When does the bullying get too much?

[liarakon]

Am I right in thinking that separating a rabbit during the night but letting them out together during the day would only worsen their relationship?

Woke up to find that long-term bully Holly had ripped out chunks of innocent meek Puccini's fur during the night to the point of breaking the skin. He's always bullied her, and not in a dominance or territorial way. Just in a "I'm going to bite your face" way. But then 2 seconds later you'll see them cuddling up together. The group is boy, girl, girl. All neutered. Boy bullies 1 girl. Always has done. Were professionally bonded elsewhere. Just come back from a stressfull car journey and so should have been feeling extra bonded.
I don't want to fully separate them but I worry for my little black girl's health quite frankly.

Alternative would be to cut down the size of their pen during the night so that he physically CAN'T chase her - but I don't really like that as a permanent solution as they'd end up with very little space

 

[JBun]

It sounds like he might just not want her as part of the group. Trios don't always work out very well. I would either find her her own companion to bond her with, and possibly keep the two groups separate, or consider finding her a new home with a bunny companion she likes and can bond with. I honestly don't think there is any other way to stop him from picking on her, and there is always the risk that this could escalate into a serious injury for her or even for him if she gets sick of it.

 

[Imbrium]

Since you say he's 'always' bullied her, I'm inclined to say that your trio has never been 100% bonded. One of them definitely needs to be removed from the other two for safety's sake.

If you really don't want to give up on the trio, there's one hail-mary play to be tried. The two with issues need to be 100% separated for around 6-8 weeks (separate rooms, etc. so they can't see or smell each other). One can stay with the non-bully boy; my gut instinct says to remove the problem-causer and make him live alone for a bit... though if you were going to have to rehome one of the rabbits should the trio not work out, I'd say it's more important to not separate whichever two rabbits would stay together in that situation. Anyway, the time apart would be to break the bond and make them forget long-time habits like their impulse to bully... then after enough time has passed, you'd have to start the trio bonding process over from scratch as though they were meeting for the first time. There's no guarantee this would work but if everything else has failed, it can be worth a shot.