Help Intergrating Rabbits?

[experience]

Hi there , my friend but 2 dwarf rabbits about 3 months ago.





And today i bought the most beautifulist little thing ever! Not sure what kind it is though!



Basicall i have bought a two tier hutch and obviously we want them too get on, do u have any tips on intergrating them together.



So far my rabbit seems very nervous and scared while my friends two are very upfront and confident, sniffing and licking.



But mine is very scared and wont really move, we have seperated the tier so she is alone but can we intergrate them?

 

[naturestee]

Congrats on your new bun!

First, are they spayed/neutered? Or are they all the samegender? If they're from a pet store have a vet check thembecause pet stores are often wrong about gender.Rabbits breed very quickly and at a younger age than you mayexpect. Plus if you don't separate the mom from the male fastenough when she gives birth, she'll get pregnant again and will givebirth while her first litter is still nursing.

How old are they? I don't recommend bonding young rabbitsbecause when they hit puberty they often get territorial and can injureeach other in fights. It's much better to wait till they'respayed/neutered or at bare minimum 6 months old so they've at least hitpuberty.

Second, read up on bonding. That's what we call it whenyou're trying to make two or more rabbits friends. You doneed to be careful because rabbits are territorial by nature can injureor even kill each other. One of my rabbits would love nothingmore than to kill my other two girls, and she did put one in thehospital with some very bad injuries.

Start on neutral territory, ie somewhere where none of them havebeen. For example, take them inside the house or put theirrun in a different part of your yard. That way they won't beas worried about defending their territory.

This is my favorite site on bonding rabbits. It helped me a lot.
http://www.mybunnies.com/bonding.htm

And there's a whole lot more in the Bunny 101 bonding thread:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12072&forum_id=17

 

[sunnybunny]

A few people told me to try putting themtogether on the diningroom table. Guess what...It works! Neutralterritory, I guess. But before we tried that I was beginning to thinkthey'd never bond. 2 nights on the table for an hour each time andvoila...Best of buddies!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

I agree with naturestee on the bonding at anolder age. However, I do not agree with the 6 month thing. Why? BecauseI had 2 very happily bonded bunnies together from the age of 4-5 monthsand they didn't start fighting until they were 10 months old. Neitherof them hit puberty until they were 10 monthsold so that'sthe reasonI recommend no sooner than 10-11 months but that'smy opinion.

They should all be spayed and/or neutered too.

Just be prepared to house them separately as they get older, babiesoften times will challenge for dominence once they get older and youcould end up having all 3 of your rabbits needing separating since itcould through the whole heirarchy off. Babies are often times not seenas a threat which may be the case with yours (I'm not sure how old theyare).

 

[experience]

Hi thanks for your replies, as far as we have been told they are ALL females, we have them seperated in a two tier hutch.

2 at the top and my gorgeous bunny at the bottom, the other two where together from the moment we bought them.


So any idea on helping them become friends?

PS the hutch was brand new yesterday and all of them spent their first night in it last night.