Advice please (started bonding a trio, no affection at all)

Situation: Currently in the midst of bonding two already-bonded brothers with a single female. They're been together for 24 hours. A fair bit of referred aggression between the brothers, and quite a bit of chasing and fur pulling between the three. The boys and single girl are mainly ignoring each other, no signs of affection yet. Strangely I haven't seen any humping either

Cookie is alpha male and a bit of a bully, he will lunge at and nip Elmo/Princess without being provoked.

Elmo occasionally fights back with Cookie, but mostly he backs down and accepts that Cookie is boss. He has gone for Princess a few times without being provoked, but mostly he is okay with her. Elmo and Princess haven't really snuggled voluntarily, but a few times when they've been really scared by a noise or something Princess has run to him for comfort.

Princess hasn't gone for the boys or provoked them, when they go for her she might nip back but mostly runs away. She mostly sits away from them, I think she's a little scared but every so often she does very carefully wonder over to one of the boys.

Anyway not much has changed in the last 24 hours. Most of the time the boys are sat together and princess sat away from them. I haven't seen any signs of affection at all, I'm pretty sure Princess knows that Cookie is boss and she isn't challenging him, but she's not groomed him and neither of the boys have groomed her. I'm wondering if its my fault, ever since we brought Princess home she's been showered with head rubs and never groomed us back, maybe she doesn't understand that she's supposed to groom the dominant bun? She just wants snuggles and head rubs but I don't think she knows she's supposed to give as well as take. Maybe I'm just being impatient, but I'm not sure if this is 'normal'. It doesn't feel like I'm bonding three rabbits, I know ignoring each other is much better than them constantly fighting but it just feels like I've got a pair and a single forced to occupy the same space but mostly sitting as far from each other as possible :?

Don’t know a huge amount about bonding and I’m sure someone who does will be along soon - but, as I understand it, ignoring is actually pretty good? Hope I’m right and good luck xx

Some rabbits just don’t groom. I had a pair of girls and they didn’t groom each other. When I eventually bonded them with a pair of boys I had, the boys groomed the girls but the girls never returned the favour. And the first time the boys groomed the girls was a picture, the girls face was like :shock:

During bonding them the submissive male and female from each pair ignored the other 2 whilst they sorted out the chasing, humping and fur pulling and once they decided who was top bun the bond settled and they stopped ignoring each other :thumb:

I would settle for mutually ignoring each other over an all out fight. Just be patient - it is very early days and it seems to be going ok. These things just take time and the rabbits haven't read the manual on bonding, so are doing it their way.

Lopsy definitely doesn't realise he's supposed to groom the dominant rabbit, so much so that sometimes she'll just hump him instead!

Sending many bonding vibes your way. Trio bonds can take forever...mine did anyway, it certainly draws on your reserves of patience. When I bonded Mouse with Joey & Boo the girls took months to move from the chasing (or being chased) to the ignoring to the loved up. We still have an occasional chase but mainly they face press or flop in each others arms. Keep going, it may take an eternity but it'll be worth it.

Thanks for the reassurance everyone I really appreciate it!

I started bonding in the bathroom as it was neutral, small and easy to clean. My OH didn't appreciate trying to poop with three rabbits running between his legs so I took the extensions off of the boys cage, fully neutralised and washed the main part and now they're in the spare bedroom. I guess I'll make the most of this time to give the living room a deep clean :lol:

Things seem to be improving surely but slowly There's the occasional short chase, but it's usually when one of the rabbits moves fast and spooks another, rather than being caused by nipping/biting. They're still not 100% about each other particularly when one makes a sudden movement but they're a lot more comfortable now, rather than the boys sitting far from princess they're much closer to each other and chilled out. I even saw Cookie groom Princess :shock: He did nip her after a good 10 seconds of grooming but hey it's a start :lol:

DemiS said:

Things seem to be improving surely but slowly There's the occasional short chase, but it's usually when one of the rabbits moves fast and spooks another, rather than being caused by nipping/biting. They're still not 100% about each other particularly when one makes a sudden movement but they're a lot more comfortable now, rather than the boys sitting far from princess they're much closer to each other and chilled out. I even saw Cookie groom Princess :shock: He did nip her after a good 10 seconds of grooming but hey it's a start :lol:

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They seem to be getting there which is good news. Boo used to do the groom & nip thing...she still does on occasion. Wouldn't it be great to know their thoughts. I hope they continue to progress well

As others have said, the bonding seems to be going well. They are doing all the right things ie female is running away, boys not sitting too close to female. Hope it works out well.

joey&boo said:

They seem to be getting there which is good news. Boo used to do the groom & nip thing...she still does on occasion. Wouldn't it be great to know their thoughts. I hope they continue to progress well

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"Wow you're so sweet and soft I suppose i could groom you .... HEY WAIT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE ALPHA *bite*" :roll:

I've seen Mummy bunnies do similar to their kits. It obviously means something?

tonibun said:

I've seen Mummy bunnies do similar to their kits. It obviously means something?

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Wow I've never heard of that before :shock: Tough love?

In other news things still seem to be going well. Princess was binkying around the cage this morning and despite the sudden movements the boys didn't feel threatened

I think my trio are successfully bonded now They're laying together, grooming each other and they're now back in the living room in the set up that belonged just to the boys before. As there were no issues when I moved them back in to old territory, I let them have free run in the living room and all was fine so I think today I'll let them out together in the garden

I hope this gives some reassurance to anyone who's doing bonding and worried that things aren't progressing very quickly My advice is just have patience, it takes time for them to trust one another

Also: Previously I used those hay racks that attach to the outside of the cage, the rabbits would get a bit frustrated trying to pull hay through the mesh and whenever I filled the racks I'd drop hay all over the living room, also I knew that it would never hold enough hay for three rabbits. Over Easter my dad made a wooden box that hangs inside the cage above the litter tray. It has three big holes and is filled from inside the cage so my living room no longer looks like a barn floor

Well done! I love that hay rack!

I’m so pleased it’s all turned out well :thumb: that hay rack is great :thumb:

Yay, well done you & well done bunnies. I think you nailed it pretty damn quickly

Another update, we thought Princess had escaped. Turns out she'd climbed in to the hay rack in protest to it being empty :roll:

:roll: :lol:

Very cute photos, really pleased it’s worked out for you, they are gorgeous