Sister bunnies got spayed and now mounting

[Angie]

So my bunnies are my whole life so I’m a bit obsessed and usually worry over nothing so here it goes. My bunnies are sisters and are almost 5 months old. I’ve had them since they were 6 weeks old. They got spayed a week ago after I got sick of being woken up by their mounting and chasing each other in their cage in the middle of the night. They’ve been in the same cage since I got them (minus a few days to heal after their spays). Today one started mounting the other (the wrong way which I quickly stop). They’ve chased each other a little bit it hasn’t seemed to be too aggressive. And one of them sometimes tries to dig the other ones side. I haven’t seen anything about this being normal behavior or not. I guess what I’m wondering is if his behavior is normal following their spays and do I need to go through a binding process with them?

[Bam]

It’s perfectly normal for newly spayed rabbits to display sexual behavior for quite some time (a month or more). This is because there are still hormones in the bloodstream. Sexually motivated behavior does often even get worse for some time after a spay. You might se territorial aggression, pee-and-poop-marking and excessive mounting.

Mounting is not just about sex in rabbits, it’s often an effort at establishing dominance over another rabbit and you frequently see it in rabbits that have been neutered/spayed for a long time.

Since you haven’t seen any serious aggression, I think I’d let the two sisters be together, but keep a close eye and separate immediately if there’s a tendency at serious fighting. Serious fighting can sever the bond between two rabbits and bunnies can hold a grudge for years.

[Author]

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