Source
r/Rabbits•
Tango-Raptor

Adding a third rabbit

Bonding

We have adopted a third rabbit (a female) who had just gotten fixed (so she still has some scent on her) and want to introduce her to our already bonded male and female. The problem is they both have tried to attack her. we only have a single room they can be in (a decently sized living room) and have split the time they can be outside their pens and put wood boards on the walls of their pens depending on who's out so there is no fighting or biting through the bars. They have tried many times to get around the wood and have succeeded a few times in bringing it down and attacking her. Another big issue I am seeing is when our new rabbit is out, our previously bonded male and female will fight. I am not quite sure how to go about this. Any advice is welcome and please ask if you need more information.

Posted May 25, 2022, 11:19 PM UTC

412
candanceisonfire•

It might not be a good match. In general, successful bonding takes time and the more positive experiences everyone has will connect them. It will be challenging to bond rabbits that have had fights since they do hold grudges.

Also being fixed doesn’t mean the rabbits will bond. Usually it’s best to introduce them to a neutral space. But if your other rabbits are free rage it might be a challenge since they believe the whole house is theirs.

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Tango-RaptorOP:rh:•

Well, actually we have another room we could try. We have them in our furnished basement it's a sizable room where we spend our day but we have a living room upstairs that they have never been in. Though e were wondering if it may be best to let her hormones run their course and see if that helps since it's only been a week since she got fixed.

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candanceisonfire•

You definitely need to let their hormones chill out. Then start the bonding process. I’ve had success bonding warrens which is basically multiple rabbits. But typically my success has been challenging it’s multiple females that aren’t from the same litter or grew up together.

My two mini Rex (male/female) took almost a year to fully bond. My female didn’t trust or like anyone. But my male is docile and will put up with her behavior so it’s worked out. It’s taken over a year till they started just laying next to each other all cute. My dwarf Flemish (female) doesn’t get along with my other two rabbits. It’s been two years and I still have to keep everyone separate. It doesn’t work because rabbits can still be dominant even though they’re fixed.

I wish you luck and your best approach is taking your time with bonding them. Also car rides together is a great way to bond too.

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Tango-RaptorOP:rh:•

Thank you I will take everything to note. except for the car rides... sadly they kind of hate those...

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MochaKnee•

Them hating car rides is kind of the point as to why it helps bond them I believe. If they’re nervous or scared, the idea is that they will look to each other for comfort in a stressful situation which can help bond them (basically trauma bonding I guess, funnily enough). They’ll also be more focused on what’s happening and how to get the heck out of the scary place than fighting. It does sound kind of cruel, but it’s a short term experience that I don’t think really messes them up forever or anything lol.

For now, you need to keep the currently single bun somewhere else and make sure they have absolutely no way of gaining access to her and especially not attacking her. Besides the fact that her being attacked is dangerous and also a cruel experience for a bunny (especially as a prey animal), as candanceisonfire said, it can make it impossible to ever bond these rabbits. They may never bond anyways, but you certainly don’t want the reason to be such a negative one that could have been avoided and not just a basically unmotivated dislike beyond your control. Hopefully moving the bun far away from the rabbits will stop their fighting too. I would recommend doing your best to erase her scent from their presence if the fighting continues. Vacuum, carpet clean, change your clothes after handling her and before handling them, whatever you can do and whatever works. You should give her and them a full month after the spay before you introduce them again. A neutral space is usually recommended, but for a situation like this I would follow the advice of going even further and putting them in a space that’s more than just unfamiliar. There is the car, and then there’s also inside a bathtub, or on top of the dryer (which is like a car ride). For an especially tough situation, a little bit of stress will probably give you the best outcome I think. They need to really be out of their element, basically. The first time I tried to bond rabbits, I did all of that and also put them on a slick floor with a bed sheet. In those situations they’re less focused on the other rabbit, which is when they might be able to get used to them and learn to get along. It didn’t work for me unfortunately in the end, as my previously single female was apparently very set in her ways, but others have had better luck. Hopefully you will too. Luckily my second bonding attempt was the easiest thing ever.

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ames_006•

Ok so I used to specialize in bunny bonding/matchmaking at the rabbit rescue I worked at. I can’t obviously assess the entire situation via internet but these are some big warning signs that this is probably not going to work and would not be safe to attempt to bond them all. There is also a very real chance that attempts could possibly break the bond of the couple you already have(the fighting between them indicates this is already causing issues) . This reads to me that they are very threatened and upset about the third bunny. They are going out of their way to get out and attack even after you put up barriers to separate them. That’s a big issue. The safety of the third bunny is very important. I would get that bunny into another room if possible or add additional/better barriers so she is not harmed. She should not be scared of being attacked, let alone attached while healing from a spay. There is a slight chance you could attempt to see if a bond is possible in a number of weeks when she is healed and her hormones are gone but I would caution you to ONLY do this if you have a rabbit savvy person with bonding or matchmaking experience with you to or they have consulted you on how to attempt this with the highest safe guards in place so that no bunnies are harmed in any way. Sorry if this isn’t the answer you hoped for but it’s really important to keep the bunnies safety paramount and to not disregard the ques and warning behavior the rabbits are giving off.

Edit: spelling/wording

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Tango-RaptorOP:rh:•

Thank you your advice is much appreciated. With a bit more study I have noticed they only get aggravated and try to attack her when they can see her and this is the same case with the fighting as long as the blockades are up they just relax and do as they normally do and don’t seem to respond much to her scent being in the room or try to cover it. Could this be a good thing? Also I don’t think they were actively seeking her out because I found that the boards were actually loose and knowing my rabbits they might have just wanted to knock them over for fun.

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ames_006•

To be honest I still would stand by what I said in my first post. If they are that upset by seeing her that’s not good and even if they happened to just get out and be curious, they still chose to attack her while they where out. The fighting between them is also a little warning that makes me on guard. It’s a lot of red flags that you don’t want to see when bunny bonding. Rabbits remember negative experiences and can bring that into future interactions. You could end up with multiple bunnies harmed if you don’t know what your doing when attempting bonding with bunnies who have attacked before and it takes just seconds for that damage to happen. You could also end up with a broken bond between your first 2 buns and then your left trying to juggle 3 bunnies that now have to live completely separate for their safety. Given the information you provided I would seek out a rabbit rescue and an experienced rabbit bonding/matchmaker to either walk you through in great detail how to safely attempt even a tiny intro in a number of weeks(which would just be an assessment of if there behavior was ok to continue to attempt safely bonding or not) or better yet have them come to the house and take the lead and show you and give you there honest opinion. usually it is very clear to me after seeing how the bunnies behave and trying a few of nub bonding “tricks” of a match will have good enough odds of trying to bond or if it’s not going to happen and it’s not safe to upset or risk the bunnies safety. They should be able to assess very quickly if it’s a danger or worth trying a few bonding techniques to see if they can ease them into it. I will also say that difficult bonds can take many many months and if it’s forced and they just get frustrated or do not want the bond then they won’t bond and accept living together. I have seen people decide to take the risk of trying to bond bunnies who just don’t have enough green flags but didn’t have all red flags and then 8-9 months later after a lot of aggravation and attempts they come to realize it just isn’t going to work because the rabbits do not want it to work and are not happy together. Again I’m sorry if it’s not what you wanted to hear but bunny bonding is extremely complicated and it’s very common to end up with bunnies whose personalities just don’t mesh no matter how much you like them and want them to all live happily ever after. They are like humans and they don’t just accept every rabbit. A trio is also harder to bond then a duo and having 2 females in that trio is another added layer that often causes it to be more difficult. It’s just extremely important that all 3 bunnies feel safe and can’t be injured. If you go about trying this again without knowing how to do it safely you will also run the risk of having a situation where there interactions this far have been so upsetting or stressful to the 3 bunnies that they will build even more animosity and your slim chance of trying to see if it’s salvageable goes away. I have been bunny bonding for 12 years and encountered situations like this before where there was too much “bad blood” before I was brought in to assess them and given their behavior it was not safe to attempt bonding. Given the things you have said I would suggest waiting for a number of weeks to try to allow the female to heal and all 3 rabbits to decompress from the stress of it all and then seek out an expert if you are still set on attempting one more time to see if you can safely attempt bonding.

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Tango-RaptorOP:rh:•

I will do just this thank you

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ames_006•

I wish you all the best, also thank you for being a responsible bunny owner and asking the tough questions.

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RabbitsModBotMOD:poop:•

Please check out the resources in our Bonding guide and Binkybunny's Bonding overview for more tips on the process.

Some important general tips on the process of bonding rabbits with other rabbits:

  • House rabbits in nearby pens and swap regularly to encourage sharing. This can be done before both rabbits have been neutered.
  • Be sure to use neutral territory that neither have been in to use for face-to-face dating.
  • Please wait until 4 weeks after both rabbits have been neutered before attempting face-to-face bonding to allow time for all hormones to dissipate. While it is not impossible to bond intact rabbits, their hormonal behaviors work against them, and rabbits can often end up with serious injuries during territorial spats.
  • If your current rabbit has not been spayed or neutered, do not obtain another intact rabbit of the opposite sex to bond. You will end up with baby rabbits if you do not keep them separated 24/7. It only takes one successful three-second attempt for a male with an intact female. Male rabbits are not sterile until 6 weeks after their neuter operation.

A few useful shortcuts:

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