Should I bond two buns, then try and bond them to my other pair?

[Meghan]

Hello! I currently have a pair of buns (fixed m&f) Bonnie and Clyde, who I love to call my spicy beans 🥰. They are a sassy bunch and love shoving humans around, but love one another. Then I got a mini rex boy off craiglist (por thing was being offered for free and she didn’t want him to live outside a small cage 😬) he got his snip just over 4 weeks ago and is healed up and doing well. Now I’ve adopted Snowdrop (spayed f) from a rescue overflowing with buns and she’s a sweetheart, but a bit timid.

It’s always been a dream of mine to keep all my bunnies in a little fluffle together, that way one group doesn’t get jealous of the attention the others are getting. They are in my mostly finished basement in x-pens. Bonnie and Clyde have an 8×10 ft space and then Kermit and Snowdrop are a few feet away in their own 4×4 x-pens, side by side. I am conflicted about if it would be better to try and bond Kermit and Snowdrop first, then try and pair them with the spices…or if it would be a better idea to move all their enclosures near one another and try bonding them all together from the start. Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated, since the bonding hasn’t really started, other than making sure Kermit and Snowdrop didn’t hate one another at the rescue.

[DanaNM]

So, it’s really up to you! You could bond the two singles first, but sometimes in the quad process the pairs might split up, so some people would say to just focus on the group.

I think if it were up to me, I’d like to see which combos would be likely to give me the most trouble. Supervising a date with multiples can be tricky if multiple buns are trying to scuffle, so having a sense of who to watch more closely is good. It’s most likely that the same-sex pairings will be the most difficult, but it would also be good to see how the new buns like each other.

 

. . . 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.  

[Meghan]

Thank you! I just moved everyone’s x-pens around so that they can see and smell one another, but not fight through the bars. I have found that Kermit and Snowdrop are absolutely fine with one another. Clyde, on the other hand, seems quite pissed about both the new girl and the boy. Bonnie mostly seems worked up because he is… I put a blanket in between Bonnie and Clyde’s enclosure and the other two buns, which seems to have calmed him down a bit. Anything else I can do to get him to relax and not act so territorial and aggressive when just looking at the other bunnies? I know it’s not the best sign for bonding in the future, but I can still dream!

[DanaNM]

The blanket was a good move! You can try slowly removing the blanket once they get used to the new smells. Some people also like to swap a stuffy between pens. Other than that there isn’t really too much you can do except wait.  It is very common for existing bonds to break in group bonding (and some may even argue it’s necessary) so keep that in mind that it could happen.

. . . 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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