Bonding question!!!

[DUSTBUNNY-CLYDE]

we are stress bonding the boys for the last week with bumpy car rides since we tried other bonding techniques for the last few months ,with no progress and with spontaneous fights. car rides are going really well so far though.

on my other thread I mentioned possibly adopting a 3y.o. spayed lionhead female I found at petco adoption center. If we get her??? the question is can I just try stress bonding all 3 at the same time??? Would the female possibly help with this process and balance out the boys??? or are we just asking for more problems??? also, should we take the boys to meet her first????

our goal is to get everyone happily together so we can make an awesome bunny playground in our in-house garage with play gym, tunnels, cozy sleeping area , etc. plus save a little girl bunnies life! she's been up for adoption for quite a while!!!

 

[KeltonB]

Anything can happen! I would be concerned the boys would start competing or have jealousy issues with the introduction of a new female though. Can you take the boys to visit with the female?

 

[DUSTBUNNY-CLYDE]

I'm going to check today! they do get along when they are in the car and outside. so I guess we should try that first!!

 

[BunnyWabbit]

I'm currently in the process of bonding a trio.

My advice is make sure your boys bond is cemented/they are not fighting before bringing in a third bunny. This is to limit the chance of it disrupting the current bond too much. Make sure you wear long sleeves and gloves so that you're not afraid to get bitten if you have to break up a fight.

When you start bonding you'll want to introduce them in pairs first (Clyde + New Bunny & Dustbunny + New Bunny). When they seem to do alright in pairs I would then try group bonding session to see how they interact at that point. The group dynamic can be VERY different from the pair dynamic so you do want to be vigilant. Try not to end sessions when they fight as that can encourage aggression, instead I would stress bond them. I used a laundry basket (jostling) and a NIC cube (1X1 with a lid) to stress two bunnies when they started to fight. I also used the laundry basket to do some group stressing.

From there it's really just following the same steps as you would with a bonded pair. You start neutral, when that's good you go to semi-neutral, when that's good, you go to territorial.

Remember trios are harder and usually take longer than bonding a pair so you'll want to start bonding when you have the time to commit to it. Best of Luck!