Thanks
I don't suppose you have any tips for things to watch out for or anything? Are there any real warning signs you can get straight off that it's just not going to work? and generally, if they seem to get on well at first, does that mean they are likely to bond successfully?
sorry for all the questions, it's just not often you come across someone who's done multiple trios!
No worries, happy to answer any questions
I haven't used names, because I didn't know if that would confuse the situation or make things easier, but if you need names added to make more sense of it just let me know.
I did all my trios differently depending on what the needs of the bunnies were. (I'm on the wrong computer at the moment, but I can get you some pics of them in a bit).
With the trio I did from scratch, it took us many months of dates and living together. I then moved a pair in together (two boys) and had to wait for the girlie to be spayed. We carried on bonding other than when she was recovering, but immediately after she had recovered, even though they lived right next to each other, one of the boys really laid into the girl. I took them on a car journey and then they were fine. These needed a big space to bond in.
The trio who was two inseparable girls and adding a boy I had to do twice because once I had the trio established I added a fourth, and that made them fight so I went down to two pairs for a short while. then the 4th bunny fought with the other one, so we went back up to a trio, and then I bonded the 4th with a different bunny (I have many bunnies so I have a lot of options). The first time we did it REALLY slowly and it was hard going. The second time I knew they were great and just put them together and that was that. They were just super happy together again. These needed a relatively large space to bond because the girls like to chase and in a too small space, fight.
I recently lost the boy from that trio and am left again with the inseparable girls (the reason for bonding was because I know that neither of thoe girls will cope without the other, so now I ahve to bond them with someone else too, to plan for the future). I am now looking to bond them with my youngest male who should outlive them both. that's my next bonding project.
The last trio was different again, and slower and more cautious than I probably could have been. I was bonding a girl recovering from a nasty spay, a wildie (those two were already together) and the additional bunny had head tilt. they were a bit funny to bond because the first girl kept blocking the head tilt girl into areas (like litter trays and such) and not letting her out, so I had to remove everything from the area. We used a much smaller area this time and that worked far better.
There was never any proper fighting with those successful bonds but I have tried other bonds where they didn't work. The head tilt girlie got her neck torn by another girl (funnily enough, the 4ft girl from the second trio) when I tried to bond that girl into a trio when the other girl in that trio died.
The main warning signs are the same for other bonds, so raised tails, circling, obviously fighting. I would be warey if a bunny was stopping another bunny getting to the third (in whatever way round that worked).
I agree that a car journey is a sensible thing to do and try, and really, some may disagree, but I personally think taking it slower tends to work and make things far more solid with a trio. That is my personal opinion only though, and there are cases when its appropriate to just do it as 'normal'. I would suggest learning to read bunnies generally, and your bunnies because then you can read what is happening which makes things far easier.
