I have no more excuses to put off bonding Deidra with Lint since Mops did so well with her.  At this point, Lint hates her. Deirdra isn't as tense as he is, but ten days ago, when I first tried these two, she got in a all-out war with him when she wouldn't be humped by him... she left a bloody bite mark on his ear. Since then, Lint REALLY hates her, and has shown destructive behaviour in his habitat. He is just so angry.

The injury on his ear has healed and I did one stress bonding session in two parts. First part, I put them both in my empty kiddy pool with the hose spraying water in one spot for noise and distraction. They got their feet wet and did not fight or interact in any way. Part two, I then transferred them to my new bonding set-up in a corner of my deck where they hadn't been. I included my very rabbit-friendly dog in the set-up to break up any fights (he can do that). I wanted no blood this time, that was my goal for this session. I don't recommend anyone using a dog  unless the dog is totally 'bunny-proof'. 

I achieved my goal of no blood shed, but I have a long road ahead of me. I can't imagine these two to make peace... but I know they will.

I held more sessions after the stress bonding, with and without Mops in the mix. Lint continues to hate Deirdra and will not even try humping (He must recall vividly what she did last time he tried). Deirdra dared trying to hump him, but no way he would allow it.

Lint is also possessive over Mops. Mops' relationships with either of the two is virtually unaffected, even though there was some displaced aggression from Lint toward him.

I think it will take lots of time, lots of bath tub sessions which I'm going to include today.

this is a video of a session with the trio and no stressors.

this is of Lint and Deirdra alone which is the most intense situation because nothing distracts them. Lint thinking angry thoughts in his corner...

Lint here territorial over his designated "I hate Deirdra" corner...

Deirdra showing nerve, trying to mount Lint

I am pretty sure this set-up will not give much progress; Lint avoids D or chases her off. I am hoping the bath tub will make a difference.

I'm glad i'm not alone... I always have to give myself a little push whenever it's bonding time as i worry about injuries

this was Lint's ear injury from their first meet: (sorry blurry pic)

I laughed so loud at your dogs "talking" on that 1st video. It's like they're umpiring!
I think the tub should help some as they'll be forced to interact. Was Lint the more dominant with him and Mops? It's seems like he views Deirdra is going to take top bunny position and he's a bit threatened by her. Maybe due to her newness and size? But she kind of just goes about her business - ignoring Lint. From the vids, she doesn't seem that aggressive toward him. The tub should reveal more.  If it turns out that she's not overly dominant and allows Lint to be, I think you might be 'home free'. 

Yes, Jerseygirl, I'm pretty sure Lint feels threatened by Deirdra. Lint is a dominant bunny, humpy and dominant. I guess, Mops just puts up with him because Mops is very relaxed, never humps and generally just doesn't care. Deirdra isn't as submissive as Mops and in her budding friendship with Mops she is actually humping Mops sometimes. I know she won't let Lint hump. Lint knows it, too. He doesn't know how to be with another bun without being the boss.... so he's kind of in shock.... but he's smart and social and I hope he will figure out that there are other ways of relating to other rabbits besides humping them into submission!!!

I did a bath tub session last night, just Deirdra and Lint-- went great in my estimation. They sat together, next to one another, touching,  for the first time without getting in a quarrel.  you can see in the video clip that they were pretty scared, but at least it brought them together.

oh, I forgot. I also had to upgrade my nippage guards on D's condo. well, they serve more as 'boxing guards'  --Lint started boxing at Deirdra at night time again.   I may move one of the buns out of the room for a while if the tub sessions don't work.

I am looking for a new neutral area  that is much smaller than the patio corner but allows more interacting than the bath tub. I never thought of didviding the patio space, this is worth a try. That way I can also section off the corner that Lint has declared his vantage point of fending off Deirdra.

In the meantime, I did more sessions in the tub. At first  I turned the tap on because Lint was biting Deirdra. He stopped. Then he just pouted...

I did the scent transfer, too.

Lint wasn't going to bit, he was relaxing a bit and i rubbed his face into Deirdra's fur.

I will look in my basement to set up another contained zone for them, they have never been in the basement. There are different sounds from the laundry room I could use for stressors.

heres the link to it! http://www.binkybunny.com/FORUM/tab...aspx 

You can really see Lint is out of his zone in the neutral bath tub. You always have some stress bonding up your sleeve. Car ride, washer rider etc. Good for after they've had a scuffle apparently. When I did tub bonding I popped both in a cardboard box one night to take them to the bathroom. I found this was like a stressor so I stomped around the house carrying them this way for a bit longer. So if you can't do the car thing - that might be another option.

So this weekend is all about bunny-bonding. The weather was in my favor so I scheduled nothing but bonding.

I tried another neutral place not as scary as the bath tub with bad results. I put Lint and Deirdra in a giant travel crate in my basement. They had never been there, nothing was familiar. Lint acted aggressively, as I figured.

This was Friday. My friend phoned me after and  she suggested (she knows that Lint is smart as a rat) that maybe Lint associated Deirdra with only stress and bad situations. Plus, I already knew that Lint gets very territorial and humpy in small spaces, he still displays this type of behavior toward Mops when confined in a small crate. So.... I took a leap of faith and took the sessions to the large area of my patio where Deirdra has her tunnel (figured she'd not want to share with Lint). I put Mops with them as well as the dogs, and evrybody in my neighborhood seemed to be running some kind of machine for yard work. There were no fights but Lint was tense.

He spent much time pouting in his 'cheese' box but no chasing and no fighting.

Whenever their paths crossed Lint found a way to avoid her, he jumped over the little barrier in this pic...

Yesterday ended on a good note with all three buns in Deirdra's tunnel. I called it  a day after that.

Today i decided to put together  just Lint and Deirdra and the dogs and the surroundings were peaceful and quiet. Lint tried to claim the tunnel as his but after a half hour relaxed and allowed Deirdra a place in it.  He was, however, very tense...

I clicked them over with the clicker and rewarded them both with treats. After that, they ate dandelions together, but Deirdra was shy, worried Lint would throw a fit...but he didnd't, he just ate most of the dandies.

They ended up in their favorite spot, respectively, the tunnel (it is big enough for me to go in if I had to), and Lint relaxed, grooming...

They both went to sleep/grooming/doing cecals in the tunnel and spent two hours. Ended in good note.

i will try again, the three together, later on today because there are also jealousy issues over Mops coming from Lint. ... for now, I'm happy that there is some degree of tolerance. I will keep doing one bath tub session per day as well so i can get Lint to sit close to her and do more scent transfers.

so here's the dandelion video clip that I messed up...

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Today all three rabbits together and the dogs. Separated Lint when I couldn't watch them. They are sharing the tunnel, as long as there is a distance between Deirdra and Lint. (3 feet at least).

They took turns sitting with Mops.  First Lint....

Then Deirdra...

This is my bonding area. It's a bit ramshackle .

Since Lint hasn't chased Deirdra at all, I'm allowing the larger space for now under supervision.

Behind the white mini shed is the coveted tunnel...

I have had the trio of Lint, Mops and Deirdra together for 8 hours each on three coonsecutive days. I wanted to avoid the initial aggression Lint has toward Deirdra during the beginning of each session by allowing long continuous times together. I think, it's working. There are friction points that trigger aggressive behavior from Lint, but there have been no fights. Mops has been great, serving as a common denominator between the other two. Yesterday, I had two major highlights happening that I caught on camera.

One was the trio lounging together, in close proximity.

Another highlight was dinner time. Lint usually will not tolerate Deirdra eating with him, but here.....

Right now, Lint will not allow Deirdra in the mini shed. I'm thinking of trying them out free-range in the room today... just for a short sesison, with any hiding/chasing places blocked off. I definitey want to add a stressor, not sure which.  i'm still wondering, though, if two rabbits can bond that won't submit to one another.