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How does the heirarchy work with groups of more than two bunnies?

CrazyBun

Warren Scout
This is a question about the inevitablility of bullying in a group. If you have a group of more than two bunnies, or of two bunnies of the same sex, is there one who you feel sorry for? One who seems to get a raw deal? Or are there groups of happy buns, enjoying equality?

I have a group of four bunnies, two males and two females, and I feel really sorry for the bottom male. He is a shy boy, and a lot of his indoor life seems to be dominated by watching out for Top Male. I think he would be a good deal less shy if Top Male weren't around.

In my group,
Top Male bullies Bottom Male
Top Female bullies Bottom Female
Top Male and Top Female love each other
Bottom Female loves Top Male
Top Female and Bottom Male like to cuddle, but only if Top Male is not around
Occasionally Bottom Male will relieve his feelings by chasing Bottom Female.
 
My three bunnies dont seem to have a heirarchy. Or rather it changes all the time. I've only ever seen one incident where Merry growled at Pip, but that was soon after I'd got them when they werent very settled, and I'd left them in a tiny run for a few hours while I was trying to sort out their hutch (bad me - the garden is bunny-proofed now).

Since then I've only ever seen them all grooming each other and snuggling. But I think that's because they're brothers. I get the impression that it depends very much on the personality of the individual rabbits, their history and the kind of conditions they're kept in.

Sorry that probably wasnt very helpful!
 
My trio always had a boss, which did change once but they were all pretty cose and laid back. No-one was ever left out but I would say the two boys were probably closest when Scout was in charge.
 
The trio at my mum's hierachy changes. The little boy is always at the bottom, such a submissive little chap. But every now and then the mother and daughter battle it out for top bun status. Never any injuries fortunately. It used to be mum who was top bun, but daughter is top bun most of the time now. You can tell as top bun gets tto the food first so ends up fattest.
 
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