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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
We have a new-ish addition to the family. A 14month old bun called Daisy.
Now, Daisy hasn’t been spayed, and, due to a weight problem (the joys of spending half her life in the adoption centre) she won’t be being spayed for a couple of months at least.
She has, on a number of occasions, tried to hump my wife’s knee while she’s been sitting on the floor.
But recently, we noticed she has taken a liking to a puppet that was just lay on the bun room floor. (Named José…)
We’ve never had a female bun of this age that hasn’t been spayed, so, we were wondering, is it okay to let her act out her dominance over José and leave him with her, or, in fact, should we be discouraging this behaviour and preventing her from humping/dominating him?…
Just trying to do what’s best for her while we get some of her weight off.
I was kind of thinking that… And it smells like Navi, so could aid with the bonding overall… I’m just not sure if encouraging dominating behaviour is a good thing when we’re intending to have all three of our buns bonded as soon as she’s settled down after the spay?!…
Interested in hearing opinions on this as well. You know, just to add to my ever-growing rabbit education!
Aside from the bonding advantages/disadvantages of continuing to allow the behavior, I’d want to know whether if it continued would it turn into a habit?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Firstly, I met your Mrs this morning (Aussie time for me) and was surprised that her bunnies had the same names as yours – till I read a bit further and she said ‘you may know my hubby – RetroSquid!’ Lol…. and Daisy (if you remember I named one of my pups Daisy, so loved the name) and now your telling me Daisy is ‘humping’ Jose (my hubby’s name) ha ha ha ha! To top it off – a new member is using my knickname (that my hubby calls me) – serious, this is all to weird for me in one day! LOL!
Anyhow, I actually gave my boy a soft toy for him to make ‘friends’ with to stop him from molesting my 14yo dog (before he got neutered). And don’t they say that sort of exercise is one of the best for losing weight? I reckon ‘go for it’! This is sooo funny! I share a lot of BB funny bunny stories with my hubby – I’m still deciding if I should share this one?
Add/Edit – Once Henry was neutered, no more ‘showing the love’! He’s still in love with Sam, follows her, runs circles (and just annoys the hec out of her in general), but no more ‘dirty dancing’! So all good on my end.
I have to laugh manic_muncher – about a month or so ago, another new BBer username was my actual younger son’s name!!!!!!!!! (NO – I didn’t call my son ‘Rodger Rabbit’) ha ha hah….. I’m just waiting for my daughter’s and my other son’s name to appear! LOL! Seriously – this is way toooo weird/funny! But all good for a laugh!
Some people do redirect the humping during the bonding process. So say bunny is humping another bunny, but won’t give things a rest. The owner redirects them to a stand-in (usually a stuffed toy) so they can finish up without annoying the heck out of the other rabbit. So I’m going to assume here that Daisy humping this stuffed toy is not going to be detrimental.
Well, I gave José to Daisy about an hour ago, just after her lunch greens.
I sat back at my desk (She’s right behind me) then, a few minutes later, heard a gentle and rhythmic thumping… José was being dominated…
It only lasted for a few seconds, and now, she keeps walking past him and licking him.
José has been in Navi’s room for months, so will clearly smell of Navi to some degree.