Hello everyone,

We have three lovely bunnies, who each love their humans. The little boy loves both girls, and they each love him.

But the girls hate each other on sight- it's like Deathmatch 2000 if the much larger (but younger) one sees the older more gentle one, and tries to pick a fight...

They're housed separately, so the young girl and boy have run of the house, while the older girl has had the sunroom converted into a run just for her. Unfortunately the girls keep peeing along the boundary fence (a sturdy dog-crate-style-fencing), so we tried covering the panels, but it didn't help- just stopped them being able to bite at each other.

The boy visits the old girl every day, grooms her, keeps her company, and then asks to be let out again. It works well, and would be fine if only the girls didn't see the need to try to out-pee each other along the boundary every single day...

So, we're hoping to bond all three, so we can do away with separate runs, and hopefully, all the territorial peeing!

We tried to bond the girls many many months ago (yes. both are desexed), but they wouldn't stop lunging and biting, and we just gave up, thinking it a lost cause. We'd really like to try again though, so any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Today's bathroom-bonding was peaceful, but only because each bunny was being restrained by a human the whole time...too close to each other, and the big girl just wants to throw herself at the other one.

We're hoping that 10 minutes a day in 'neutral territory' with each being restrained and patted in close proximity might help....or maybe, having all three in there, with the little boy as peaceful go-between, to reassure both?

It seems the big girl is very angry towards the old girl, but also quite wary of her. The poor old thing is just defensive, and would much rather be submissive and be groomed, but that ain't going to happen any time soon we fear....

 

 

 

 

I'm actually about to attempt to do the same. So, I'm waiting to hear what comments/advice you get. At least you've got one who seems pretty neutral! Maybe a car ride with the 2 girls? With someone else driving so you can intervene if necessary?

I did ponder a car ride, however I'm afraid that putting them both into our large (dog-sized) carrier would only involve severe bodily injury and stress, as they both hate being enclosed as it stresses them (especially the old girl) terribly, and add to that an 'enemy' in close proximity and nowhere to run....

Once the car was going it miiiight keep them terrified, but yes, I think I would have to sit in back with them with the carrier door open, gloves on, and hold them apart until it got moving...

 

The little fella is wonderful, he defuses the situation by grooming whoever he's with, which calms her down.

I did have a minor success this morning when both were posturing at each other, and I patted both noses (one through the wire) and both calmed down and lay nose-to-nose, no biting....soon as I stop patting though, young girl leaps up and challenges this foe, who gets defensive and nips back. And off they go again.

Funny though, they ignore each other for most of the day- it's only when in close proximity that they care. So at least it's not an all-out 24-hr hating!

Ignoring is supposed to be a good sign! How long has it been since you started this time around? It can apparently take from weeks to months. Have you tried switching the girls into one another's living areas every few days? That's supposed to help with the territorial issues, and getting used to their scents. Or switching some of their stuff every few days? In a smaller box/basket on the dryer while you're standing there and it's running might work! Maybe with another person, so you can each focus one bun?

Hehe, yes, I've heard that too, but then the other two do have the whole house to run around in, so I think she just gets bored. If they were penned in near each other closely, I suspect the running back and forth would be almost continuous as soon as either made a move!

No way I can move old girl into the house, as sadly, she has toileting issues...she gets very messy when stressed, and scraping sloppy poop out of the carpet is just not something we want to do ever again...

Also, we did try letting her out in the mornings to run around and explore until we then swapped and let the young girl out, and unfortunately it became a pee-contest to see who could out-pee the other's smell, everywhere. My poor carpet. So many corners, so little carpet-spray. So again, we had to stop doing that for the sake of our carpets/ my sanity.

I can't let the young girl into the other's space, as I'd have to put the other into a carrier for that time, and she is horrified about being in a carrier, stresses madly nonstop. And I suspect the silly girl would just pee all over everything and get more aggravated. And then once back in her house, the old girl would have to re-pee over everything to make it hers again.

 

It's only been this week that we first tried removing a section of the 'blockade' so the girls could see each other through the boundary fence again, so early days yet though....

We don't have a dryer, and I think trying to get them into a washing basket would result in bunnies leaping out at a dangerous height, once they've tried to kill each other first.

Hmm, not painting a very optimistic picture here, am I?