6 week old incoming, I have a question!

[ravishingRabbit]

I currently have 2 happily bonded bunnies. We’re about to move and my friend who breeds rabbits wants to give me one of her 6 week old bunnies as a parting gift. Now, I know technically you’re not supposed to bond rabbits until they’re spayed/neutered, and obviously both my current ones are. My question is, can I attempt to bond them to the new bunny when I get him/her (sex currently unknown) or do I have to wait like 3-4 months or so until the new bunny is old enough to be spayed/neutered and then do it afterwards? I just figured if it’s possible to do it now I would rather do that since we’re going to be moving into a new location and every area is going to be neutral than waiting many months and then obviously territories will be established. I figure as well there’s a chance that it might be easier for the new bunny to be open to bonding since he/she has been living with siblings up until the point when I get him/her. Of course I’m also prepared to have a separate bunny room if they decide to not like each other in the long run, or even now, so it won’t be a problem if that’s how it needs to be. I was just curious if anyone else has ever done something like this with success.

Thanks! 

[Sam and Lady's Human]

You’ll have to wait 3-4 months to have it altered, then start the bonding process. Ive also heard it is really difficult to bond a trio, so I’m not sure I would rock the boat and accept that gift tbh.

[Mr.Buck]

I thought it was illegal to separate that young…?

[Sam and Lady's Human]

6 weeks is the minimum age here in the states. I believe its 8 -12 weeks in Europe/ Australia?

[ravishingRabbit]

Well I’ve already decided I want to accept the bunny into the family, and just that if need be they’ll have separate spaces. I’ve had 3 bonded rabbits twice before so I feel like I would be able to do that again, and if they ultimately don’t want to all be friends they’ll just have separate rooms and take turns having multiple rooms as running space. Actually another 3 of the bunnies I used to have years ago, only 2 of them lived together (siblings) and the 3rd lived separately but they all ran around together so maybe even that would be an option if they decided they liked each other enough.

Also, as far as I know you can separate the bunnies between 6-8 weeks, 6 weeks being the minimum. It is currently looking very likely that I’m not going to be able to pick up the bunny until it’s 7 weeks old regardless due to my/her schedule conflicting.

Oh, I probably should add I actually have been planning for the past couple months to get a third bunny as soon as I found one I felt would fit. So it’s not just a spur of the moment new addition to the family, I realized that it may have come across that way in my initial post.

[KytKattin]

I would keep them separate simply for size reasons. Your bigger, older bunnies could seriously harm the new baby. Plus once the plucky youngster starts reaching puberty it could become a poop wars mess, or worse, encourage the baby to start spraying/marking sooner. I would let them meet through bars though. For instance, if you have your larger bunnies in a neutral space, always have the baby out too, just in an ex-pen or something to keep them apart.

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