lionlopdad
New Kit
Hi all. So we recently adopted a third rabbit hoping to add him to an already bonded boy/girl pair, the new one is a boy. We were told about the potential difficulty of bonding a trio, but decided to give it a try due to a number of reasons including the potential benefits (extra interaction, another friend incase one passes away and suchlike), wanting to give him a good home after he had been somewhere unpleasant, and the added bonus of him being adorable and affectionate. It's been about a month since we brought Lex home and 3 and a bit weeks since he was neutered, so it's not quite time to start trying to bond them yet. We've been keeping Lex in a large pen in the bedroom (although he's litter trained and not destructive at all so he spends most of his time with the pen open) and Hudson and Madison are completely free-roaming in the main part of the apartment with the living area and kitchen. We've tried letting them meet eachother through the mesh of a pen briefly but decided there wasn't much point until Lex's hormones settled down after his neutering.
Everything was going ok with Lex in our room and the other two in the main room at first, but Hudson particularly has begun getting more and more agitated. He'll wait by the door to the hall that is between this room and the bedroom and, when we go between the rooms he will often try to get into the hall and nip at out ankles if we try to scooch him back inside. It was manageable like this, but yesterday and again today Hudson has attacked me. I've not taken it personally, I've realised it's because my clothes have smelled quite strongly of the new boy from either playing with him before coming into the living room (when Hudson attacked my legs yesterday), or just by holding him (arms today). I know it'll be a hormonal thing because of the new boy, but we're worried that he is becoming more and more aggressive and that with the level of aggression he's shown it could be impossible to bond them. Hudson is currently in a temporary pen in the living room (which will be opened overnight/when we're not in the room for long periods of time), just so we feel safe to move about in the room without being confronted by a grumpy bunny.
Does anyone have any advice? Either on effectively training/changing Hudson's behaviour or on the process of bonding a trio in general would be helpful. We really don't want it to come to choosing which boy to rehome as we love them both dearly.
Everything was going ok with Lex in our room and the other two in the main room at first, but Hudson particularly has begun getting more and more agitated. He'll wait by the door to the hall that is between this room and the bedroom and, when we go between the rooms he will often try to get into the hall and nip at out ankles if we try to scooch him back inside. It was manageable like this, but yesterday and again today Hudson has attacked me. I've not taken it personally, I've realised it's because my clothes have smelled quite strongly of the new boy from either playing with him before coming into the living room (when Hudson attacked my legs yesterday), or just by holding him (arms today). I know it'll be a hormonal thing because of the new boy, but we're worried that he is becoming more and more aggressive and that with the level of aggression he's shown it could be impossible to bond them. Hudson is currently in a temporary pen in the living room (which will be opened overnight/when we're not in the room for long periods of time), just so we feel safe to move about in the room without being confronted by a grumpy bunny.
Does anyone have any advice? Either on effectively training/changing Hudson's behaviour or on the process of bonding a trio in general would be helpful. We really don't want it to come to choosing which boy to rehome as we love them both dearly.
