Adding a third rabbit, good or bad idea?

I have a bonded pair of rabbits (neutered male "Jeremy" and neutered female "Hugs") dwarf lops and am toying with the idea of rescuing a 3rd rabbit to live with them. My reasoning is that my male is 5 years old and has gone blind in one eye and my female is only 1 year. I'm worried Hugs will be left on her own as Jez is older than her and can't decide if it's a good idea to introduce another rabbit now that is a similar age to Hugs so it won't be such a shock to her if Jez passes away first . Hugs took quite a few weeks to mix with Jeremy in the first place so I'm just wondering what you guys think. I've only ever introed opposite sex pairs, not groups before.

They live outside in a hutch and run combo. The run is 10ft long x 4ft wide x 3ft high. There are two htches inside connected by a short tunnel so it's like a burrow for them. The hutches are one 4ftx2ftx2ft and one 4ftx15inx15in. They both spend a lot of time in the run as it's well protected from bad weather. The garden is currently being rabbit proofed better so they can have more out of cage free roaming time under supervision.

Is my enclosure big enough for 3 if I went for another smallish breed?
Do you think introeing a third bunny could cause problems as they are a bonded pair?
If I add another do you think male or female would be better as the third addition, obviously neutered?
Is there likely to be issues if the rabbit introduced is about 18 months old?
I would get the rabbit from a rescue and ensure it could go back if the pairing failed, however I would hate to have to do this.
With Jez being blind in one eye is this a bad idea as he is more vunerable, he was worried by Hugs at first as she was quite fiesty but they love each other now?
Am I being paranoid and if done correctly they are likely to be ok?

I would get Hugs another companion if something happened to Jez (I'm dreading that day) so she wouldn't be alone for long. I'm worried as Jez suffered from stasis and very nearly died when his previous companion passed away, I left him about 3 weeks to recover but I think that was too long for him, I don't want the same to happen to Hugs.
I can setup a neutral area for introes and house the newbie seperately at first, so introes can happen slowly, advice on mixing them would be very useful eg who to intro first etc. I've ordered the book rabbit bonding to read through also.

Sorry for all the questions

I dont feel i am in a very good position to comment on your accommodation - my brain is on go slow, so its a bit confusing for me at the moment.

I can certainly comment on wether its worth adding a third bun though, as i did the same. If they are a happily bonded pair, leave well alone. Dont fix what aint broken. My pair bonded like a dream, and a couple of years later i introduced a third rabbit to the pair. I did everything by the book, took lots of time and although the bond worked out, and the submissive rabbit didnt seem too bothered about being a bit left out, or picked on by Dolly, but i would deffinitley say they were happy as a pair.

I ended up keeping one of my foster bunnies and having 2 pairs instead of a trio, as i felt sorry for Skye and I had upset the dynamics a bit. Sadly, one pair is no longer with us, but I would never ntroduce a third bun into a pair that was happy.

Things could go completely different for you, but i dont think its worth the risk. Would you be happy to get a fourth bun if they didnt all get on, and have two pairs instead? Also, in my experience, a lot of rescues wont rehome a single bun to bond with an established pair, as pairs work best.

Thank you, that's what I worrying about so I'll just stick to my two, I don't want two seperate pairs and they get on really well as they are

i'd agree with Sophia it is risky to add a third one if the bond is good with the two

fiver wrote:i'd agree with fluffslave it is risky to add a third one if the bond is good with the two

Im not fluffslave! Have you been at the trammies again Rob!?

marleyNfriends wrote:

fiver wrote:i'd agree with fluffslave it is risky to add a third one if the bond is good with the two

Im not fluffslave! Have you been at the trammies again Rob!?

opppsie sorry hun yes i'm trammed

I would leave them as they are, because there are so many additional problems you can have with a trio, so you can end up with just as many issues as the one you are trying to fix.

If one rabbit from a pair passes away, rabbits usually accept another rabbit quite quickly, so you dont have to worry there. Rabbits don't grieve like we do, and while some rabbit do seem to miss their companions - usually they miss companionship rather than the companion themselves.

I had two pairs, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Domino and Pebbles. When Peanut Butter died, I bonded Jelly in with the other two.

My reasoning was that I would rather not have got an additional rabbit, and I was going away to uni so I was in the same train of thought as you - what if one of them died if they were in a pair? my mum wouldnt have known what to do.

And as a trio, my buns just didnt work as well as they did in pairs, simple as that. From August 2009 my three have been a trio, and the "mechanics" of the bond just dont work. One is always left out. Its not bad enough to split them, but its not something I would do again, as i dont feel it offers any benefits to the buns themselves, they dont gain anything additional by having a third friend.

And...then you have the issue of how the bond will break down, depending on who "goes" first. Domino has been seperate from my trio since September due to illness, and Jelly and Pebbles do not work as a pair without him. The bond is actually worse, because if hypothetically, Jelly OR Pebbles had left the group, Domino would have been fine with whichever lady was left. But he was the link between the two, and without him, its fell apart. They are still together, but they arent bothered by each other.

So a trio can create just as many problems as solutions, because you will always have a weak link, and depending on who passes away first - you can end up with more issues!

So in a nutshell - I would leave them as they are. x