Attempting to bond a trio

[RavenFluffOz]

Hello. I need a little help with bonding a third bunny to a make/female pair. Fluffy and Raven are about 3 1/2 years old. I got Fluffy (male) from the Humane League at 12 weeks old. He is super sweet and loves attention. I adopted Raven (female) about 6 months later from the same location. She came from a sad situation. It a cage with 4 males being attached regularly. She had thee litters by 9 months of age. In fact, she was pregnant when they spayed her. She has never been super friendly with any humans. She doesn’t bite but will not let us pet her at all. It took me about 3 months but they bonded fairly easily. Raven still does not like us. But she absolutely adores Fluffy. She loves to make him groom her (she does not resume the favor) and cuddle next to him. Raven is definitely the more dominant bun.
Now, bring in Ozzy (male). I’ve always wanted a Flemish giant and my husband found one for me for my birthday. I got Ozzy at 10 weeks. Put him in a cage next to the other two. A lot of growling and being upset in the beginning from my other two. Started with a board between the cages. Removed after 3 weeks. We alternated who is out so all they all have run of the first floor, just not at the same time. Ozzy was neutered st 16 weeks. I waited another 4 before attempting to bond. They all were pretty much just ignoring each other for the most part, except for marking in front of cage. This is what we’ve done this far: since Ozzy has decided to invade pretty much every room in the house, the only neutral place is my master bath. I took Fluffy (because I can’t catch Raven) and Ozzy in the large tub and sat with them. They have pretty much just sat heads down, nose to nose, while I talked quietly to them and have them some head pats. Once a day, we did this for about a week, about 30 minutes. There was some grooming from Fluffy, but there was also nipping and circling from both. They never got into a full blown fight, but I was always right next to them. I probably should have continued this much longer, but I screwed up. I can’t catch Raven. She runs, boxes me. She is very difficult to catch. So I decided to see what would happen if I let them all out together. Not smart. Raven went after Ozzy. Fluffy went after both. It was just a mess. Dumb move. Fluffy started going after Ozzy again. Once in a while, Fluffy will groom Ozzy through the cage when he’s out. But sometimes they would fight through the bars. I decided to take a short break from bonding. So, it’s been about 2 weeks. I’ve done nothing. There’s been no fighting for the last week, so, what should be my next step? Go back to working with just Fluffy and Ozzy? When and how should I get Raven involved? Just not sure what to do next. I hate having two giant cages taking up half my living room. Even if they can’t live in the same cage, I need them to at least be somewhat sociable. Very difficult to find enough time to let everyone out. Any suggestions?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

OMG I love giants! Could you post pictures?

I would step back, keep doing what was working. Are you doing stunt doubles? (where you swap towels or stuffed animals so they sleep with the smell of each other? You could get three stuffed toys and just swap them back and forth)

I would think possibly do sessions with two at a time-Ozzy and Fluffy, then Ozzy and Raven -then when they do well -a car ride-with a helper-all three together. See how that goes.

I would suggest keeping a journal-if it’s not an easy bond, it’s good to record how things go so you can easily see what works and doesn’t

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