Bonding a trio: When to give up

[mlopes]

Hello everyone! I am in the process of bonding a rabbit trio for a friend (f/f/m). The neutered boy is 1.5 years old and the girls are 8mos old and spayed. I feel like I have an odd situation on my hands. The boy lived by himself most of his life with his owner. When the girls were adopted, they were bonded but unspayed of course and all 3 lived side by side. Now that everyone has healed for a while, trying to put them together is difficult. One of the girls (Daisy) is obsessed with her sister (Flora) and keeps trying to groom and hump her, but Flora absolutely hates this and it's leading to chasing and fighting between them. The boy (Oakley) initially hated both girls and kept trying to fight them as well. Or at least I thought. I tried pairing him with Daisy and then with Flora. Floral and Oakley have been doing very well together, but Oakley immediately attacks Daisy anytime she's near. How can I reintroduce Daisy to these two? Is it just not a good fit?

Also, I've been bonding for almost a week, initially using the marathon microspace method and gradually increasing the size. I had to stop with all 3 as fighting escalated to the point of being unmanageable and then moved on to working in pairs to better understand where and with whom an issue may be occuring.

 

[zuppa]

Hi, how long ago were your buns neutered (each one, I remember your other thread that one girl was spayed just in April?) Maybe they need more time after neutering, usually min 2 months for boys and min 1 month for girls, but I've had a couple boys who needed 3 months and were bonded successfully after that.
Also, I wouldn't suggest bonding in pairs and then adding the third one, it will most likely break the existing bond and will cause conflicts. I wouldn't house them all close to each other either. I would actually keep them totally isolated from each other without seeing or smelling another rabbit, and in a limited space, for a few weeks, maybe one month or so. They will calm down much faster and will forget each other (that is if they never had any major fight, then maybe they'd need a few more months separately), and then during that time I would prepare new territory for them, would repaint walls change furniture etc, so after small foreign space bonding they could go to a completely new environment and so there's no old fav toys or anything to protect from other buns, territory completely new for all of them. Of course there are some buns who are very difficult for bonding, they just prefer to live alone. but in many cases, temporary isolation will do the trick, and of course you have your bonding strategy and tactics nd not just following the rules but using opportunities when they arise.

 

[mlopes]

Hello, I'm not sure when Oakley was neutered, but it's been 2 months since her girls were spayed at 6 mos. Once again, these are my friend's/cousin's bunnies. She asked me for help since I already have a trio and she has no neutral territory at her apartment. My bunnies have been living as a trio for about 2 years, but one girl wasn't spayed and she has fully recovered My buns have reacclimated very quickly and have never had any issues since they were a trio before I adopted them

 

[zuppa]

That makes sense so hopefully you will find your ways bonding them, good luck

 

[mlopes]

That makes sense so hopefully you will find your ways bonding them, good luck

Thanks! Getting really nervous about this I've bonded a few pairs for people I knew and they were super easy using this method. Maybe it only works on pairs? I just don't know how much time is needed to let a trio figure out their pecking order and how much fighting is okay