Teenage bunny troubles

[MichaelK]

I’ve got a large rabbit family of six. The mother Morgana, the father Gwen and their children Fred, George, Elizabeth and Mooncalf.

Recently their behaviour has got me a bit worried. Once my bunnies were twelve weeks old I split them up based on their gender, so I’ve got the females Elizabeth, Morgana and the desexed male Gwen in together (took a long while to get Gwen back in with the others, he started out very territorial but thankfully it’s finally succeeded). The juvenile males Fred, George and Mooncalf are in together waiting for their operations to get desexed in about a month’s time. The vet hasn’t seen them yet, but will be seeing them next week to give them their first vaccinations now that they’re old enough.

Over the last day or so, a sudden change has gone over them but most especially Fred and Morgana. Morgana has been very humpy, frequently sitting in an unusual position with her head low and her hindquarter’s raised in what seems to be a very suggestive body language. She’s been circling a lot with Gwen and alternating humping him or being humped by him. To a much lesser degree Morgana’s been trying to hump Elizabeth as well. 

Meanwhile in the other hutch Fred has been making lots of noise and huddling up in a corner of their hutch making continuous oinking noises that sound frightened to me. He actually reminds me a lot of a guinea pig with the sounds he’s making. I picked him up to comfort him and he responds well to me, cuddling up on my chest and purring while I hold him. However the moment I put him back with his brothers he started lunging at them, sniffing at their bellies and trying to bite their undersides or legs. I can’t leave him alone with them for more than a minute or two without them getting aggressive so I’ve moved him to yet another separate hutch. (I now have three groups of bunnies separately housed).

Fred does seem to be molting a lot and before I saw him picking up a lot of hay in his mouth like he was doing nest-building behaviour, which seems unusual. Unless I’ve completely misjudged his gender, which I really hope hasn’t been the case because I’m not ready for that again. He’s a bit disturbed by being in a new hutch on his own, but I’ve kept him just next to George and Mooncalf so that they can see each other still.

All my bunnies have been acting strangely over the last day or so, but it seems mostly to be in response to whatever’s got Fred and Morgana so worked up. I’m wondering if maybe it’s their hormones kicking in. Not sure what to do, although I’m hoping that the desexing will help to fix it. I’ll be talking to the vet when I bring them in and ask her for some advice, she’s a bunny specialist, so hopefully she can help.

[caudex]

Sounds pretty hormonal to me. Even the snuggling and purring with you. I adopted a handsome intact boy who was very much in love with me prior to his neutering—, running around my feet, oinking, purring, and snuggling. He was still friendly with loads of personality afterward, but much less…romantic?

I’d say everybunny probably needs their own space til after they’re neutered and the hormones are back down, and then you can try rebonding them. You might even find that some boy/girl combinations are better than the boys and girls together.

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