Hi just became a member here and had a question to see if anyone else has a similar experience/situation as do I.
I currently have two male bunnies, they’re similar in size and breed (supposedly). They are both currently not fixed.
I’ve been planning to get them fixed, but it’s costly and I wanted to wait until I got my next financial aid check. I know that when two male bunnies have hit sexual maturity all they will do is try to kill each other. In the beginning of their friendship they would groom each other (and we keep them separate), then as we let them meet for play time dusty would just try to show his dominance and mount shadow and groom him. Then they started to fight which was scary. So we kept them separated. Then one morning they broke the fence separating them and never fought again. They straight up live together in peace in the same open space. Dusty no longer mounts shadow. They eat, sleep, groom, poop, and play together. They are completely fine sharing everything together. They have separate food, water, and litter pans, but insist on using only one together. The amount of time it took them to get bonded was literally a week.
I was actually kind of nervous after reading and researching on bunny bonding, and how some people takes them weeks to months, and was scared knowing how hard it was to bond two males, especially two unfixed males. I felt sad, because originally dusty had all this space to himself and I had to cut it in half to give it to shadow, and was planning to keep it that way until both were neutered. Up until they both knocked over the fence I used to separate them.
Should I be worried? They both have hit sexual maturity and have been living like this for months. They never fight or try to show any form of dominance. The both groom each other equally. Shadow is 1-2 months younger than Dusty, and just acts like a little brother and follows him everywhere. Dusty is rarely aggressive, he has only nipped me once the entire time I’ve had him. I check for any scars or bleeding, there is none. Is this considered odd? Or is this just bunny brother bonding to the max?
I still plan to get them fixed, but in the mean time, do you think they’re still okay? I really don’t want to separate them, they look so sad when one is away. Whenever I pick up Dusty, Shadow will physically run to the side I am and follow desperately to be with Dusty.
The first two pics are them in the kitchen as I was cleaning the cage/pen area.