bonding 8 rabbits diary

long story short bought 2 buns form p@h turned out male and female, female got pregnant and had 6 baby buns. dad bun got separated so luckily no more extra buns. we all fell in love with the babies so wanted to keep them. mum (squigg) and babies were together and i got dad (willow) neutered. when the babies were 4 wks we did playdates with willow (7 wks post op) re bond was brill he took them on as though he was the 2nd mum. squigg got spayed when babies were 13 weeks old because she wouldnt stop feeding them, i also sepatated the 3 male buns into the top half of the hutch.
so i had mum dad and 3 girl buns in bottom and 3 male buns in top. Then i got the 3 girls spayed but when i put them back in the hutch they were in, 2 of the girls turned on the 3rd so she was put in a big pen in living room.
meanwhile in the 3 males hutch all 3 were humping each other which turned to fighting so i split the pen in the living room for 1 male blocked off part of the big L SHAPED hutch for another and started bonding the 3rd back in with mum, dad and girls (while none could now get pregnant).
This was hard at first dad willow wanted to eat him for disturbing his little harem but in about 3 days he fit in nicely.
In the pen in the living room both buns showed interest in each other so i bonded them which was so easy i cant say I actually bonded them, they fell in love without me.
Now i am up to date with my situation now.
I have a 6ft double hutch joined to a 3ft double joined to a 4ft double in a CAPITAL L. when all the buns lived together i cut the side panels out of the 6ft and sides out of the other hutches and joined them together. now i have had to refill the 4ft double and have 1 boy in that
5 buns in 6ft double joined to 3ft double.
2 buns in living room in 6ft x 4ft puppy pen.
the 3 boys get spayed on friday so i have to wait a good while before i do anymore bonding but for the next part i am going to need some advice. i have a pair and single to bond to the male group and whenever willow and the male with the girls sees any of the other buns they go berserk. this is going to be so stressful and i dont actually think i will manage to get them all together.
MY 1ST QUESTION WOULD BE WHERE DO I GO NEXT. do i try the pair with the 5 first, or just the viscous ones. Or do i try the single male with the 5 or just the viscous ones. here is where im really stuck because i dont know how to deal with the violence. sorry for the long post but im really stuck and wanted to give as much info as possible and hope for some tips. thanks for reading this dreadfully long post lol..

The only advice I can think of is wait until all have been neutered then put them all together in a neutral area and hope and pray for the best. Do you think Dad will be the Alpha bun? As they are still young you have a chance that they will all fit in together. It's worth a try.

i think dad thinks he is the alpha bun but mum acts like it really, she gets groomed off everyone but only gives dad grooms and noone else. dad gets worshipped off everyone but he grooms everyone back too, so i dont know whos alpha really but thought it would be mum. i am waiting until they are all done and hormones have died down some. ive got my pen gloves and white vineger ready lol..

Wow that took a few reads to understand your situation but I'm caught up now! So you have mum and dad with 3 of their 'babies'- 2 females and a male. Then you have a single male in the 4ft double and his brother and sister are the bonded pair in your living room? That right??

I'd try and bond them all together at once rather than just bonding the single with the 5 or the pair with the 5! Good luck!

thats what im going to try, ive got 6 metal puppy panels that havnt been used by any of them so im going to try them in 2 panels wide and 1 panel deep at first. thats if all 8 fit in it lol.. its a shame really because its only the dad bun thats really viscous, the other scraps are nothing in comparison to how he acts towards the other 3 that he does not live with. How long do you reckon i leave it before starting. i waited 2 weeks to bond the 2 female babies into the 5. that took about 3 days to stop all scraps and for them to snuggle. It was the mum bun that was the problem then but shes quite passive and only did little chases and nips.

the last 3 boys got neutered yesterday xx all went well

the spraying from the boys is calming down now but willow still wants to eat pepe and blitzen through the mesh. I really cant see him ever liking them because he was neutered in november so it cant be his hormones thats causing it. do neutered boys react to the hormones of other males until the hormones die down. im hoping so, willow is the main problem now with the 8 going together i think.
Blitzen and darcy were on their own but now they are a bonded couple. so now i have got 3 groups to join together, two pairs and a quad.

Glad the neuters went well! Yes their hormones should calm down eventually, it usually takes 6 weeks.

i decided to bond the two pairs together before putting all 8 together. ive started today by having them next to each other. 2 in the pen in the living room where they have been for a while and the other two free range. this morning i had it reversed with darcy and blitzen in their hutch and tiggi and cosmo free range. that went brill but i knew i wouldnt be able to stay up all night n that room so i swapped it over to tiggi and cosmo in pen and darcy and blitzen free range all in living room. The first 3 hours were fine just the odd scuffle at the bars, im 6 hours into this room now and they have just all lay down. ive figured out its tiggi thats causing the scuffles over her territory so at least ive found out who is and who isnt after swapping both around today. didnt realise how hard this would be, just staying awake is hard without being on constant alert.

all 4 are still flopped out. kids will be getting up soon and im like a zombie

Sounds like what you are doing is having positive results. I hope you get some chance to have a rest today.

thanks omi. The hubby is building the bonding place now out of 4 metal pen panels and a new piece of lino. ive white vinger washed everything too. going to try them in that soon so that they are in neutral territory.

Sending mega bonding vibes xx :wave:

i will need them tiggi has been like a little shark all night lol..

Wow you're doing amazingly well!

I really hope you can get a bit of peace and head down today, to make up for your efforts

i dont feel like it. i cant go through this again to form an 8. its horrible. they looked like they wanted to kill each other when i put them in together. im not letting them fight though. i cant put these 4 through this another time just so i can have the 8 together and plus i wouldnt be able to split 8 rabbits up that are fighting, i dont think im gunna get any sleep. if these 4 bond it will be a miracle

tiggi is still giving darcy bites which makes her run and try to jump out the pen but its got so there is more time between the occurrences. shes not really doing it that much to blitzen now, about once an hour sometimes less.

aww bless you, its so emotionally exhausting without the hindrance of no sleep. I remember trying to keep a log of how often Boo attacked but I gave up doing that very quickly (or ran out of paper:lol I expect you'll get there if your nerves can hold out - i certainly hope so anyway.

Sending more bonding vibes - it sounds quite promising at the moment.

thankyou for the vibes its only this forum thats keeping me going. did yours fight initially then joey&boo and then turn out good. its just the two girls now. i would just like to believe that they will be friends in the end. i havnt heard of many bonds working that start off with fighting, has anyone else had this xxx