Bonding 2 sibling rabbits with another rabbit?

Question

Well, I've add all 3 rabbits for almost 3 years now. I adopted the dwarf rabbit first and I wanted to get a partner/friend for it so I wanted to get another rabbit for it at this animal shelter. There were these 2 rabbits sitting in the cage together and the person in-charge suggested that I get both because both rabbits were real close to each other (I'm guessing brother/sister relationship). It's been almost 3 years since they have all lived with me. The dwarf rabbit is real friendly with me and everyone else while the other 2 are very non-social with people (tend to be introverted with each other). The 2 rabbits have their own cage, which is a few inches away from the dwarf rabbit's cage. I am trying to make it so that all 3 become friends. When I first tried introducing them after they first got neutered/spayed, I got each of the 2 rabbits (male and female) to sit next to my dwarf rabbit (male rabbit) and both encounters with the 2 rabbits ended up with a fight. Now, it's still the same. The dwarf rabbit likes to sniff and get near the female rabbit but the female rabbit ends up attacking it and the fight/chase begins. The brother rabbit defends his sister and so him and the dwarf rabbit hate each other badly. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Just keep them in side by side areas, put a gate between them so they can touch and sniff each other but still have their own territory.  After a while you will probably see that they are all sitting together and getting along.  Then try to introduce them somewhere neutral like a separate room or a bathtub.

Answer 2

Neutered or otherwise, I'm afraid you really can't bond an adult male rabbit to an already-bonded pair like that. The fighting you describe is exactly normal for this situation.

You won't be able to introduce more rabbits to those two, so please just leave them to their rabbit status quo. Anything you try will just stress them, and will not be successful.

With your dwarf boy, you have 2 options. Either you can keep him as just a friend to humans, so long as you have loads of time to spend with him. Or you can get him either 1 doe for a friend, or an already bonded group of ONLY does. Either would accept a single buck quite readily, but multiple bucks very rarely work unless they are together from kittens, and almost never if does are involved.

You don't state whether your dwarf buck is neutered or not: I'm assuming he is, as the other two both are. If so, and you decided to introduce 1 doe or more, it would not matter for introduction whether the girls are or not. That would be a personal decision for you so, weighing up the risks between surgical complications and cancer/pyo risks later on.

All the best, whatever you decide to do.