Hey guys! So I’m new to this website so bare with me here.

I have two bunnies, Hulk and Ellie. Hulk is an 8 month old all-black male Netherland dwarf, and Ellie is a 2.5 year old black and white Netherland dwarf. We adopted Hulk when he was 12 weeks old and have had him ever since. He doesn’t like to be picked up, but otherwise he is very playful and exploratory. When he was 5 months old, after having been neutered, we decided to get him a friend. We rescued Ellie from a terrible situation on a farm and immediately started the bonding process following the package we were given from the humane society. She is spayed, btw.

We did the whole cage side by side, switch stuff around to get scents, start in a small neutral territory, etc. Every single time they came in contact, it ended in vicious fights where fur was pulled and blood was drawn (never enough for stitches or anything, more like scratches). After consulting with the breeder we adopted Hulk from, she advised us to wait a few months because Hulk was still a baby and said it could be their age difference, and try again.

Currently, Hulk and Ellie are in our guest room together. The room is divided in half by a  double- fence we created. Two nights ago, we decided to try bonding again. Neutral territory, the whole nine yards again. Within one minute, they were full on attacking one another. We are so overwhelmingly done with trying to make this work. We are disheartened and confused. Anyway, the purpose of this post is that both bunnies sustained injuries two nights ago. Ellie had some small scratches near her bum and Hulk had a small scab on his side. For the past two days, Hulk has been acting completely different. We take him out to play in our other guest room (that is their play area), and he will not interact with us. He hides, pees on the bed (never used to), poops everywhere, and is extremely skiddish. He won’t come near us, and if we move even an inch, he runs away.

He’s still eating, drinking, and excitedly taking treats. I don’t know what this is, or what it could mean. PLEASE HELP!