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Shall I bond ......

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Post by BellaPickleFlopsyLily Sat Oct 26, 2013 12:27 pm

.... A quad today!? Shocked

Bonding my two pairs has been something I've thought about and planned a long time ago so not just a spare of the moment thing. I've also read all the bonding stickies and the recent successful multiple bunny bond threads and it's made me feel very coragous. I broke up from college yesterday so I have 9 days off in total including the weekends so should be enough time to establish some kind of bond.

If I'm definitely going ahead with the bonding , I will be bonding them at my granny's house in her unheated spare room where I'm able to sleep right next to the bonding pen (like I did when bonding Pickle and Pixie) I am able to stay at my granny's as long as I need so if it does take a little longer than half term I can still work around it.

So the bunnies I'm hoping to bond are my male and female pair (Flopsy and Lily) they've been bonded 2 years and 2 months - Flopsy will be 7 in January (he has dental issues , arthritis and kidney disease) and Lily is just over 2 so they have a 4 year age gap.

My other pair are Pickle and Pixie (m&f) and Pickle is 2 and Pixie just turned 1 so they're both quite youthful. Pickle and Pixie have been bonded 7 months ish now.

The main reasons as to why I want a quad is for them to have the biggest possible setup as at the moment the shed is divided in half and they have an 8x4ft run attached and IMO it's just not big enough and I want them to have the whole shed setup , also it'll be easier for me to go in and out as going through the divide door is quite tricky at times. The other reason is so when Flopsy does pass (which hopefully isn't any time soon!) that lily won't be lonely and hopefully not suffer as much as a single bereaved rabbit would. It was heartbreaking seeing a lonely Pickle for nearly 2 weeks. Also Lily has never been alone for any period so I'm not too sure she would cope very well at all.

Any quad bonding tips would be great! Thanks in advance.
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Post by Sparky Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:22 pm

Are they all very docile, laid-back buns? Humum has had her thinking on boys together changed a bit recently, and thinks it could work if the buns in question have the right sort of personalities.

Our quad (one boy, three girls) have been together all their lives, and are what remained of a group of nine once they bullied all the other buns out of the group Rolling Eyes 

There's definitely more bun politics with a larger group and a bit more bickering, you have to learn to let them get on with it to a certain extent. In our lot, Poirot (f) is the peacemaker and Ronnie (f) the most subordinate bun. Graham (f) is a little madam who picks on Ronnie, who then goes to Poirot or Smudge (m) for comfort. If Ronnie ever got horribly bullied or seemed very stressed by it we would act, but they are often to be found in a four-bun pile-up together too.

Do you have a contingency plan for if it goes horribly wrong and you have to re-bond two pairs?
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Post by BellaPickleFlopsyLily Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:44 pm

Sparky wrote:Are they all very docile, laid-back buns? Humum has had her thinking on boys together changed a bit recently, and thinks it could work if the buns in question have the right sort of personalities.

Our quad (one boy, three girls) have been together all their lives, and are what remained of a group of nine once they bullied all the other buns out of the group Rolling Eyes 

There's definitely more bun politics with a larger group and a bit more bickering, you have to learn to let them get on with it to a certain extent. In our lot, Poirot (f) is the peacemaker and Ronnie (f) the most subordinate bun. Graham (f) is a little madam who picks on Ronnie, who then goes to Poirot or Smudge (m) for comfort. If Ronnie ever got horribly bullied or seemed very stressed by it we would act, but they are often to be found in a four-bun pile-up together too.

Do you have a contingency plan for if it goes horribly wrong and you have to re-bond two pairs?
Both boys are very docile and laidback (I think anyway) , Flopsy has been bonded twice since I've had him first to his sister and then to Lily and they were both instant bonds and no mounting. I also attempted a trio bond last June with Flopsy , Lily and Bella and Flopsy instantly fell in love with Bella and was grooming her within a few minutes. Although I did give up too soon as I wasn't very experienced in bonding so Bella got her own friend - Pickle instead.

I am sure we won't have any trouble from Flopsy , he's not bothered about being boss from what I've found anyway although it could be different this time round. Lily and Pickle are the top buns of the pairs so they may clash - I guess we don't know until we try.

If it was to go wrong they'd be rebonded into their pairs and hopefully they will be fine and can forget what's happened , it won't be the end of the world if it doesn't work out. I will probably invest in a separate setup for the other pair at some point next year.

All I want is for them to tolerate each other's presence and live in harmony. Pickle has had a bad experience with a male (reason why they went into rescue) they were left entire in a small hutch (they were advised wrongly by the pet store and The other bun tore part of poor Pickle's ear.
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Post by dizzylynn Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:30 pm

I would love to group bond my 5, charlie & floppy are both sweet laid back boys, smokey is pretty much laid back too, but my girls are the stroppy pair, 1 we had since she was a ickle baby with her brother smokey, shes clearly the boss of him, they sit beside charlie, fur touching fur & when they think your not looking they try to groom each other through the mesh, probs more chance of bonding they 3 but think charlie is happy sitting next to them. The other 2 are floppy & his bossy wife, she still tells him what to do, wish worked on my hubby, right do the dishes NOW, nope not likely. Think they wouldnt bond with rosey 2 bossy females together hmmmm not an easy bond.
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Post by Sparky Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:53 pm

We tried Cindy with two or three m/f pairs and it was always the girls who got stroppy while the boys would have been quite happy to get along.
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