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Talk to me about Foursomes!

helgalush

Wise Old Thumper
We are going to try bonding two of our pairs in to a foursome. (We aren't doing it, we are hoping Tracy RNGP will be able to work her magic for us! ;)).

But I'd like to know from others, how do you find having a foursome? How big should their accommodation be? They will be going outside in the spring to live in Buttercup and Zebedee's accommodation which is an 8x4' kennel-type space, with an 8x4 run plus an 8x2 upper floor in the inside. If this doesn't seem big enough we will use that temporarily and think about what we can upgrade to later in the year.

How do you take your buns to the vets, for a) routine visits and b) longer stays at the vets? Do you split into pairs or take them all together?

How easy is it to spot who is doing "odd" poos and not eating enough hay, getting enough food and water, not being bullied etc?

Tell me your experiences please :D
 
I bonded a quad in a small puppy pen in living room and very gradually expanded over several weeks so that they had the small dining room ..they eventually accepted each other but the two males only really put up with each other. For vet trips I'd take them in pairs, and they were always fine with each other afterwards. I knew Pebbles didn't eat hay, so I'd feed him extra seperately.

All was fine for 16 months, then out of the blue, the two girls had a massive spat, resulting with Poppy losing a large chunk of her ear, so I sepearated them back into pairs again, as I couldn't trust them not to fight again.

links to my previous bonding threads with picks of set-ups:

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?317023-A-few-photos-of-my-bonding-so-far!-Day-6-update-moved-to-dining-room&highlight=bonding

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?318111-Quad-bonding-update-day-10&highlight=quad

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?319718-Bonding-quad-update-week-7&highlight=quad

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?375424-And-a-few-of-Bugsy-amp-Chloe-and-the-Quad-alltogether-for-a-change!&highlight=quad

edited to add that they were two pairs to start with. Unfortunately I lost Pebbles & Chloe last year, and have once again, two pairs but I wouldn't try bonding them into a quad again.
 
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Thank you for that! I love the pics in the last thread you linked! :D Sorry they had a falling out though. I do worry about that.
ETA: and sorry that Chloe and Pebbles are at the Bridge :cry:
 
Forgot to add that my buns free range the house. Bugsy & Violet have Kitchen, hall & Bathroom, and sometimes my bedroom too. Poppy & Jenson have Living room & dining room, so about 10ft x 30ft each pair, so I don't really know how space a quad that is permanently out-doors would need.. but I would guess your set up is big enough.
 
Thank you - I think we will look at upgrading to something bigger later on if it all works out, but hope this will be ok for the time being :D
 
I'm bonding my 2 pairs into a quad next week!! Well that's the plan anyway. I've got a new shed that's 8x6ft and they're going straight in. Everything will be new/neutral. I've created lots if places they can hide and made sure everything has easy entrance/exit so they don't corner each other. They've met lots of times through the bars of their runs and over the last few weeks I've let them out together without any fighting, just a bit of fur pulling. If all goes well they'll have an 8x5.5ft walk in run permanently attached. If they don't bond (don't want to say/type that out loud :lol:) they'll have a run each but not sure how I'll work that yet as really want walk in but each would only be 8x3ft and 8x2.5ft (using current 8x6 runs on sides so the height becomes the width if that makes sense!) so not sure if that would be big enough... But I'm not thinking about that, they WILL bond!!! :lol: I will be posting pics etc on here so watch this space :wave:

Eta in answer to your original question yes I'd say your space sounds great :thumb:
 
Hey :wave:
I've gone down to 3 now :( but did have 4 for a few years..

We are going to try bonding two of our pairs in to a foursome. (We aren't doing it, we are hoping Tracy RNGP will be able to work her magic for us! ;)).

But I'd like to know from others, how do you find having a foursome? How big should their accommodation be? They will be going outside in the spring to live in Buttercup and Zebedee's accommodation which is an 8x4' kennel-type space, with an 8x4 run plus an 8x2 upper floor in the inside. If this doesn't seem big enough we will use that temporarily and think about what we can upgrade to later in the year.

I loved having a foursome, it was hard at first but they would all snuggle and i loved it that everybun had a few buns to choose from. sooty always swapped partners!! their accommodation is 7x5 shed and 12x6 aviary

How do you take your buns to the vets, for a) routine visits and b) longer stays at the vets? Do you split into pairs or take them all together?

In the early bonding days I'd take them all in 2 carriers in 2 pairs, I didn't want them to smell different. Now if only one needs to go, I only take one but generally for vaccs Etc it's in pairs. The bun they are closest too, or the first one I could catch! :lol: Luckily I haven't had to deal with an overnight stay. I did separate sooty for one night as she wasn't eating and had to watch poo output and she went back in fine after 24 hours!

How easy is it to spot who is doing "odd" poos and not eating enough hay, getting enough food and water, not being bullied etc?

This is difficult, I can never work out who's poo is who, I've always had to separate one if I was worried. Thankfully not too often. I always watch mine for a few minutes when I feed them, morning And night to watch out for warning signs. E.g One hasn't appeared for food etc so I know to keep an extra special eye on that one. Bullying I think is quite obvious with observation. They're crafty though. Mittens always looks excluded but when I watch without them knowing, I've caught her snuggling several times.

Tell me your experiences please :D
 
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Sorry, didn't get a chance to reply sooner :D Thanks for all the advice.

Summer & Skye, thanks for replying, good luck with bonding your quad. Have you started now? How is it going? :wave:

Kaths101, I was thinking about your four, I loved seeing all the pics and updates of them when the four of them were together. You must miss little Charlie so much :cry: He was so handsome. They have lovely big accommodation, I will have to see how ours go and if it doesn't seem big enough look to upgrade when finances allow. Thanks for telling me how you get to the vets and check on poos etc!! Lol! I will definitely have to keep an eye out for little Starbuck with his deafness and he is such a sensitive bunny, I am just hoping he thrives with having more "brothers and sisters" to look after him. Fingers crossed it works that way anyway.

Will see how it goes. Thanks again for the advice. :wave:
 
I bonded 2 pairs into a quad, my bonding blog thread is here http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?402162-U-d-2-weeks-after-Bonding-a-quad
I love having them as a quad, they all have a close relationship, Dandy and Beano were one pair of boys (brothers) who were very close and affectionate to each other, my other pair (girls) were Apricot and Ginger (sisters) they were close but didn't groom each other. The boys groom the girls and each other but I've never seen the girls groom each other or the boys. They are all very lively (mental) buns, the boys were very nervous, it's definately helped them being in a quad for that. Before bonding they were in hutch runaround run combos, once bonded they moved into a shed 6ftx4ft with shelves for levels and attached 17ftx10ft aviary style run. Thankfully no bun has had any health issues so I haven't had to watch out for who's doing squishy poos, I suppose I would have to sit for a very long time in the shed to watch for who was doing them :lol: I recently posted a thread as Apricot and Ginger had boosters due, to find out what people did in the case of multiple buns and vet visits, that thread is here http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...uad-group-owners-how-to-do-vet-visits-U-d-p21, I bought the ferplast car mini to take them all in and it's ace :thumb:

Good luck with the bonding :thumb:
 
I'm going to sit in on this thread and read responses as I have four bunnies who are sort of a quad now and will be very soon. I wasn't anticipating on having a quad - they bonded themselves! - so I'll need all the advice I can get! :lol::lol::lol:
 
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