That one difficult bunny….

[ruskabuns]

Hey everyone. So for those of you who are bonding/have bonded trios, I wanted to ask some advice. In my bonding so far I have added the new girl, Pumpkin, to the dominant bun, Mr Rabbit. They get along fine now, and he does not even mount her anymore. However. His original bonded partner, Hero, is very angry. She does not even try to mount Pumpkin or ask for grooms, she just bits her, quite violently. I have had to separate them before due to her attacks. She is much bigger than pumpkin and I am worried that if I leave them too long to ‘sort it out’ she will seriously hurt her. It does not look like normal dominance but actual aggression.

So, what have you done in this situation where one bunny just totally disagrees with another? Should I bond them separately? Through bars? So far our tactic has been in the neutral bathroom space with limited room so they have to interact. In the photo below the white bun is Hero and the brown lionhead in Pumpkin, you can see the size difference.

Thanks so much…!

[Mikey]

This is one reason why trios dont always work out. Your first girl is jealous and doesnt want the new girl to be apart of their bond. You can keep trying to work on bonding, add in some stress bonding for a few sessions, but she may never come to like the new bunny. You also need to be careful because her dislike for the new bunny can easily turn around and cause her to also attack your male/her bond mate, even once the new bunny is removed

[ruskabuns]

Yeah, she has gotten into a fight with the dominant male before as a result of bonding, which was a real pain to deal with! I guess we can only keep trying new situations and keep going. Thanks for your reply.

[Gina.Jenny]

I tried to bond a trio where both girls got on with the boy bun, but couldn’t stand each other. In the end, I decided to try getting a second boy, who came on a date and got on with the girl I was trying to bond to the pair. I switched to bonding her to the new bun, which went very well, and I ended up with two happy bonded pairs. I’ve since adopted a third boy/girl pair, and while none of the girls get on, they seem fine living side by side in pairs…

[ruskabuns]

That is interesting Gina.Jenny, it might be an option in the future but sadly right now we just cant consider adopting another bun! Gonna have to try in this arrangement : (

[Mikey]

Not all rabbits are going to get along. If your first female has started to attack her bond mate, it would be best/safest to quit bonding before you end up with 3 single bunnies or someone seriously injured due to jealousy. It is a risk you take when trying to bond a trio

Getting a 4th to have two sets of pairs living together is also a good idea. If you choose to do this in the future, it is best to let the single bun (Pumpkin) pick out her future bond mate. You may end up with two pairs living away from one another, or you may end up with a happy quad

[ruskabuns]

Thanks for your suggestion – we have stopped bonding for now, as it was not going in a good direction. So has anyone tried directly bonding the difficult bunny with the new one? ie; keep the dominant, docile rabbit separate but visible whilst the other two are in another space? do things like this work?
Thanks!

[Mikey]

You could try that, but then you would have to rebond the first female in with the new pair, if you still want a trio

[Author]

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