Could these girls be bonding?!

[swarning1222]

I have a one year old female who had a VERY accidental litter of babies, once she gave birth to 6 of them I gave them a whole room so they would have enough space. I trained them since they were teeny tiny and raised them to be house bunnies. I found awesome homes for all of them but one. Nobody wants her because she is albino, and honestly doesn't make a very good first impression cuz she's a little stinker lol. But that's fine because the right person would love her anyways. Then she started going through the dreaded "rabbit puberty" and was awful!! (I forgot how terrible it was 🙈&#128530 so it wouldn't have been fair to try to give her to someone like that, nor would she let anyone near her lol.

So now she is 13 weeks old and seems to have come out of this funk. What just occurred to me is, she lives with her mother completely peacefully, they clean eachother, they play together, sleep together, they are very close. I would think maybe the baby is too young to bond but could the mother be bonding with her?! Or is it a two way street with that? Could they be bonding to eachother?! And what will happen if they are and I separate them?

I'm getting the mother spayed as soon as her urinary tract infection clears up, and her and my male are a perfect match. I know most of it is hormonal, but there's definitely more to it than that, and I'm absolutely going to spay/neuter them and bond them. I know they will be so happy together. But NOW i have these girls living peacefully causing no problems whatsoever, what if I bonded all three of them? This baby is SO well behaved around the house, she's totally potty trained, doesn't chew ANYTHING anymore that she's not supposed to, she has such a huge personality, she's really killing me trying to get rid of her lol. She's really not that much more work. I do not want three rabbits though, two is enough, and my boyfriend would probably lose his mind. But things are going so well with them right now. I just need someone to tell me her and her mother are not bonding so I can get rid of her lol!

 

[Aki]

The thing is, when you get a litter (even if yours was accidental), you always have the risk to get rabbits that aren't easy to give away (albino is the worst case scenario - I know a breeder of siamese nethies and she has a LOT of trouble selling the REWs she gets even if they are very cheap... and honestly really cute). You have to consider the fact that you may never find a home for her, especially for a REW who's not a baby anymore AND has a terrible personnality.
If that's the case, you have to consider bonding your three rabbits. It's not always easy, but it's not impossible, especially if the females get on well the odds seem pretty good to me. And from what you say, they are obviously bonded already. About what will happen if you separate them... you can't know. It depends of the personality of each rabbit and how bonded they are (but if they play with each other and groom each other, I would consider their link to be pretty tight) - my Aki was pretty cold in a top rabbit / dictator princess kind of way with her first husbunny and she was devastated to a point that surprised me when he died (no, really: she wouldn't sleep, developped OCD-ish behaviors and it was awful, I thought she was going to die and she took months to recover). I don't think she is that bonded with her new husbunny and feel like she wouldn't take his disappearance as hard... but I might be wrong. It's hard to tell those things for a human. I know rabbits that didn't seem to care when their partner left for X or Y reasons. Others who looked actually glad to be separated (no really, like binkying and such and taping their foot looking put out when the OTHER came back). Some who can never live with a rabbit again once their original match is gone and some who are terribly traumatized by the ordeal (I've known a rabbit that screamed for months everytime someone was touching him after his partner died, it was awful... he was given a new patner and hated her for about 3 years before coming around).

I don't think it's wise to leave together rabbits you intend to separate at some point. Your youngest is not a baby anymore and has no business being with her mother if they are not to stay in the same home from now on. Then again, you have to consider that you might not be able to separate them if you can't give the rabbit away... if that's the case, it will be harder to start from scratch if you do break the bond now.
Either way, I would really consider spaying the youngest rabbit. Even if you end up giving her away, it's the responsible thing to do for her health and to avoid a new accident (with the risk of whoever owns her getting tons of bad tempered REWs they'll have a hard time finding homes for).

Also... you say that your male and female are a perfect match which, I assume, means they were living together before. How was the breeding accidental?

 

[swarning1222]

Oh god the separation sounds awful! She doesn't have a terrible personality, she has a great personality, it's just ALOT of personality lol she's very sweet and goofy. Maybe I will separate them for a while tonight and see how it goes. The male and female only lived together until they were about 3 months old and are now a year and have been separated ever since. I have not had them together, not once in all that time. They had completely separate times out of their cages. The only thing I can't think of that happened is that it happened through one of their cages when the other was out. Then of course as soon as she was going to be spayed I got a big surprise.

 

[MissyAndMoonlight]

DON'T GIVE THE "BABY" AWAY. The mom and daughter are defiantly bounding and you do not want to stop that. It could make both mom and daughter depressed. This bounding is a good thing- you might just end up with two rabbits tho. However, I love having two rabbits because they can keep each other company. Good luck!

 

[swarning1222]

Well.. Looks like the baby isn't going anywhere lol. She is SO well behaved around the house and her and the mother, even though the baby is young, I believe have definitely bonded (although I know that COULD change) but I just can't separate them or find a reason to get rid of her! View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1437838136.761959.jpg

She is also in love with my cats lol
View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1437838176.529477.jpg

 

[Chester1_andblueberry]

Awwe How could anyone not want a well behaved cutie like herself Glad to hear they're bonding

 

[BlazeBunnies]

Aw so cute glad there getting along.... Like you said once she gets hormonal everything could and probably will change

 

[swarning1222]

I know I'm going to get them both spayed as soon as I can so hopefully that will help! She's already very hormonal but it doesn't seem to be affecting their relationship.