Introducing a trio...not going so well, Help!!

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Bethstang

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I have 3 male/neutered Holland Lops, ages are 2 yrs old, all were neutered at about 6 months old. The 2 bonded Lops are Cornelius and Gilligan. I then acquired another Lop, Cracker Jack about 6-8 months ago, he came from a home where he was a single rabbit. Since I've gotten Cracker Jack their pens have been next to each other for the last 6-8 months. There was never any aggression shown by either rabbits while their pens have been next to each other. I decided to try to bond the trio. My neutral territory to introduce them was at my work. I work at a veterinary clinic, so I introduced them in our cat playroom (no cats were present) which is a fairly large area. I decided to just introduce all 3 at the same time. Things went ok, I quickly realized Gilligan seems to be the submissive rabbit, while Cornelius and Cracker Jack are quite dominant since they were the only ones chasing one another and fur pulling, none of the interactions were so dangerous that I had to intervene. They would eventually go and lay down on opposite sides of the room and then they were put up. The introductions continued in the room everyday for 1 week. I would let them interact for several hours of the day, with intermittent chasing and no humping between Cornelius and Cracker Jack and then they would be eating together and lying together for a couple hours and then the chasing would start again. I was thinking things were going ok, so I brought them home, all 3 in the same carrier with no fights breaking out. They have all 3 been together for 3 days and it'll be ok for a few hours and then chasing each other like crazy and fur pulling and then lying around in relaxed positions. Well today I noticed that its almost like Cornelius overeacts whenever Cracker Jack comes up to smell him, so he jumps and chasing starts. Gilligan is definately the neutral one, either one or the other rabbit is always sitting or lying next to him, but unfortnately when fights break out sometimes he's caught in the crossfire. Where did I go wrong? Did I introduce to quickly? Any advice would be great on what I should do
Thanks so much, Beth
 
Trios are REALLY difficult to get to work out and almost never do. I know of only one on this forum(though there may be a few more, but not many), and even they have had their difficulties, and aren't together now, 24/7. This still may have a chance of working out, but you may need to move a little slower. Some bonding can take many months to work out, especially if you have two dominant buns battling for the top spot. One thing you may need to correct is to stop any fights. Biting and fights aren't good, as it can cause resentment towards the other rabbit. You can allow a little humping, but you need to stop any fights immediately. You'll just need to very closely supervise to prevent anything from happening.

Read through this info on bonding, and hopefully it will give you some idea of where to go from here.

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml
 
Are the fights breaking skin or just pulling out hair?
I would try keeping them in an area where they can't really work up the speed to chase eachother or where you can put a stop to it. Try adding some hidey holes perhaps so they can't just tear around the pen?
I would also recommend more car rides to see if that helps bond them. I would have suggested more of that before they were together full time, but now that they're together I wouldn't split them up unless they seem really stressed or the fighting is breaking skin. It sounds like they need to work out who is in charge.
 

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