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Bunny bonding advice U/D floorplan added! :-)

Amethyst

Warren Veteran
Hi all,

As you all know probably, I have 6 bunnies, in 3 separate bonded pairs of neutered male and female (Domino has not yet been spayed). I would really love for them to tolerate each other, but I'm wondering how realistic this would be? I've been inspired by several bonding threads!

Our hallway and bathroom is a large, neutral space that bonding could take place in, but what would happen when I put them all back in the living room - would they start getting possessive over their "traditional" areas? At the moment they all live in the living room - Miles and Miffy have the free run of most of the living room, Benny and Domino live in a HUGE double hutch, China and Rocket live in a double hutch and permanent run.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

AMETHYST
 
You don't know till you try!!
Usual advise; give them plenty of time in the nuetral area, days if neccesary. Clean the old area thoroughly and move things around a bit if poss. And expect a bit of reaaserting of dominance when you put them back.
If you want to give it a go then why not?!
 
Okay, here's the floorplan of our entire flat as it is at the moment!

FlatFloorplan.jpg


I was wondering if I moved China and Rocket's hutch to where Benny and Domino currently are, moved the Guinea Pig hutch to where China and Rocket are now, and moved Benny and Domino to where the Guinea Pigs are at the moment. Bonding could take place in the hallway and bathroom (bathroom door wedged open). What do you guys think? It would mean that China and Rocket's run would be demolished and all bunnies would have access to the room permanently.

AMETHYST
 
I think the easiest thing to do would be to put them all in the neutral territory and then give the living area a really good clean with vinegar and the such so that it all smells new to them. Are you planning on having a hutch for them? If you are I think I'd get rid of the others and just clean the one you are keeping then none of them will feel territorial and you'll have 6 happy bunnys! Good Luck!
 
chloaster said:
I think the easiest thing to do would be to put them all in the neutral territory and then give the living area a really good clean with vinegar and the such so that it all smells new to them. Are you planning on having a hutch for them? If you are I think I'd get rid of the others and just clean the one you are keeping then none of them will feel territorial and you'll have 6 happy bunnys! Good Luck!

Thanks for the advice! I was planning on keeping all their hutches but on reflection it may be an idea to just keep the largest (Benny and Domino's). Miles and Miffy don't have a hutch but they do have an apex run where their food and water are kept. I can clean both of these with vinegar (yuck!) but I will have to keep them where they are because the run won't fit anywhere else and the hutch is covering some major computer cables! China and Rocket's hutch can solve our guinea pig space problem - we can put the guinea pig hutch opposite China and Rocket's one, join them up with China and Rocket's metal run, and put the piggies in that one huge space! I've redone the floorplan below (just the living room this time!) with the new design. D'you think that'll work?

Floorplan1.jpg


Thanks again!

AMETHYST
 
bizzy_vicki said:
Can I just say... I love your floor plans! :lol: How organised are you! :D

Why thank you! :oops: I'm not actually an organised person at all, so I have to do extraordinarily pedantic things like floorplans in order to get anything done!!! :lol: :roll:

AMETHYST
 
It sounds like a good plan to me. I would put them in the bathroom/hallway - you might be better with one or the other, too large a space can slow things down and make chasing easier. Presuming bonding goes okay then give them 24 hours to get to know each other whilst you reorganise the living area and spring clean. Then open the door and let them in. They'll probably hump etc. a little bit like when you first put them together but the change of area shouldn't cause any major problems. The new layout looks good :D

Tam
 
Thanks Tamsin!

I'm going to attempt bonding this weekend - Saturday I'll get up really early and bond them all in the bathroom. I expect a lot of fighting from Miles and Rocket because they're both rather territorial, but Miles did accidentally get into Rocket's living space once when they weren't supervised, and they didn't kill each other!! :lol: I take that as a good sign! :roll:

If all goes well, by Sunday afternoon we should have a nice bonded group of 6 bunnies. Oo-er!! :lol:

AMETHYST
 
tupperwarequeen said:
and I really want to know how you did the floor plans, they are great!!

:lol: :lol: Me too!! And I think the hutch plans sound great! Hope the bonding is still going well!
 
Thanks guys! :oops:

I just used Microsoft Publisher 2003 to draw boxes and lines etc. Nothing complicated (trust me if I can do it anyone can)! :lol:

AMETHYST
 
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