Two pairs into a quad

At the moment I have Bruce and Harley (happily bonded by me)
And Alfie who I will be getting a girlbun for when he is neutered


Would you bond them into a quad?
I'm just trying to decide for my new shed design, if not ill need to figure it out for two groups.

I would try it cos it would be much better if there was a quad, but I would be a nervous wreck...I know what I was like doing Herbie & Hollies bond!

I would set the space up for two pairs and do a slow bond. I hope to do this with my six (2 separate boys who fell out, 2 bonded sisters and a bonded m/f pair). Some expereinced bonders will hopefully give some good advice.

Unless there was a good reason to bond them I think I'd leave them as pairs, quads can and do work but I think pairs tend to be closer and more snuggly'

Oh and slow bond is generally a really bad idea with pairs as it often leads to one of the pairs fighting due to reffered aggression if they can see or smell another bun and not get to them

Rexripley said:

At the moment I have Bruce and Harley (happily bonded by me)
And Alfie who I will be getting a girlbun for when he is neutered


Would you bond them into a quad?
I'm just trying to decide for my new shed design, if not ill need to figure it out for two groups.

Click to expand...

I have two giant bonded Conti rabbits Bella and Lennie, both are really laid back thank goodness.
A week ago, I took on two more rescued rabbits, girl and boy, that were not bonded, they have all been in together now for a week. The girl needs a trip to the vets, but the boy is neutered. The girl was found dumped in a cardboard box, outside a dog rescue centre, and she is very, very nervous of people, but follows Lennie and the other boy about, so hoping in time she will come round, but won't take food from my hand, she runs when you go near her, hoping my two will bring her around.
I have been very lucky, apart from a bit of chasing.
Lennie tried to jump the girl but his heart is not into it, and happily sits their grooming her and then goes back onto grooming Bella. He's even happy to groom the new boy. The new boy tried jumping Bella, which was a bit silly as she is as least 3 times his size, she was having none of that and nipped him, so far he's not tried again.
They are all eating and sleeping together and make quite a heap.
Both mine were litter trained, this has gone a bit pair shape, so now have 3 big trays full of hay that they are trying to use, but newbies just forget somtimes.
Got to think of new names for the newbies she is a New Zealand cross about 8 months old, but think she is going tobe quite big her name was Frosty, but might call her Daisy, haven't go a clue what the boy is but smaller, he is about 2, not sure but might call him Button, he was handed into a rescue because of owners change of job and had no time for him.

I bonded two pairs.
First I bonded them in December. Was not really a succes, they got on fine, kind of ignored each other, until I noticed Rune had a nasty bite on his back. So I separated them. They spent winter indoors, taking turns in the run.
Then a few weeks ago, I set up new outdoor housing, dropped all 4 of them in the run and it went so smooth. They have a lot of space and most of the time, it's still 2 + 2, but they eat together and sometimes sit all together. Only one is a bit left out of the fun, he kind of hides in the sleep compartment at times.
It all depends on the characters of the bunnies, two of the 4 are Teddy Widders (not known in UK I think) and they are the easiest going bunnies in the world

I had Roxy & Rory as a pair, then got 2 brothers in Jack & Rex, bond didnt take long and everything went fine
Then Jack & Rex both died very young, after a while I got Willow & Bracken, pretty much put them straight in and they were accepted immediately

I wouldn't bond a pair to then bond into a group. Just bond the pair with the singles. Less stress all round. Why put your rabbits through two bonds when they only need one? bonding the pair first won't increase the chances of the group and existing pairs can split up after a failed group bond.

I agree about the slow bond not working and about bonding all in 'one go' so to speak - I have done this, bonded a group to 2 singles and it worked quite well.

My current group were a trio and a pair I bonded together due to losses. All things considered it went very smoothly - I'm a pretty unflappable bonder now though :lol: done a lot of my own and I've bonded other people's rabbits as well. And they definitely pick up on our stress.

I personally like groups of rabbits but there are pros and cons attached to both scenarios. If you plan to keep them side by side, this can lead to referred aggression - when I had two groups side by side the two groups would fight between themselves because they could smell the others. I put a board in between so they couldn't see each other and they were fine but this doesn't work for all rabbits. So I personally would prefer to bond a group of 4 over a pair.

I also think a quad is better than a trio - I would be pretty reluctant to add a third to a pair - in case this was an option where you wouldn't get another and just have a trio.