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bonding one rabbit to a pair - advice please

pooks

Warren Scout
Hi,

I currently have a bonded pair of bunnies, one male and one female. Both are neutered and aprox 18 months old.

They live outside in a 4x4ft shed attached to a 6x6ft run which they have access to 24/7 via a cat flap. The shed has a shelf for the bunnies and the run has a couple of wooden boxes plus a couple of tubes/hidey holes.

I work in a vets and we have had a stray rabbit brought in. It's a female (obviously not sure if neutered but can get this done, ditto for vaccs etc). She seems in good health and doesnt appear to be particularly old or young.

If she is not claimed i wwould love to adopt her and 'stick her in' with my two but I'm very aware that my two may not accept her. Has anyone got any experience of this kind of thing? Could it work? Might it work? Or will it never work?!

Advice please. If we dont find her home and i can't have her, we're gonna have to hand her to a rescue and i'm sure they haven't exactly got the space so i'd rather have her myself - she's very sweet!

Many Thanks
 
Hi there :wave:

Sometimes bunnies love having an extra companion. My advice is with it being so late in the year find the coldest room in the house, leave windows, doors open and heating off and try them in that room together (neutral territory) if all :censored: doesn't break loose, then use a 1:10 bleach solution on the shed and inside the run, wash everything that can be washed and whatever can't should ideally be chucked out. But it's Christmas soon anyway :p

I have this page on my website which should hopefully help you in your bonding process.
http://pixibunni.weebly.com/bonding.html


P.S please keep the female under quarantine for at least 2 weeks before letting her come in contact with other buns.


And most of all..... pictures please? :oops:
 
Yes it could work but I'd be very cautious. You'd need to make sure she'd been quarantined, neutered and vaccinated.

You'd have to wait until her hormones had settled and the most important thing is bonding must be done on neutral territory.
 
Yes it could work but I'd be very cautious. You'd need to make sure she'd been quarantined, neutered and vaccinated.

You'd have to wait until her hormones had settled and the most important thing is bonding must be done on neutral territory.

You say be very cautious - do you mean because of the risk to my rabbits re disease etc or do you mean cautious cos its unlikely to work?

I do have experience with bonding and regularly give advice to owners but i have to admit that i'm not very good at taking my own advice so i might enlist the help of a rescue or someone to help me as ive not bonded a trio before!
 
Hi there.

Bonding trios is very possible. It just takes a little longer than bonding a pair. I hope to be doing another trio in the next week for a forum member who is adoptiong a bun from our rescue. It will be slightly different though as it will involve three singles rather than a pair and a single.

It really does need to be on neutral territory first and foremost. Also, the smaller the intial space the better. You need to put aside time to watch full time for a good few days before you can be sure that the buns are okay together.

Just for info, I agree with the post above re quarantine - especially as we ( I work at a local group of vet practices with two practices in Bracknell) have seen a case of VHD this weekend in the wild rabbit population.
 
Would you think that it will almost certainly work?

You can't really say without knowing the rabbits involved. If you are concerned in case you take her on get her neutered and vacc'd and then she doesn't work then I don't think we can advise. Trios are harder than pairs because you've got three personalities involved but they are possible. You don't want to have two dominant rabbits though - that's not likely to be a peaceful introduction.

The thing is that the new girl will change anyway when she is spayed so you'll need to see how she is about 4 weeks after her op.

We could guide you through bonding and if it doesn't work then maybe one of us local to you who does it regularly could also have a go.

If you did get her ready and she wouldn't bond, you could always try and rehome her via here anyway and that way you'd have made a big difference to her life.

Which rescue locally would your vets normally approach with stray rabbits that need a place to go?
 
Never actually had this situation before!

Well i will see what happens cos hopefully her owner will turn up! The guy who found her is knocking on doors so he may find them. If not, we'll either find her home within the staff or we may find one of our clients who would take her. We most certainly wouldn't put her to sleep!

We've had loads of cats in this situation, often needing othropaedic ops etc and we've always repaired and rehomed so the bunny wont be any different.

I will see what happens and if i'm needing help maybe i could give you a call? I have bonded quite a number of pairs which i have always found relatively easy in the past and not encoutered too many problems, but ive never tried a trio as i was always under the impression (from a bunny rescuer i know) that its not usually successful, but maybe that depends on technique?!

Thank you for your advice, much appreciated!
 
I've got three trios and they are awesome. Previously I have had another two. It all depends on the bunnies involved and their personalities and the dynamics as to whether or not it works.

I personally prefer trios when they work well, to pairs, but that may just be me.

I agree with what The Duchess has said about waiting, etc.
 
I recently bonded a female to my existing male/female pair - it went well, and they all live happily together now. She wasnt spayed when I bonded them, she was spayed a few weeks later, she spent one night indoors to recover and she was so unhappy, I let her have a runaround in the garden the next day and she ran straight for the hutch and was much happier, so I left her out there, all as fine

My boy is so laid back, and loves the girls, any girl! My existing girl is very sweet but humped my boy like mad for a whole evening during the bonding process. The new girl started out sweet with us, and then quite aggressive, but never with the buns, she was scared of them at first but fitted in well pretty quickly

good luck!
 
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