Bonding trio question

jenna06 said:

Hi, Im new to the forum and was hoping you guys could give me some advice.

I have two bonded rabbits, Dicky (neutered male) and Eta (spayed female). I adopted a neutered male, Chester and hope to bond them into a trio. I have tried prebonding by switching litter boxes or just having their cages near each other, but this causes Dicky to start circling and mounting Eta. Advice from another forum told me I needed to separate all three and basically start from scratch. I would prefer not to separate Dicky and Eta though so I was wondering if i could leave them together and have their cage in a separate room from Chesters cage. Then I could try individually bonding each rabbit to Chester. Is this a good idea or do I have to separate Dicky and Eta? And if I did this, should i try Dicky and Chester first or Chester and Eta. Dicky and Chester would definitely be the more difficult bond.

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MightyMax said:

Hi there Jenna and welcome :wave:

The problem with asking for advice in different places is you'll get so many views on how people do bonding!

I wouldn't separate your bonded pair prior to bonding, but note that bonding a trio may break the existing bond between Dicky and Eta and you may end up with three rabbits giving separately - worst case scenario. Can you deal with that?

If Chester has been neutered a minimum of 6 weeks ago (preferably longer) then I would put all three together in a completely neutral area and start from there

I bonded a trio earlier this year and there were no issues, but none of the rabbits had met before, which is the ideal scenario

Complicated, isn't it?

Have a look here - particularly Mischief and Tinker's Mum (down the bottom here), who bonded trios:

http://rabbit.org/the-most-important-word-in-bonding-is-patience/

http://rabbit.org/introducing-rabbits-in-a-group-situation/

http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information/bonding-bunnies/ (good for pair bonding)

http://www.fatfluffs.com/info/bonding/

http://www.actionforrabbits.co.uk/bonding.html

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...How-I-do-rabbit-bonding&p=6934868#post6934868


Book in RWAF shop:

https://shop.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/product/bonding-rabbits-by-fiona-campbell/


Mischief and Tinker’s Mum
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?462466-How-I-bonded-my-trios-videos!

Also, Mairwen Guard has put some brilliant bonding videos on YouTube which are well worth watching - do search for them as there are quite a few.

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