Can rabbits play with other rabbits?

Hi all.

I have only one bun and I sometimes take him to my friends house to play with their 2 rabbits out in the open in their back yard (not their hutch). I have recently read things about bonding, so I am wondering whether what I have been doing is ok?

I've done play dates with my rabbits before, for several months, but this was in the process of bonding them. If your bun and your friends rabbits seem to get along fine, then it would be a bit like the short dates you would do when trying to bond rabbits. The one difficulty you may have though, is if the rabbits start to spend too much time together and actually end up bonding, then your bun could become very sad and unhappy to be separated from his friends.

I'm assuming that all of these rabbits are spayed and neutered or are still babies. If they are still babies, just know that at around 12 weeks old the play dates will need to stop, as this is when hormones start happening and this can lead to fighting as well as potential pregnancy for girl buns.

My bun (lucky) is 6 months old and was neutered 2 weeks ago. My friends buns are a couple of months younger who got theirs neutered around the same time.

Pre neutering, the first couple of times they got along well. He was not trying to hump or mount at all Post neutering which was the last time I took him over, their girl bunny would attack lucky but the boy bunny was fine with lucky.

If they have a boy and girl rabbit now, they likely want them to bond. By bringing your rabbit over, you could disrupt that relationship that their two bunnies have. If that happens, then they won't be able to house their two rabbits together in the same cage.

Given the circumstances (and the fact that their girl already doesn't like your boy to be there) it would be best to avoid continuing these play dates. It wouldn't be fair to break the potential bond that your friend's two rabbits have (or will have). Even if you attempted to just let the boys get together, their boy will then smell like your boy and that would likely make the girl reject him (or fight him).

Thanks for your reply Blue eyes, their 2 rabbitts seem to be fully bonded from the start as they are brothers and sisters from the same litter.

Ah.. yes. The presence of a third bunny always has the risk of breaking a bond.

I am not sure about rabbit play dates. All I know is that I have two rabbits, a male and female that have bonded without us trying to get them to bond. (The male is neutered.) we also have a 3rd rabbit who is brother and litter mate to the female. He cannot come out and play when the other two are out. The males will fight instantly. When we go to the pet store or the park, we have to keep the boys out of each others reach, and preferably out of each others sight. This morning Pepsi snuck into my daughter's room when no one was looking, and Black Jack and SunDancer's cage was open. (we were doing our morning feeding/cleaning rounds) He of course jumped into their cage, and it got ugly. Thankfully no one was hurt, just some fur flying. The thing we have noticed though, is that Pepsi and SunDancer do not fight. We do not allow them to play together since neither of them is "fixed" nor do we want to interupt the bond that she has with Black Jack.

I guess no more play dates then