Advice Please - Possibly Trio

So a couple of months ago I took on a rabbit who I rescued from Gumtree, she didn't have the best home so I really wanted to help her. Originally my plan was to get her, make sure she was healthy and spayed and then re-home her. Only one problem....I completely bonded to her more than I have with my other two rabbits, and now the thought of having to let her go somewhere else is just so upsetting. She is the friendliest of my three rabbits, and so loves to be with me and have attention.

She was spayed a few weeks ago after becoming around six months old and that all went well. I was considering the possibility of me keeping her and the only way I can see that working for her sake and well being is if I could bond her to my current pair (a male and female, bonded since February ish).

However, now I'm having second thoughts. I've heard about how hard it is to bond a trio and all I have ever done is bond my two which went reasonably smoothly. I've also heard that during bonding my pair may even fall out with each other and not get along, and that even as a trio they may not all be as happy as they would be in separate pairs.

Does anyone have any further advice for me? I so love this little bunny but if I don't try and bond her I'll have to re-home her which will be really hard but I know I need to do what is best for her because it wouldn't be fair on her for her to have to live alone.

Here is my bonded pair...


Bunny in question...

It looks like your bunnies really love you! It all depends on the personalities of the rabbits so if your pair are sweet natured they will probably settle down well as a trio. We have lots of trios on the forum although I myself don't have any. You will need a neutral area where they can live for around a week or so together, but they all look really sweet so you might be lucky. It would be a shame to have to let her go to someone else. Good luck!

This is very similar to what happened to me - I fostered my girl first and we all loved her straight away and wanted to keep her. I had her living next to my pair for approx 6 weeks while she recovered from her spay then introduced them on neutral territory and the bond went quite smoothly. For me I don't really have an option to keep 2 seperate pairs indoors so I was really pinning my hopes on the trio working out! There are risks as you mention, so it depends whether the potential for the bond to work outweighs the risks of it not working for you. It's worked for me but I know there will be other cases where it hasn't worked out.

Oh my what a gorgeous family of rabbits you have there.

Would it be possible to have two set ups and to bond her with a neutered buck from a rescue? That could perhaps be your fall back option.

Have a look in the search bar for threads on trios, many people have them with great success.

I have a quad (two bucks bonded to two does) which works brilliantly.

If you look on YouTube at "mypamperedpets" she has several videos of bonding trios
Good luck

Aw, they are all gorgeous and it would be sad for you to have to let her go. I've taken on two 'gumtree' buns (we have 7 in total) that similar to yours, weren't in a good situation.

My circumstances are a bit different, but I have two trios. One of them is three girls who are sisters so didn't require any bonding as such. But the other one is two boys who previously lived together (with their previous owner) but fell out and a rescued doe. I thought it would be difficult to bond them (not something I have done before, either) but it went incredibly well and the three of them are now living happily together.

Good luck with whatever you decide x

I'll post a little update here that I posted on another group...

"So I planned on bonding my single rabbit to my pair. At first, as the pair is male/female and the single is female I thought I would have an issue with the two females not getting along however the issue seems to be with the male.
I've had their pen and cage side by side tonight. I left my camera in the room to record what they do, and at one point the single goes up to the other two, and it looks like the male then goes for his partner as his head moves to her and she jumps away from him.
I had this issue the other day when they met through the bars because the male, seemed to try and lunge through the bars at the single female. However, the other female seems fine when she sees her and just very interested....in fact when she sees her she even starts to groom things around her.
The male, when seeing her tonight also started jumping up at the pen and trying to push it in the direction of the cage and really seems to just want to get at her.
Does anyone have any advice, please? I have an awful feeling it won't work out between the male and female. The thing is I am so attached to her now, I feel like I have such a bond with her and she with me so I am completely destroyed at the thought of now having to re-home her, I'm not the type to have ever given up an animal I have and it breaks my heart because of my rabbits she is the friendliest as both rabbits in my pair will run away from me at first where she runs up to me and wants to be around me."

When your male rabbit goes for his friend, this is called Referred Aggression. Because the male can't attack the single rabbit, he attacks his friend instead.

If you want them all to be together it's best not to allow them to upset one another. Just put them all together in a neutral area and monitor them. Once together try not to separate them.