Brother bunnies fighting like cat and dog!

[taryn]

I adopted two brother bunnies, Fred and Frank in July 2015, (or so I was told by the person who I adopted from), both were neutered in about August. When I got them they were approx 14 weeks old. They aren’t too friendly with me but I leave them be and they come and lick and jump on me often. They live in my room and in the entrance hall of my house and are free to roam in these areas. They were lovey dovey for all of this time, there was once an incident that ended up in a fight but Fred submissed to Frank and all was fine and well after one or two days of separation.
Recently for some strange reason Frank accidentally landed up in the toilet, I managed to get him out and I cleaned him as best I could. The next morning they started fighting really bad! I seperated them for a day or two and then let them see each other and they were straight into a fight. I then decided to get groomers to come and give them both baths and clipped toe nails so that they would both smell the same. I sanitized the area and then let them see each other, about 2mins in they went mental on each other again.
I have had them seperated since for over a week, I have tried to do the bath tub thing but they don’t seem to care that they are even in a tub. I took for one car ride and ive been too traumatised to try again as they fought in the car too even though they were very freaked out. I have a cage between my room and hallway so that they can see each other through the fence and hopefully stop hating each other. But today Frank jumped the fence and ive come home to loads of fur. They are now seperated. Again. Not sure how much more of this I can take

[LittlePuffyTail]

I would still recommend car rides or other type of stress bonding (you can use a basket on a running washing machine as well.) If you do another car ride make sure there is a helper in the back with the bunnies to separate in case of fights. And any bonding sessions you do in the house make sure to do in a 100% neutral area.

I’m not an experienced bonder so hopefully someone will be more helpful.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

When you say fight-how bad on a scale of 1-10 would you say? Is their blood? Do you get your hands bit? Is their noise? Jumping in the air? Or do they just chase? or hump?

I don’t see how the toilet swim could have affected their bond, but I think you need to let them chill with no interaction for a while-the continued fighting is just making them associate negative things with each other.

Now depending on how badly they are fighting-if it’s bad, I would honestly give up bonding. If it’s scuffles and hurt feelings but nothing major, you could try again. Perhaps try counter conditioning-let them smell each other by swapping a towel -AT feed time-so they associate the smell of the other with dinner. Let them observe each other from a distance-again maybe at salad time, so it’s positive and not stressful. See how that goes and decide if you’ll go further.

[Author]

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