#rabbit bonding

[minotaurapologist]

Marcus and Fion :’)

I set them up together yesterday since they’ve both been wildly indifferent towards one another. Fion started grooming Marcus after 45 minutes and I left them to hang out for the evening.

Some mild scuffling ensued (just some humping and fur pulling, I only felt the need to separate them 1 time), but nothing serious, which is crazy and something I’m very unused to with rabbits lol. Even after the scuffling, they would lay down next to each other which is a really great sign that they like each other, they’re just deciding who’s going to be boss. Fion is a lot more receptive to humping and pretty unbothered by it, but since Marcus has limited mobility, it’s hard for him to do it, so Fion has a leg up on that one even though I don’t think he cares much about being dominant lol.

They’re currently set up in a pen in my bedroom on their “honeymoon” while they settle their hierarchy, and will get free roam access to my bedroom once they seem fully comfortable with one another :) probably a few days, or until they stop waking me up in the morning humping each other lol.

I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable bonding rabbits over the years and becoming familiar with what different behaviors mean and should look like.

If anyone is ever interested, I have an extensive bonding guide that I wrote up for my work that gives a step-by-step process for bonding, especially for more complicated rabbits. I’ll be going through this process again when my lady rabbit arrives in July- I feel very lucky that these guys are so mellow, and it makes me feel more confident in having a trio!

[untamedarts]

They just refuse.

[lord-madmyth]

Got the feeling my baby girl Jade was lonely after an intense dream a couple of nights ago…

so I looked into getting her a companion bunny! For now his code name is “New Bun” just incase the bonding process doesn’t work out and to keep me from getting too attached in that event.

So wish us all luck as I attempt to bond these adorable little buns. Anyone with experience/advice/tips/tricks in bonding bun buns would be appreciated.

[spindle-and-nima]

hi, i’m not sure if this is the right place to ask, but do you have any information/advice on potentially bonding a single male rabbit with an already bonded pair of female rabbits? i’m having trouble finding information for this specific situation

i have the chance to rehome a single male rabbit, and while i’d love to help give him a new home, the issue is that i already have two bonded rabbits. i’m really not sure if introducing a third is something that would work out well, and i don’t want to cause any unnecessary stress or harm to any of the rabbits by trying it if it’s not a good/reasonable idea. i’m just looking to see if there’s any advice out there that i’ve not come across yet, if this isn’t the right place to ask please feel free to delete this!

I personally have not done a trio but it certainly can work. Generally speaking, male to female ratios work best with one male and multiple females.

However first everyone should be fixed. Are your rabbits spayed and is this newcomer neutered? Having territory disputes and hormones is not a good combo so if they are not fixed, please do so for both the health and safety of the rabbits or abandon this course of action.

I have grown to favor a slower approach of setting up pens side by side with litter boxes right next to each other so they can learn each other's scent through the barrier of the pen present. Distance the pens by a few inches so they cant bite each other through the bars. Put food and water all along the same shared "wall" as these are social activities which will help establish comfort. Doing this in neutral territory (a room neither rabbit has been in) is ideal.

You can eventually swap the litter boxes back and forth so they learn each other's scents.

If there seems to be no nipping and biting then you can set up a small pen in neutral territory (if you have none literally throw towels on your bathroom floor or in a cleaned bath tub) and scatter some snacks in there and put in one female with him at a time. I hesitate to suggest putting both in at once but if someone else has bonded a trio, please add on or correct this. My take on doing one at a time is that I dont want to disrupt the dynamic of the initial 2 too suddenly. However im unsure and im not going to say i know the ideal way to do something if I do not have the knowledge so take that with a grain of salt and use your best judgement

Wear oven mits or get a bath towel so if you see any lunging or genuine fight starting, pop the mit between them or literally drop the towel between them

You want to end bonding "dates" on a good note so dont make them too long but do them often enough that they become familiar. They need to establish who is dominant or submissive in the hierarchy so there will be dominance displays. This is fine you just want to make sure it doesnt escalate into a brawl

Id say if this is going well then allow the 3 to interact in a neutral pen. Again I have only bonded duos so this is how I would personally approach a trio but i know I have a handful of brilliant mutuals and followers who have trios or more in their care so hearing from your experiences would help us all learn!

[tuesdaygray]

bunny bonding update: after several months we can finally leave them alone together !!

[that-dumbass-rabbit]

Winnie (left, 3yrs F) and Cheerio (right, 5yrs M) sharing kale for the first time

I can't wait till they're fully bonded and share a pen

[bunnysmooch]

bonding setup!

this is right next to my bed, so i just put them here for a few hours and chill out in bed beside them. hopefully this will help bond them without being too much of a strain on me

today is officially day 1 of bonding!

(no we are not counting the gladiator wars that went on previously 🙄💀) and it’s been a rocky start! they both can jump the fence and onto the bed, altho Mochi is food motivated and doesn’t do it normally. Smooch is a demon and jumps up constantly, even when i’m laying in the bed. in fact, he has even jumped ON ME more than once 💀

he also got under the bed and was fighting with Mochi thru the thinner fence (the area they share has a thicker fence that we doubled up, so they couldn’t hurt each other thru the fence, but we didn’t anticipate Smooch being where he was under the bed)

and in trying to block them from fighting AND shoo Smooch away and out from under the bed, i put my hand down there and got bit by Smooch AGAIN

but as the pictures show, they’ve relaxed a bit for now! Smooch was even falling asleep!

[creaturesthatliveinmyhome]

Question for those who have bonded rabbit themselves:

Is it a bad sign if they don't really seem too interested in each other?

I put Tiggy and Moo in the hallway together to start building a bond up and they sniffed each other but also did their own thing. Did the fact that Tiggy has been in a hutch next to where Moo sleeps for the last 5 months speed things up?