Small fight between two bonded buns :(

[Mariah]

As a lot of you know, I have kiwi & papaya. Kiwi is a 3 year old holland lop, & papaya is a 2 year old fuzzy holland lop. They have been bonded for close to a year now. It took me 6 months for the two of them to love each other. Kiwi is spayed, Papaya is neutered.

They do everything together. When one eats, so does the other, when one drinks, so does the other etc etc

Well, 3 weeks ago, I rescued Apricot- she's 7 weeks now, & a lionhead cross. Apricot lives about 15 feet away from kiwi & papaya, with a huge wooden gate separating them. Yesterday I caught kiwi licking apricot through the bars, today I caught papaya doing the same.

They are separate because I have apricot on a quarantine, in case she's sick, since she was found outside. Good thing I did, because she's positive for coccidia, so needs to stay separate until her meds are done & another fecal test is done. Of course I freaked when I saw them licking each other, since apricot is supposted to be on a quarantine... Ugh...

Today, I was in my kitchen, & I heard a scuffle. I live in an open concept basement apt, so I'm never far away. I ran to see what looked like papaya chasing kiwi, & kiwi running away. Now papaya has been feeling a little extra "frisky" & I've caught him humping kiwi last week. So I don't know if that's what started it, & I don't know why papaya would all of a sudden start humping kiwi after almost a year.

Can anyone shed any light on this situation?

Is it because there's a new girl bun in the house?

What can be done about all of this?

 

[JBun]

Yep, Apricot is shaking things up When a new rabbit is brought in, it can cause all of the pecking order behavior, to come back up. They have to sort out who is the boss again. You could try putting up a barrier so they can't get close to her when they are out hopping around. That might help or it might not, it's just hard to know. It may just settle down as they get more used to her being there.

I'm trying to bond my bun Penny with Dakota and Flopsy. And Dakota is trying to hump Flopsy, who she's already bonded with. So it's just having a new bun around that can cause all this. As long as it doesn't upset Kiwi too much, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Mariah]

Ahhhhhhh! I was happy with kiwi & papaya the way they were. Ugh. Well apricot isn't going anywhere, so hopefully they can adapt to her. They just had that one scuffle, & then were back to being lover buns So I'm hoping all is well while I'm at work.

 

[Mariah]

By the way, how is your bonding going Jenny? Is it two girls & one boy? Or?

 

[PaGal]

You could also try letting your bonded buns out while your other bun is in her cage and then later switching so Apricot is out and the others are in their cage.

 

[Mariah]

You could also try letting your bonded buns out while your other bun is in her cage and then later switching so Apricot is out and the others are in their cage.

Unfortunately, that is not an option. Kiwi & Papaya would get their little cute noses out of joint so fast! When im home, they are out playing. They would be so mad if i didnt let them out.

 

[JBun]

Yeah, two girls and a boy... like you will be some day It's my old grumpy lop pair, with a new rabbit my neighbor found this summer, wandering in front of our neighborhood. Surprisingly she is a big grump with my smaller buns, and very nippy, but very well behaved with these two. Maybe she knows better than to mess with two old grumpy rabbits that are bigger than her

The bonding is still going well enough. I'm ready to finish it up but first I need to get a day where I can supervise the whole day to make sure all is well, then redo their living quarters a bit while I have them out of it, so I can then move them in as a trio. So, just kind of waiting for a good time to do that.

 

[Mariah]

Yeah, two girls and a boy... like you will be some day It's my old grumpy lop pair, with a new rabbit my neighbor found this summer, wandering in front of our neighborhood. Surprisingly she is a big grump with my smaller buns, and very nippy, but very well behaved with these two. Maybe she knows better than to mess with two old grumpy rabbits that are bigger than her

The bonding is still going well enough. I'm ready to finish it up but first I need to get a day where I can supervise the whole day to make sure all is well, then redo their living quarters a bit while I have them out of it, so I can then move them in as a trio. So, just kind of waiting for a good time to do that.

Aww, we'll its good to know, that a girl, boy, girl trio "can" work.
I don't even know if I want to try it... Kiwi &
Papaya seem so happy & settled. I guess I don't need to decide right now. It will be a while yet before I will even attempt that.

I was thinking if I don't decide to try & bond the three of them, maybe I'll get another boy for Apricot once she's spayed... Yup, crazy bunny lady over here! Ha

There's been no more scuffles between kiwi & papaya... So lets just hope it stays like that!

 

[Mariah]

We have had a couple more scuffles... Just a little bit of hair pulling, & I'm pretty sure it's Papaya that starts it. I'm surprised, because Kiwi is the sensitive/high maintenance one.

Why is this? Is it because is the only male with two females?

I've put a blanket up over the gate so that can't see each other- only smell.

 

[zombiesue]

Genders don't really matter in bonding, put that out of your head. The smell of a new rabbit can unbond a pair sometimes. Can you put the new rabbit in a different room?