How do you know which rabbit in a pair is dominant?

[LBJ10]

Wooly and Leopold are doing just fine living together, despite the fact that my husband has not finished their new cage yet. They don’t really display any obvious signs of dominance, so I was just curious if there was any way to tell. At first, I thought for sure that Leopold was dominant. He’s bigger, he’s older, and he was here first. He is the trouble maker most of the time. If he’s doing something naughty, Wooly will often follow (a monkey see, monkey do kind of thing). Wooly usually doesn’t do something naughty on his own. At first Wooly would groom Leopold and I would often find them lounging together with Leopold on top of Wooly. Leopold would also just sit in the litter box and not budge. Wooly would come over and sit outside the litter box. Sometimes he would nudge at Leopold, but Leopold would not move. Then Wooly would simply poop on the floor next to the litter box and hop away (I assumed because Leopold wouldn’t get out of the way and Wooly needed to go). Well, lately, I have seen Leopold grooming Wooly a lot more. And the litter box thing has now been reversed, with Wooly sitting inside and Leopold pooping right next to it. Sheesh…

Is this some sort of a silent power struggle? Or are they really just best buddies that don’t really concern themselves too much with who is dominant? They don’t fight over food if it happens to be hay or pellets. They will snatch treats out of each others’ mouths though if you don’t give them each their treat fast enough.

[LBJ10]

Also to add, Leopold was the monster humper when they were first being introduced. So that is another reason I thought he was dominant. He really wanted to make it clear by humping Wooly relentlessly and every which way (he didn’t care which end he had). He doesn’t hump anymore though.

[Michelle&Lolli]

I would say that Leopold is still the dominant one as long as you haven’t seen Wooly trying to mount him or hump him. From what I understand from reading other posts, it seems that when there is a power shift, it’s usually in the form of a a scuffle with the one who’s dominant and the one trying to take over getting into a fight. But I could be wrong. I just have experience with Eddie and Lolli. I also think that once the dominant one has been established, sometimes they don’t always have to re-assert themselves all the time. Just depends on the rabbits.

Eddie was most definitely the dominant one. He’d boss a fly if he could. LOL But what was interesting with them is that Eddie would present himself for grooming and there were several times where Lolli refused and sometimes hopped off. I don’t know if this is normal in bunny pairs or not. It just seemed to me that Lolli was getting back at him for his bossiness. Cause he’d boss her out of the litterbox, away from the water, away from the food, etc. He wasn’t keeping her from eating or anything. But he just had to chase her away at first. Drove me nuts and I’d always tell him to quit and to be nice. LOL

[LBJ10]

So you think it’s a peaceful dominance. Leopold is dominant and Wooly knows it and there’s no reason to keep reestablishing it.

[Michelle&Lolli]

Possibly. I would think that if they were both laid back and content with things, they wouldn’t have to keep re-establishing dominance. Like if Wooly is completely fine with the status quo then Leopold won’t need to keep trying to boss him around. And they sound like typical boys with the litterbox. “Move. I gotta go” “No” “come on and move!” “No” “Fine. I’ll just go here” LOL

But I may be wrong. I just have my experience with Super Bossy Eddie and Lolli. I think Eddie was a bit OCD about it. He was bossy to me and Lolli whenever he could get away with it and was so dominant with Lolli that her personality didn’t really come out until after he passed. She didn’t change a whole lot or anything but her divatude definitely came out. LOL If I so much as looked at Lolli, Eddie would boss her right out of the room with the nudging and chasing. It was quite ridiculous. lol

[LBJ10]

Okay, so I saw Wooly grooming Leopold tonight. Leopold just stuck his head right under Wooly’s chin and Wooly licked away. Then Leopold looked up and Wooly tried sticking his head under Leopold’s chin. Leopold ignored him. Then I said “Leopold, you need to groom Wooly back”. I swear! Leopold looked at me and then he quickly licked Wooly’s head twice! Then his head was right under Wooly’s chin again, demanding to be groomed. Silly rabbit.

[Michelle&Lolli]

Ah yes. Leopold is still the dominant! LOL

Eddie used to stop and look at me before he’d chase Lolli cause I ALWAYS yelled at him to knock it off and to be nice. He’d just give me this “but I gots to mom!” and do it anyways. And by yell, I just mean I raised my voice at him, scolding. Not actual mean yelling unless he really pissed me off. lol

Sometimes I really did think Lolli was the dominant one cause she’d just do little things….like refusing his grooming requests. Kind of like a “I’m just letting him think he’s the boss” type of thing. She’d also give him the butt sometimes too. Lolli has always been a really subtle bunny so I’d really have to watch their interactions to see these things. But I thought it was hysterical. lol

It sounds like Leopold and Wooly are quite content with the dominance relationship. It’s funny because Lolli was subservient from their first meeting and until he died, he just HAD to make sure she knew he was boss. Little poophead. LOL

[Beka27]

It doesn’t matter too much who is dominant as long as they are living together peacefully, plus the dominance can change over time. Both of my buns will present for grooming, Max is a big humper, but Meadow is usually the lead bunny when it comes to exploration… They both will steal veggies out of the others’ mouth… altho I do have to give Meadow a treat first, because she’ll chase Max if he gets one first.

If you continue to have issues with the litterbox, I would try adding a second…

[Elrohwen]

I would definitely say Leopold is the dominant – he might not be super pushy about it, but it sounds like he’s in charge.

Both bunnies in a pair will typically groom – it’s good for hygiene for all bunnies in a group to groom each other, so it’s only about dominance early on. My Otto is very submissive, but has tried to hump Hannah on occasion when he’s stressed out, so it’s not always 100% clear signs – you kind of have to go on who is doing the most dominant behavior most of the time. Sometimes they’ll switch back and forth depending on the situation.

[LBJ10]

About the litter box. There are actually two outside the cage now. I had bought a new one, but I left the old one because of the one not getting out of the way issue. Well, apparently this new box is the bees knees because this is the one they both want to use. So if Leopold is sitting in there and won’t get out of the way, Wooly will poop on the floor rather than going to the other litter box (which isn’t very far away either). Rabbits are so weird.

[LBJ10]

I just had a thought. Maybe I should get one of those big under the bed storage containers and cover the entire area over there. LOL That would fix them!

[Elrohwen]

The big storage container would definitely work! You could also put the boxes directly next to each other. I have a larger rectangular one, plus a smaller square one and they sit end to end so it’s like one big litter box, but plenty of room for both buns to use it at once.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I would throw out the term dominance -it assumes you know what an animal is thinking and we can’t ever know that. WE can know what they are doing, and then use modification to have them do more or less. But terms like dominance muddy the waters, and often imply/insinuate intention which we don’t and can’t know any other being to have…
http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/dominance%20statement.pdf

This is a position statement from the American Verterinary Behavioral Association and there are many many more trusted resources out there that want dominance theory thrown out, and further more the original research that was generated that supported dominance theory has been disproven and even rejected by the original researcher
Phew-so long and short, I wouldn’t call either dominant

[LBJ10]

I wouldn’t necessarily say that using the word dominant infers that you know what an animal is thinking. Seems like apples to oranges to me. A relationship between two rabbits isn’t the same as a relationship between a dog and a human. People often make the mistake that they need to reinforce their dominance over their dog when really the person needs to show the dog leadership. I confused why this would be brought up in my post.

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