Bonding the fourth rabbit

[HappyThieves]

You guys have been so helpful in the past, I'm coming in for more help:

Lastspring I got a second male rabbit, had him and our other male neutered the same day. We were pleasantly surprised when the two boys bonded instantly. Later that summer, someone gave us a spayed female that both boys immediately took a liking too. She was hesitant at first but all three are very happy together. They live mostly outside in a HUGE hutch.A nice, peaceful, kingdom with our original bunny as the king of the buns.

Last week, after a visit to the local SPCA (my dh says I should stay outta there!),we brought home a beautiful little eight-week old female lop. We introduced each rabbit to her separately indoors and each one seemed to accept her. We tried her in the outside hutch and only the dominant male (our first bunny) was nice to her. He even tried to protect her when the other two were chasing her and even biting her (just fur, no blood, thank goodness!).

Today weare trying the new little one in a small outside hutch right up next the other hutch to see if relations improve at all. We also thought we'd go back to bringing herinside with each one individually again. Also, we thought car bonding might help but I'm a little nervous about putting the baby in a small space with either the other female or the second male.

Am I missing something here or could this just be that two of the bunnies will not accept her. Does it have anything to do with her young age or because she isn't spayed? Maybe I just need to give it more time? I'd like to have her acclimated to the outside before the weather gets much colder (oddly enough, it's a balmy70' here in PA today!). I'd appreciate ANY help you canoffer!!!!

-Karen

 

[jordiwes]

Have you seen this link?

http://www.mybunnies.com/bonding.htm

If things are working on neutral territory, you might want to continue that for a while longer. No need to rush things.

And also, things could change pretty quickly since she's not spayed and will be going through her teenage phase soon. I would say wait until she is spayed, and then take a few weeks to bond the babies in a neutral area before moving to their territory.

 

[Runestonez]

We have 3 bonded bunns. A male and two girls, they were a case of love at first sight. We got off really easy with that one!

We were contacted by a girl we new at the Humane Society about a male bunn that needed a home and we scooped him up and dragged him home as soon as we saw him! (I'm not allowed in there anymore either!)

Anyway we have been working on bonding the 4 bunns but it hasn't been working. We house all the bunns in the same room so they can see each other all the time and we put them together for sessions every once in a while but the dominant female seems to love picking on the new boy! The other two get along with him just fine...but nother! We have been trying since July/August and will keep trying.Granted the new boy is mentally retarded andhe tends to give back what he gets...so as soon as someone bites him...well things just go downhill from there!

We decided to house them all together and let them get to know eachother over time instead of trying to bond them over a month or so. Since the bonded three escaped the hutch the other day during Dandi's time out in the room and there was a bit of fur pulling but nothing scary or any injuries...well I'd say by summer we shoiuld be able to let them out to play together. We also have a 5th bunn but are waiting till these 4 are bonded first before we throw him into the mix!

Good Luck! Just have patience and take your time!