Quad bonding–tips?

[namy_namy]

Hey,

I have a bonded pair (M/F), and I recently took in a second pair (baby bond, F/F, long story). I had the two F’s spayed and they are recovering separately (same room, different xpens), I will presume their bond has been broken. I will be waiting at least another couple weeks for them to fully recover, but my question is about how best to go about bonding them all as a quad.

E.g.: try to bond all four at once? try to bond the two females and then the quad? Something else?

I imagine it will inevitably involve a bit of trial and error, but I’m wondering if anyone has attempted something like this before and could give some insights.

 

thanks.

[DanaNM]

It really depends on the buns I think. Eventually you do need to work with all 4 at once, but it can be helpful to work with the pairs separately to get a sense of which combo is likely to be the most challenging. If you have someone to help you manage the sessions you could try all 4 at once to start, but you may find it less stressful to try the combos first just so you don’t end up with a giant bunny tornado.

When you do work with all 4, I recommend using a very large space, at least 2 or 3 x-pens linked up.

I would also recommend doing some pre-bonding (side by side living) before starting sessions, but be prepared for the current pair to split up. It may not happen, but it’s good to be ready with another pen just in case.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[mia]

I would bond one to the group at a time since it’s not two and two yet. To me, that’s easier to monitor through to whole process.

[namy_namy]

UPDATE: thank you everyone for your input! It turned out that the  F/F pair rebonded almost immediately after recovering from their spay. Since I saw such good progress with them, I decided to bond the quad all together (after giving the two girls a short respite from bonding) so that each pair could rely on each other through the next phase. It was a little stressful, but there were never any fights and only two of the girls had to sort out their relationship (the male was always pretty confidently top dog, and we have one very submissive female). I think in total the quad was bonded in about a month (half of that being pre bonding and a few marathon sessions).

The situation now though is that while they all coexist stably, they seem to have formed a trio ? With the one submissive female being left out most of the time. They all eat together but the trio sleeps and grooms together, leaving out the third female. Even her original buddy only seldom snuggles/grooms with her now.

I’m hoping this changes with some more time! Open to any suggestions 🙂

[DanaNM]

That’s great! That isn’t ideal that one female is being left out though. I would monitor the situation closely. It could get better with time. But if you notice things getting worse then you may need to keep working with them to try to get her more integrated, or separate her if they start acting aggressive towards here. You could go pair her with one of the other females or the male if she isn’t being integrated and keep them as two pairs so at least everyone has 1 friend.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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