Hoping this is the right place. It was a tossup between here and behave, so if I’m in the wrong place correct me!
The history: Thor and Loki came to me at about 8 months of age when their owner found out they couldn’t have rabbits. They’re not related, but have been together since about 3 months of age, and always had their cages next to each other. They aren’t really trained to be picked up, and try running when you go to grab them to put them away. Loki is learning to like being pet, but Thor hates when someone touches him. Neither is litterbox trained due to aggression towards the other rabbit. (Training has failed no matter what I do)
When they were younger and both got out they used to try to mount each other, spending up to 10 minutes running in circles. They’d never nip, bite or attack. Then Loki became of age, and turned into a monster. He’d attack my cats, spray, glare, and attack Thor. It finally got bad enough that Loki got a vet trip. He recovered within a day and is now more lightning than grumpy. Thor on the other hand I couldn’t afford to fix right away due to medical problems, so he was Alpha Bunny for about a year. During this time Thor would attack Loki, rub his cheek on Loki’s cage, glare at Loki, and get tough with the humans. He’d attack my daughter (She’s an adult, and was in charge of blocking off areas/removing him from areas he couldn’t go, which is why he hated her) and when he wasn’t attacking her he’d stand in her way and refuse to move. He’d also attack my cats. Finally we got Thor fixed as well about a month ago, which he took REALLY hard. He went from Alpha Bunny to little scared bunny who was VERY mad that we did that to him. We couldn’t even get into his cage to feed him. He’d grunt and attack us. It took us a week to convince him it was okay to come out of his cage, and he’s still very nervous and timid now.
The present: Loki has learned bad habits! Thor has now gone from Alpha Bunny to very shy bunny, but he attacked Loki enough that Loki has gone rabid. If I let Thor out of his cage Loki has to be in a totally different room or else he runs around his cage panting trying to lung at Loki. (Thor for the most part leaves Loki alone) In the two times Loki has gotten out with Thor (He’s a master at undoing locks) he’s attacked Thor and pulled out hair, which has made Thor either A) Cower in fear all day or B) attack Loki back. We’ve tried putting their cages in the same room, but if they can even see each other Loki goes nuts and can’t sleep, scaring Thor to death. If for some reason we have them both out at the same time (Each being held by a different person. Usually when we’re cleaning under their cages) Loki goes rabid and takes hours to settle down. He’ll toss paper, throw toys, grunt and has even hissed. This has only happened since we got Thor fixed.
The Future: Eventually we’d like to be able to let them out together. They have large cages, but LOVE being out. If we let one out the other goes nuts! We intend to move their smalishl cages downstairs to a full sized cage. But the way the cage is set up they’ll be able to see each other. We can’t have them within five feet of each other, nevermind within biting distance. Is it possible to train them to work together again? It really looks like learned behavior for Loki, very much ‘fight of flight’ mode. Can Loki be retrained or should I put one rabbit in the basement and one upstairs? They both have a forever home with me, I just want to make sure it’s the best quality of life they can possibly have.