Trio stuck

[k&i bunnies]

So our bunny story starts with a mini lop named Bronco. After he was neutered we decided he needed a friend and adopted a neutered male lop mix from the shelter. Both were about 6 months when introduced and they hated each other but after months of bonding they became inseparable. Perfect ending right?! Unfortunately not, last January Bronco unexpectedly died. Poor Kohiya was lost and after some time we decided Kohiya needed another friend. At about a year old we wanted to try getting a friend his own age instead of getting another baby.

Now enters our basis for a trio. We went to a shelter to do a play date and see if Kohiya would like a friend. Well we meet and later came back for a bonded pair of mini lops, Shadow (m/n) and Luna (f/s). They were also about a year old and had been at the shelter for about 4 months. We new they had some trust issues from the beginning and needed some work. For the first two weeks they went to bunny camp to be introduced in a neutral place. It wasn’t perfect but it looked optimistic. When they came back to us we worked with them to gain our trust first. After some time luna no longer lunges at me and shadow comes up have his cheeks rubbed.

We initially tried to bond in pairs which worked ok until out added the third one jn and it went back to chaos. So skip forward to now (2months). We can now do car rides no problem. They cuddle and snuggle as I drive and we can even take them on errands and to the drive-inn movies no problem. When we put them in a larger space Kohiya runs and thumps at them and Luna chases him and stalks him. Shadow will go after him especially if Luna is upset or Kohiya is thumping but he is more interested in eating. So scratch that idea. In the bath tub luna will lunge but a simple for correction will stop her. In the bath tub Kohiya will groom both of them and shadow will sometimes groom him. They will even flop together. Great right? The problem is that jn any space slightly larger they will bicker and Kohiya will run away and won’t let them approach. This leads to chasing, biting, and fighting. The pair turns to each other for comfort and Kohiya is left out again.

I’m looking for some tips because I really don’t want my rabbits living in my bath tub. Oh and as a side note the pair are living in an entry way and Kohiya is a house bunny.

[LongEaredLions]

You need to take what works for them, and work from there. For example, you said they do well in the car. Maybe you could do a car session that leads to a normal session?
Running/thumping/chasing/minor nipping aren’t big issues, and if you find your bunnies are doing this, let them sort it out themselves for the most part unless it escalates.
I hope somebody more experienced comments, but these are the methods I used when bonding my trio.

[Author]

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