Bonding gone wrong :(

Ok please be patient with me as i kno some of u dont get how we can have so many probs with bonding but im really stuck now with my three.

I have Mitsy, Coco and Pip. Pip's the only boy obviously, he's neutered.

Weve waited five weeks since he's op and have been following all ur tips about neutral territory and weve let them bond in our living room, supervised. After a few tries and initial fighting we thought we'd turned a corner when they all started cleaning each other n laid down all three of them. It was great they looked like a little family n i thought we could have them all back together.

The arrangements were, Mitsy n Coco sleeping together in the rabbit house n run outside whilst Pip had a hutch until he's bonded, so last night i thought that we could put Pip in with the girls 4 the night as they were gettin on so well..

But all hell erupted in their rabbit house, Coco n Pip were jumping n fighting again just like before n even Mitsy joined in!

Pip was back in the hutch and im at a loss! what to do guys? i kno its territorial but how do i change that?

Remove all three from the house outside. Throughly clean and scrub it to try and get rid of as much smell as poss leave it empty for a week and then put them back in XX

Totally agree with Phil, lots of elbow grease and rabbit friendly smelly cleaning stuff, even consider some rabbit friendly preservative to tart it all up. Move everything round if you can so they are going into a new home.

janice

Ive got no where else for them to sleep tho for a week, Pips hutch is one of those little standard small ones but the girls house n run is huge n is all we have. Would cleaning it n putting them bk in it togther straight away work?

If you can get rid of the rabbits own smells so they think it is new it should work.

Janice

hi

Aren't you supposed to wait 6 weeks after neutering? Other than that, how about smelly new flooring in the rabbit house - like some vinyl or flat weave mats (Wilkos do those ribbed doormats for 99p)?

i understand your frustration, i also thought all was well, i followed all the tips and did the best we could. but it would seem i dont have a group just 2 pairs now, which is ok.

bunnies know best it would seem, you have been given good advice here by peeps above nothing i can add mary, but i do sympothise.

debbie.

Mary, you can get packets of lino floor tiles from pound shops, you get five in a pack. As Janice says if you could spend a day doing out the buns house and make it as new as poss it should work XX

Girls are territorial so i guess thats why they didnt appreciate Pip invading their home.
Hopefully by cleaning it as Phill suggests it may work. Is there somewhere you could put the girls for a few hours, put pip in their house and run after its cleaned then reintroduce the girls after he's made it smell of him.
I swapped my two over for a night to swap smells.. i realise you cant do this if Pip's hutch is only small but a few hours may do the trick.
Good luck

Perhaps since they were all gettign on so well in the living room you coul ddo that for another week or so, to make sure they are fully bonded?

You could try some odour remover stuff - the kind you use to keep up dog 'accidents' and that, which actually get rid of the ammonia smell that a lot of disinfectants and cleaners don't.