@JBun also, just curious. How did you go about bonding 7 bunnies? I would love to have that in the future. How long did it take you? How many males and females?
It started with a female rabbit I got that was pregnant. She had 5 babies(2 girls, 3 boys) and I couldn't bear to not keep them. I couldn't get them all fixed at the start. But I didn't have any problems with the mom and daughters getting along, so they had supervised time together before being fixed.
Then I got 2 of the males neutered and the mom and a daughter spayed and once the males had several weeks for the hormones to fade, I was lucky and pretty much just put them all together and they all got along. All but one male.
I tried to get him neutered and his heart stopped. I was too nervous about it to try again for a while, so he had to be on his own for a year before I was able to feel brave enough to try again, and at a better rabbit vet. He was neutered without any problems this time.
When he was ready to be bonded into the group, his introduction was the hardest of them all. I ended up having to separate the top bun of the group, his bigger brother, and bond the two of them before I could then bond him with the rest of the group.
So it was 6 of them for about 3 to 4 years. Then Toby died from a genetic health issue. So it was 5 of them for a while, then I moved and my living circumstances made it so my pair had to be bonded with the group of 5. I had tried this in the past but the female in the pair was bossy and clashed with the mom rabbit who was the boss of the group when Toby died. But after a few years the bossy girl in the pair developed cataracts and was essentially blind, so couldn't see well enough to chase anyone any more, so it became pretty easy to bond her and her bunny bud(Henry) into the group.
I bonded in Henry, which pretty much involved just putting him with them, so a very easy bond. Then Penny was bonded in. She couldn't see, so she didn't try and chase anyone anymore, and Penny was twice the size of the bunnies in the group(all dwarf rabbits), so they just accepted her in. Plus all of these rabbits were 7 years old, so a little less inclined to get into scraps. But to get to this point of all of my rabbits being in a group, took Penny getitng cataracts, or it never would have been possible because of having two dominant females.
Though I did like having a combined group, I don't know that I would ever do more than a pair again. Because of a group dynamic, marking behavior was pretty pervasive all of the years. They started out messy leaving poop balls everywhere, and sometimes pee puddles, and it persisted. Penny who later got added into the group, had great litter habits until she became part of the group. This was the experience with my group at least. I don't know if it's always the case.
