Bunny Bonding

I'm hoping to start bonding our three rabbits (2 females & 1 male soon). The thing is, I'm really want all three to be able to go out in the large run togther and interact, but can't really house all three together at the moment (without redesigning the runs/hutches that they have already).

Most threads on here talk about bonding and the pair then spending 100% of therir time together. Will bonding work, if they only see each other for periods each day?

Also I'm guessing that it will be better to bond a male/female first and then to (carefully!) try introducing the other female?

Cristian

are all of your bunnies neutered?

are the 2 females not already bonded?

you can begin bonding by keeping their hutches side by side so they can all see and smell each other.

sophie

HI

I have two female bunnies and are hoping to bond them soon too, but think I will get them neutered first as people have said this makes it easier.

At the moment they have their own runs next to each other so they can see and smell each other.

Good luck with the bonding.

Yep, all have been neutered in the last few months (god it's expensive!).

The two females were bonded from 8/9 weeks, but one started to get quite aggressive at about 9 months, so I seperated them. The aggressive doe has calmed down since being done. (thankfully).

So far, I've tried the male and the (now non) aggressive bun together a couple of times. Firstly with the run, divided and then with the divider gone. First "open" session saw the female nipping &mounting the male, the second sesion saw the male trying to mount the female, who wasn't interested at all. The male gave up and layed in one corner, with a caucious female in the other corner.

I really like the idea of them all socialising in the big run, but feel that all three living permanently in my biggest hutch/pen would be too crampt.

I may try just the male & one female in the big run, but the male currently lives very very happily with an ageing male guinea pig.

Cristian

hi

I would worry that if you upset the pecking order by introducing other rabbits, the guinea pig might start getting mounted or nipped too? Guinea pigs aren't equipped to defend themselves if this happened and could get seriously hurt, so I would first remove the piggie, although then he would be lonely and may need a piggie friend or 2 - I'm not a pig expert but lots of people here could advise you on that.

Elve, don't worry I have no intention of letting the guinea pig out / live with the group of rabbits.

At the moment, he happily resides with the male (yep, I know the views on this), but they have always lived happily together (2 years +). Any sign of this relationship changing, then yes, I'll separate them.


Cristian

Had another bonding session between our male (Smokey) and the female (Coco) again today.

Again, I started off with the divider in the run. Coco seemed intent to break into the other half, whilst Smokey was a little interested in sniffing Coco thorugh the bars.

Once the barrier was removed it was a different story. Coco, (bless her) tried best to avoid Smokey, who was determined to mount her. I had a few (misguided) attempts of mounting her head, which I swiftly stopped. There was a lot of circuling and frequent "I give up, let's just lie down" moments from Smokey.

I've got to say that Coco is not interested at all in Smokey. The only time they lay next to each other was when I jumped into the run and practically forced them to sit next to each other.

I really don't think that this is working, what are other peoples views?

I had hoped to bond these two, before introducing the other female (Bluebell).


Cristian

What you describe sounds like a good start to bonding. It's not unusual for one (or both) buns to ignore the other at first. It's just their was of saying 'I'm not a threat' and 'I'm a little shy'.

Keep up what your doing and you should find that Smokey gradually reduces his attempts at humping and Coco gets a little bolder.

Lying down (even away from each other), washing and pretending the other doesn't exist are all good signs at this stage. The snuggling up comes a bit later. Sometimes two bunnies will sit a foot apart and act like they are totally unaware of the others presence :wink:

Tam

Both Smokey and Coco had over an hour together today. Again, Smokey tried to "hump" Cocos head. She just ignored him, which is good, 'cos prior to her being "spayed", she was quite aggressive and I was a little worried about her biting him "where it will hurt".

Smokey eventually gave up and both just ignored (or in Coco's case, avoided!) each other, with the occasional "nose sniffing".

Hopefully, if the weathers decent, I can try again this weekend. I may even tried the third bunny in there!

Out of interest, how many sessions does it usually take for them to start snuggling up?


Cristian