Bonding a group of 3 (male & existing pair) - advice needed please

Hi everyone.

Once again I need some advice please. How do I go about bonding a single male to a male/female pair? I’m thinking that it’s roughly the same as a 1-1 bonding (side by side cages/swap litter trays/cages/neutral territory etc).

This is the situation, apologies for the length of post but thought it best to provide all info straight up.

Sadly we lost another bun on Wednesday, Willow was 5 ½ and we adopted her at 6 months old. She was always a very nervous girl, got stressed out by any type of handling so the last 6 weeks have been her nightmare (6 week course of Panacur and Baytril for an URI). Apart from the URI for the last 3 weeks she’d always been a healthy girl but Wednesday morning I went to give her the morning meds and found her. She was lying in the hay tray and looked quite peaceful so I’m hoping that meant she went quickly and didn’t suffer. Her partner Zander is 6/7 yrs old and had been with her since we adopted her, he’s a very friendly bun and they were always together, grooming, sleeping etc, and naturally I’m very worried about him. He’s eating/drinking/pooing and behaving normally but (and I know this may sound strange) I can see in his eyes he’s wondering what the hell has happened and seems lonely. I have decided that I would like to try to bond him into an existing pair and the most suitable are Benji and Opal. The only glitch I can see if they have only been bonded for just 3 months. Would that be a problem? They are both approx 3 yrs old and Opal always hops past all the cages and greats each bun, Zander was always inquisitive but never aggressive. Thursday night I cleaned them all out and I swapped him and May over so he’s next to Benji and Opal. The plan is I’ll leave them like that for a few days more, then swap litter trays over, then cages, then try them in a run. Any info/advice would be greatly received as I’m really worried about this. If after a period of time it doesn’t work out then I will look around to try to find him a nice placid female of similar age.

Thanks for reading and so sorry for the long post.

Just treat it as you would a pair-neutral ,small area and all in together-watching for any fights etc.Let us know how you get on-I will be doing the same in a couple of weeks after Ozzie recovers from his neuter- bonding him to an existing male/female pair [they've been bonded for 7 months]. -once again my toilet will be out of action!

firstly I'd like to say I'm sorry for your loss. I dread the day I loose one. In my experience it is more difficult to bond a male into a pair than a female. You have to take charge and make sure they know you are the boss and you won't accept fighting. This could take a few days. Wear a pair of wooly gloves and gardening gloves to seperate fights. As long as the new bun is willing to be submissive your pair should accept him eventually. Let us know how you get on. Good luck.

Keep a long handled brush handy aswell to seperate any fights safely should they occur.

I have heard that some people have used those squirty water thingies handy(that you water plants with). This tends to get them grooming themselves and each other and redirecting their attentions. There is always the car journey aswell but just see how you get on. The most important thing is that the environment is neutral to all the buns. Good luck and am sorry for your loss x

Hi all, sorry for delay in updating. I posted in "Rabbit Chat" just to get a quick question, but I'm pleased to say that early signs are very good (see pics below)





Zander is on left, Opal in middle and Benji hopping off on right.

I didn't want to duplicate the post so here'd the linky to the post with full update http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?p=3315209#post3315209

I am so glad it seems to be going well- gives me hope for when I try and bond Ozzie with my existing pair!!