lady's Human]

I think you should get to know your bonded pair now, and maybe look into adopting another in a year or so. There isn’t much benefit to having a trio vs having a pair, and if your just starting out ( which I’m guessing you are since your boys were just neutered?) it’s generally better to take it slow

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