I just want to start off by saying thanks for the helpful info I have read on here to date! Seems like there is a wealth of information on here, and I hope to be a part of it soon.
We just adopted 2 female unspayed holland lops about a year old each, Hoot and Thistle. They both came from diferent breeders, and are not related. The people who had them before us said they were bonded, and while we were there looking at them they seemed to get along fine. In their previous home, the cages were not near each other, one was up on a desk, so i don’t think hoot ever saw thistle’s cage. Thistle is the smaller of the 2, but is definetly the dominant one. The previous owner did say she was also. As a side note, we have no kids or other pets, just my wife and I.
So we have them in their new home, almost a week now, and they can’t be out together at all. We have their cages next to each other so they can see/smell each other, hoping it would ease the trauma into the new home. Off the bat, Thistle is definetly the outgoing crazy one, who didn’t seem to care she had just been transplanted. Hoot was reserved, and very cautious, and still is somewhat.
We have tried putting them both out at the same time, in the room where the cages are, and thistle doesn’t have anything on her mind but HUMP HOOT!! I know this is a sign of dominance, and going to be tricky to overcome being still unspayed. We tried a few times to put them out together but all thistle does is become very aggressive, to the point we have not put them out together again. She was mounting Hoot, and pulled some fur out so we called it quits. We now let them out seperately, in the same space as before but they go nuts trying to get at each other, thistle especially.
Some behaviors of each that we are dealing with are: Thistle, Poping and peeing all over when we let her out (marking?) trying to hop on the other ones cage, running in circles non-stop around me to the point she wears her self out. (no humping tried yet) and she’s rubbing her chin ALL OVER, especially on Hoot’s cage. (marking again?)
Hoot is a bit calmer when out, she binkies around a bit, explores, visits Thistles cage then goes back in and lays down.
Spaying is definetly on the to do list, but it prob will be a few months before we get that done. In the meantime, is there any hope to get these 2 to get along again in their new home, or is it just not goiing to happen? We have not tried the bathtub yet, paranoyed they are going to hurt each other. They were supposedly bonded before, but are just not getting along now. Any ideas?
Out theories are that when they were young, they were brought up together and bonded quickly, and that was that. Being in the new house, thistle feels threatened in a new space, and has to make sure she lets hoot know she’s still boss, but not more difficult since they are both mature and older.
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