V naughty rabbits! Bonding 3 & general behaviour training advice.

Loooooooong post coming, exit NOW if you wish.

I have three rabbits; one male (Alfie), two females (Harriet & Jessie), all spayed & neutered. Harriet was a baby when we got her, the other two were 'rescues' (they were from the adoption section at Pets at Home due to abandonment, kind of but sort of not rescues, I suppose) and a lot older; Jessie at 7 months and Alfie at 18 months.

Alfie and Harriet are bonded and living together, and Jessie lives alone but was spayed last week, hence why I'm asking this stuff.

Because they're all 'fixed' now, we would really love to bond all three together. Herein lies the problem.

Harriet is a very strong character - she's pretty confident and very territorial. Alfie was abandoned because he was really aggressive, so we initially thought they would never work, but Harriet immediately established herself as the boss and now he's totally under the thumb. Jessie, although being a bigger-looking breed, is really timid and shy. So, Harriet has always hated Jessie, and tried to attack her any chance she got, but since Jessie came home from the vet last week, Harriet's been quite protective of her - she chased Alfie out of the animal room when he was being aggressive towards Jessie the other day (which is new, btw - he's always just been indifferent towards her), and has either given her some gentle sniffs or just completely ignored her, which is unheard of with these two.

So, it's looking good for the girls, right? I mean, they've fought a lot in the past, always instigated by Harriet. I'm hoping the hospital smell & eventual disappearance of hormones have/will help them to forget their past fights. Alfie, on the other hand, is what is worrying me atm. Being a previously dominant male who is now the bottom bun, will he bully a new addition in order to feel more important? And will adding a third female disrupt the couple-y bond they have?

Now, aside from this, there are behaviour issues. I understand it's largely down to me because I had never had my 'own' pet before when I got Harriet, and in quick succession we got Alfie & Jessie + other animals. I know that wasn't the responsible thing to do, but it's done and I love them all very much and want to do the best I can now.

Up until recently they were in store-bought cages & hutches, but I went and bought two x-large dog crates a couple of weeks ago. I'm working on getting a second level in them to maximise space, I'm just waiting for my Dad to be able to install those for me. Also what I'd like is a playpen, but I don't know what size I would need as the room they're in is an awkward shape, also I wouldn't know where to get them from for the cheapest price, so any advice on that would be great too.

What would help with that, actually, is if they were better behaved. For example, they chew EVERYTHING. They destroyed half of my old bedroom wall by ripping the wallpaper, and now I'm in privately rented housing I can't afford for that damage to happen here. Harriet has already taken a small amount of paper off one of the walls in the animal room. If I could trust they wouldn't eat the wallpaper, I could just block off the desk area in that room and although it wouldn't add tons of room, it would certainly use less X-pen panels and the space they would have would be less awkwardly shaped. We could also allow them into the hallway. Something else they like to do is dig or bite at the carpet thread. We don't really have many towels and sheets, and I'd hate to have them ruined as well as the ones we've already surrendered to the guinea pigs' fleece bedding setup. Maybe carpet cut-offs? How much are they, and how big can you get them?

That's another thing, too. I want the rabbits on fleece bedding because it's nicer for their paws & chests, better for warmth especially now it's getting into the winter months, it's easier to clean out each week ... the list goes on.

But they're diggers! They just mess it all up, which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't also like to kick their litter. That means litter gets on top, in between the layers of fleece and towel, and also underneath. Which means I may as well be doing a full clean out every day. So bits of that and bits of hay stick to the fleece, which clogs up my washers drainage pipe when I try to wash it. So I just kind of give up and go back to loose-style bedding, but tonight I took the plunge and left fleece in both, hoping that if I left enough new toys to destroy, they'd leave the bedding alone.

They are litter trained most of the way. They'll wee in there, but occasionally I'll find a couple of wet spots elsewhere. But the POOS! They'll just do that anywhere. Especially when out for playtime. Eeeeeeverywhere. They also wee sometimes, too.

I guess I know a little bit about each of the issues we need to work on, but what happens when they're all combined? Do I tackle one thing at a time, or all at once? And where does bonding fit in? I feel like everything depends on something else, like "I could use fleece if they would exclusively use their litter box, but I could litter train if they paid more attention to me" and so on. I feel like I'm in a rut, and there's SO much to do.

ANY help would be awesome.

OK, shall try to answer some of your questions.

Re: bonding a trio. It's hard and until you actually do it there's no way to know how they will react. At the moment they are meeting in unneutral space so they are going to be protective of their respective territories. You need to wait a few more weeks for Jessie's hormones to calm down a bit more before you do anything but I'd start working out where you are going to do it and when you can make the time for it. I'd say you'd need a week of you being around all the time in case of any fighting breaking out and a couple of days when someone can watch them virtually nonstop when you first start. You also need somewhere they haven't been before or to neutralise an area, vinegar works well to neutralise odours. The previous bond between the couple could break, it is a possibility. There is a sticky on bonding a trio in this section that may help.

Re: housing. The thing with dog crates and pens is you are eating into your own space and they are rarely big enough to cater for their needs. They are active dawn and dusk so that's when they need the most space really. It sounds like it might be difficult but if you can swing it I think you'd be best off choosing a room and completely bunny proofing it. Maybe using cardboard to protect the walls and wallpapers and a lino or carpet offcut to protect the floor. I have textured lino in my bunny rooms and that makes it easier to clean as I just just quickly sweep it once or twice a day, then parts of the room I either use a carpet offcut or fleeces pinned down by furniture to provide them with a grippier place to run and somewhere soft to sleep. There is a link in my signature to various housing ideas.

Re: poops. It's natural for bunnies to poop round the edges of their territory, especially if something (or somebunny) is around they don't know and they feel could be threatening that territory. If you can get them bonded into a three or move the third bun out if eye/ear/smell range that should help. As for them digging stuff out of the tray, what tray and litter do you use? Many people use shallow cat trays or corner rabbit trays and these in my experience just aren't deep enough. I use underbed storage boxes lined with newspaper and then masses of hay. The newspaper soaks up the wee and the hay creates a barrier between delicate bunny feet and soaked newspaper. At first, when people on here suggested them, I was sceptical thinking they'd be too high but they work brilliantly. Even when Mischa was slowing down a bit prior to his passing away he could still get in and out of the trays fine. I can also have spares and make up a new box, bring it in, swap it and take out the old one so they don't pee where the box was. As for washing fleeces and blankets I use a horse bedding bag, they're designed to wash horse bedding in and stop it clogging up the machine. I just give them a good shake outside, pop them in there and wash them.

Yeah, with the bonding thing there really is no guessing what will happen until it's happened. She was spayed just over a week ago, so it'll be at least another six before we begin introductions. I hope it goes well. I would settle for non-disastrous.

I really couldn't give them a room, we have our bedroom which would be way too difficult to bunny-proof, the spare room which the two crates plus a computer desk is in & a tiny kitchen and bathroom. There's quite a big empty space in the living room where I could set up an X-pen, maybe get a cheap bed sheet to protect the carpet until I can find an offcut. It would work out much better that way, I was just wanting it attached to the crates so they could hop in and out, like an extension.

Oh and when I was researching new housing options, I came across that thread and I had so much fun looking at all the pictures, haha.

And with the poos, they aren't actually around the edge, they're just everywhere. There's no rhyme or reason to where they're going, they just go where they stand and run away, which is why I think it's a laziness/naughtiness thing and not a territorial/stressed out thing. This is all three of them, by the way, and it's something they've all done individually before they were bonded, and even before we had them. As for litter, I use wood pellets. I've tried different things, but I've found the pellets are the most absorbent and they're heavy enough that the rabbits don't bother trying to move it around, which they always do if I ever use newspaper or something like that.

I do have cat litter trays, I tried to get the deepest I could find but I think I need the ones with the lids really, or an underbed storage box like you suggested. Will look into that, thanks.