Bonding Male rabbits

[Cosmo the bunny]

Hi guys, this afternoon I plan to introduce two unneutered male rabbits. HEAR ME OUT! One is a super friendly, 2 year old bunny that has never shown dominance or anything. AND he is a three legged bun, missing his front right leg. The other is our newest addition, a tiny 8 week old male baby. I am hoping that because he is so young and combined with the other's sweet personality they will get along. If it doesn't work out they can live separately however.

So I was wondering if anyone had any success stories for bonding male rabbits, or tips on how to bond.

Thanks!

 

[Cinna_Bunny]

I've heard of people being able to make it work but it might be short lived, be prepared to separate.
I would be very careful especially with the age gap between them and with the younger one still needing to go through the "teenager phase". Personally I have never bonded 2 intact males but I have bonded a neutered male and an intact female (a moody one at that) and she had her moments, if the male wasn't so laid back it would not have worked.

I wish you luck on bonding! Be sure to take it slow for this one

 

[Blue eyes]

Neutered male rabbits have the potential to get along. Intact... highly unlikely.

What is likely is that they may seem totally ok together while the little one is little. Once those hormones kick in, well that'll be a whole different story.

The difficulty for you is that it will be easy to be lulled into complacency while they are still getting along... for weeks or perhaps months?? And then the change can come suddenly and unexpectedly. If that happens, will you happen to be there? Could they get into a terrible fight with no one there to stop it? That is the risk you take. I would suggest you consider those possible outcomes and perhaps come up with ways to mitigate those risks, if possible.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We inheirited a pair of males as we used to do a lot of rescuing--they were both really super mellow bunnies. Have had a couple of female rabbits that would fight with a rock, they seemed to be the most aggressive, although they were really good as singles.

 

[Cosmo the bunny]

It went well. Only had one growl and pounce from the older one, but the baby mostly just binkied around and then sprawled out they ended up just eating hay next to each other. They were together for about 30 minutes in a neutral area. We will do the same tomorrow, since it went well. Sunny will get neutered once he is old enough.

 

[Preitler]

I never had issues when I let my buck free roam with bucklings up to12-14 weeks. Then they hit puberty in earnest and started attacking him occasionally, although twice their size. He just dodged it but I kept them apart after that started. He got along fine with any kits he met (unlike my spayed girl Dotty). He was a nice guy, and anything young got treated friendly.

Imo, with intact males, conflict isn't so much about dominance, the agenda is to drive a rival away. That's hormonal, and having seen hormones surge in spring and other times over the year I wouldn't really trust a peace.
There might be ways to influence if it escalates to a fight, like lots of space enough ways to get out of each others eyes, but I'm not sure if with intact males that would not somewhat undermine the bonding, which to me seems to be a rather special, unstable condition with most.
I did sometimes keep bucklings of appr. same age together for about 5 months, in groups of 4-6, escalated only once in 10 years. I think higher numbers make things easier though. But at that age tensions become palpable, so nothing I would recommend.

So, well, I would say it's good to have a Plan B.