THE PLAYERS

Munchkin – 2+ year old female mini lop, spayed.  We’ve had her since she was a few months old.  She’s affectionate with us, at times aloof

Lito – 4 month old female rex, not yet spayed.  We got her 3 months ago.

THE STORY UP UNTIL NOW

Introductions, as expected did not go smoothly 3 months ago.  Munchkin was immediately territorial and aggressive.  Until Lito arrived, Munchkin had nearly free roam of our house, so it was difficult to create neutral areas.  With Munchkin showing obvkous aggression, with clear intent to harm, we had to keep them separated.  Their enclosures were in sight of each other, but the two were never out of their enclosure at the same time unless we had them in a small, controlled area where we could get hold of either immediately.

This situation lasted a couple of months.  Munchkin was clearly miffed at her reduced freedom.  And both of them made a sport out of taunting the other while still in their enclosure.  But gradually that dissipated, the taunting and lunging becoming much more show than actual aggression.

About a month ago we began to let them out of the enclosures at the same time.  They were hardly best pals, but neither were they trying to kill each other.  At first they mostly avoided each other.

Any problems that rose were because Lito pretty insistently wants love.  She constantly would go up to Munchkin, put her head down, bury her snout in Munckins fur, and wait for grooming.  At first Munchkin would have none of this, retreating every time.  But gradually she warmed to the idea and, much to our surprise, began grooming Lito.  Pretty soon they seemed inseperable.  Lito followed Munchkin everywhere, Munchking tolerated it, even letting Lito snuggle next to her at times.  They share their meals without issue.  All is well.

THEN THINGS CHANGED

Within the last week, there’s a new wrinkle.  It started out seeming like a good thing.  Lito began returning the grooming favor, which she hadn’t done before.  Yay! We thought.  Unfortunately, it quickly went from grooming to attempting to mount.  Munchkin was NOT pleased with that, pretty aggressively pushing her away.  But Lito was relentless and would chase Munckin around, oblivious to Munchkin’s rebuffs. 

Now, seemingly out of nowhere, they’re fighting.  Either one will instigate it, it doesn’t even take the dominant act of Lito trying to mount Munchkin.  There doesn’t appear to be any intent to actually do serious harm, but when they go at it, fur flies, it’s clearly no friendly sparring.

They went from spending 4 weeks as bestest buddies to this.  What happened?  Is this just a phase?  Will they work it out?  Will it get better once we get Lito spayed?  Making things more confusing is the fact that sometimes they’ll be perfectly civil, sitting there grooming each other.

These are our first two rabbits so we’re learning as we go here.  Over the 2 years we’ve had her we’ve gotten to understand Munchkin pretty well, but these two-bunny interactions are a whole new world for us.  Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!