Bonding two bonded pairs

[naturestee]

*Warning!  Long!*
As some of you may know, I have two bonded pairs, a male/female pair 
(Mocha and Loki) and a recently spayed female pair (Fey and Sprite).  I 
would like them to play together, but I am planning on keeping them 
caged separately.  I have some experience with bonding- Mocha is a beast 
and it took a long time to bond her with Loki.  But that was just one on 
one.  Has anyone here ever bonded two pairs together?  What worked for 
you, and do you have any suggestions?

Here's the score, for those keeping track at home:

Their cages have been in the same room for a little over a month.  They 
have never been out of their cages together.  All buns are healthy and 
speutered.  I will probably wait another week or two before starting as Fey 
and Sprite were only spayed about two weeks ago.  


Mocha hates all new rabbits.  She is jealous of Loki's attentions and 
has been known to lash out at him if she sees him flirting with the 
Ladies.

Loki likes girl bunnies.  He sees the potential for a beautiful harem.  
He flirts with Fey and Sprite, especially Sprite.  He does what he can 
to make Mocha feel good about all this but does sometimes defend the 
Ladies if it looks like Mocha is going to start another round of 
attacking them through the cage walls.

Fey doesn't like Mocha, probably because Mocha attacked first.  She 
sometimes bops Loki on the nose to make sure he knows this is her 
territory, but she doesn't press an attack and she usually leaves 
him alone.

Sprite likes to flirt with Loki.  She'll fight with Mocha now, but only 
because she's sick of Mocha batting at the cage bars.

I really have my work cut out for me, don't I? 

Angela

 

[Snuggys Mom]

Oh, Angela. My hat's off to you for even thinking about this! Keep us posted.



Laura

 

[jordiwes]

Hi Angela,

I don't have any first hand experience with this, but it may besomething that I tackle some day. It sounds like you put a lot of workinto bonding Mocha and Loki, so I think you can draw on that experienceand use it for the 4 bunnies. It sounds like the most difficult thingwill be bonding Mocha with the girls, so use all the tricks that youused to bond Mocha with Loki. Make sure you give her lots of love andattention so she will view this as a positive thing.

I think neutral space will be important and perhaps trying to distract Mocha with treats or something.

One trick I tried with Wesley is tiring him out beforeabonding session. So he would get his very own, very active play timefor a while before introducing him to Jordi. Then he would be too tiredto chase her! But he is a lazy boy...

 

[zoecat6]

I have 4 bonded rabbits living together, 2 malesand 2 females.And another set of 4more,GentleBen the flemish, and his 3 adoringfemale bunny slaves thatall strive for hisattention. I think that you could probably bond them if youdo it really slowly, maybe a couple of minites at atimeat first depending on how much aggression theyshow.Be prepared for mouthfulls of hair beingpulled out, and all of that fun stuff.I have 8 rabbits andhave never had a rabbit that I could not bond with the others, somejusttook longerthan others.

 

[naturestee]

Thanks! I'm dreading having four t'doff bunnies running around. This will definately be arequired activity for the hubby. I have a neutral space inmind that I think I can just shoo them into one pair at atime. It would make it so much easier if I don't have to pickup every single bun as they all hate it. I don't think Icould catch Sprite once she realizes what's going on. It tookme at least 15 minutes in a small room to get her into the carrier togo to the vet!

 

[jyrenze]

Just wondering, has another ever managed to bondunfixed buns of the same gender before? I heard that if they are notfixed its hard for them to bond with a rabbit of the same sex.

 

[naturestee]

jyrenze wrote:

Just wondering, has another ever managed to bond unfixedbuns of the same gender before? I heard that if they are not fixed itshard for them to bond with a rabbit of the same sex.

Fey and Sprite are sisters who were a year and a half old and unspayedwhen I got them. The squabbled a little and would chase eachother sometimes, although moving them to a bigger cage helpedthat. I think Samandshawn used to have a pair of bondedunneutered males that got along well. Spay/neuter is usuallyrecommended because it reduces the hormones that can make rabbitsterritorial.

 

[mygrl2k3]

Plus spaying reduces the risk of them devolping cancer.

Cristy

 

[ariel]

jyrenze wrote:

Just wondering, has another ever managed to bond unfixedbuns of the same gender before? I heard that if they are not fixed itshard for them to bond with a rabbit of the same sex.

We have just done it actually, with Bindy who has lived with us fornearly a year and 3 little ones, they are all girls and they all getalong well.

This was dinner time tonight, ( was taking pics tonight to show my mum who is coming here tomorrow).

Breakfast a couple of weeks ago

And hanging out

It can be done, it just takes time and patience.

Goodluck and enjoy

 

[jyrenze]

Aww they look so cute all together. Its nicewhen adult bunnies get along together well like babies do. My 2 girlsare spayed because I could not bond them while still unspayed as theykept being aggresive. They are fine together now. Good job on yourpart. Must have been hard work bonding them

 

[shaydz]

jyrenze wrote:

Aww they look so cute all together. Its nice when adultbunnies get along together well like babies do. My 2 girls are spayedbecause I could not bond them while still unspayed as they kept beingaggresive. They are fine together now. Good job on your part. Must havebeen hard work bonding them

Actually it was the easiest thing in the world for us, we got very very lucky with them.

They all bonded in Bindy's play area, and spent a couple of days inBindy's old house next to her condo until we extended the condo to fitthem all in.

They then went into the condo with a divider to keep them seperate toBindy which could be removed for short periods of time. (That was theidea anyway, in reality we put the divider back in once and gizmo andbindy went nuts trying to get it back out).

They only issue we have had with them is occasionally Bindy will mountRoger (another female onder and chase her all over the play area.

They have never had a fight.

 

[jyrenze]

My larger bun will still occasionally mount thesmaller one. Then the smaller one will get mad and chase the bigger oneall over the place, lol.

 

[ariel]

By now you'd of guessed Shaydz is myother half LOL, He has lurked here for quite some time now,checking in and reading etc.

As someone once said, ya gotta love a guy who loves bunnies LOL.

Seriously though he adores the bunnies just as much as I do And hespends as much time as I do with them too, quite often he can be foundup in the bunny room, just saying hello and patting them all.

They actually run up to the top of the condo to greet him and line upfor pats, (or just barge through if your name is Gizmo LOL)

 

[doodle]

Ariel, how old are the 4 of yourbunnies? My two got along when they were younger, but startedfighting at about 5 months.

 

[shadow10978]

My girls absolutly hate each other lol. Celestmy ND will try to attack nadia{el} through the cage bars if she thinksshe has 1/2 a chance without gettign caught. Usually I bust her beforeshe can though.

I am curious, I want to breed them both at least once to get a litter apiece, but I am concerned that after having a litter that even if I getthem spayed that the aggression will still be there or be worse thanbefore. Has anyone had any experiance with this type of situation??

 

[ariel]

doodle wrote:

Ariel, how old are the 4 of your bunnies? My twogot along when they were younger, but started fighting at about 5months.

Bindy is just under a year old, and the little ones are about 4 months old.