Bonded, Fixed, Humping Buns!

[Steph]

Hello! 

I am new to the site as far as posting goes but I’ve been reading the forum since I got my newest bunnies 6 months ago.  Penelope and Roo are sister and brother mini Holland Lops who are almost 8 months old, I got them both when they were 8 weeks old (just babies!)  Both have been fixed—Penelope the most recent when she was 6 months old.  

They have been around each other since day one, but housed in separate x-pens since I got them—the pens have always been right next to each other.  They have been out and about around with each other under close supervision until they were both fixed and healed.  

They are definitely bonded—they love each, groom each other, they have only ever been in one small scuffle before Penelope was spayed and we broke it up quickly.  

Penelope has been the biggest humper in the relationship since even before she was spayed— however, it’s been 2 months and she still does it. I understand this is a dominance thing and from what I’ve read from other posts there isn’t much I can do about it.  I usually let it go on for about 30 seconds and if she doesn’t stop, I gently push her away.  Roo is good and normally just takes it or will quickly turn around so she gets off of him.  Roo still humps her occasionally too.  It’s not constant and some days are worse than others, but it’s enough that I don’t want them to be in the same housing together while I’m at work.

I really want them to be in the same pen together while I’m at work because they love to snuggle and I got two because I know when bonded properly buns love a friend.  However, I don’t want to risk them getting into a fight while I’m at work and not able to stop it if one of them gets annoyed with the other humping. 

I guess my question is, do people agree that I should keep them separate during the day?  Any other suggestions for getting one to figure out it’s the top bun and stop the humping? Maybe once they are older they will grow out of it?  I suppose they have technically not been properly bonded since they just grew up with each other and I honestly never really separated them completely from each other for a long period of time because they have always got along well.  

Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance!

Steph (Penelope & Roo, “the Humpers!&rdquo

[Mikey]

When they are together, where is it? They could be humping constantly because they are together sometimes and separate other times. It doesnt sound like their bond is cemented/perfected yet because they cant be together 24/7, without stressing you out. The humping will likely die down or completely stop if they are put together 24/7, but its also not wise to put them together if you dont yet trust them

The next day you have 24 hours (or more) of free time, i would keep them together. Keep them where they normally share a space, and just be around to watch them. If you can, sleep near them as well, so you can wake up if you need to. If there are no fights, take a break and do it again the next time you have 24+ hours to spend with them. If there are still no fights, then i would assume they are safe together

[Steph]

Thanks for the reply!

When they are together running around it’s all over the house…mostly downstairs when we are watching TV at night and that’s when the most humping happens. They have their pens set up next to each other in one of our spare bedrooms upstairs.  

I trust them enough to be put together under supervision in the same pen while I’m home and see how they do.  When the humping happens the one taking it never gets aggressive towards the other…

Thanks again!

[Mikey]

If theres no aggression aside from the humping, i would definitely try keeping them downstairs together for a full day to see how that goes. The humping seems to be more of a “this is my territory too, so you know” kind of a thing, since that room is away from their pens where dominance has already been established

[Steph]

Yeah, downstairs is where most of the humping happens, and we frequently keep them down there together when we’re off from work for he majority of the day. It’s upstairs in their housing where I want to try keeping them together. I think Sunday I’ll do a trial run with them in the same “cage” and see how they do. Thanks Mikey!

[Mikey]

Sounds like a good plan, i wish you luck!

[Steph]

Today makes day 3 of the buns living together! I watched them for 24 hours and after a little humping, nothing else happened except for snuggling, sleeping, grooming and eating! They also did much better when they were downstairs together—Penelope barely humped Roo. Thanks for the advice Mikey, I think the buns will now happily share a pen together and keep each other company

[Mikey]

Woohoo! Im glad it was able to work out for all of you. Thank you for the happy update

[flemishwhite]

I’m certainly no where being anything of a bunny behavior specialist.  However, I’d like to suggest that bunny humping is not a sign of aggression.  I’d suggest that it’s a sign of friendliness.   Of my two Flemish sisters, one is definitely dominant.  She is larger and will bully her sister when it comes to food and attention.  However, the submissive sister will hump the dominant sister. They both sleep side by side and groom each other.

[Steph]

Thanks for the feedback! I don’t think it was aggressive by any means, however for a while there it was pretty constant and I didn’t want to risk leaving them alone together without supervision and having Roo get annoyed with it (these are my first pair of rabbits, I had just one bun prior).

But Mikey was correct in this situation where once they were together 24/7 the humping has almost completely stopped! Just a few seconds here and there but the rest of the time they are bonded and love each other so much!

[Author]

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