Rabbits hate each other

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 1sd reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by Mikey.

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- 09/23/2016 at 2:51 PM
  BouncersMom
  Participant
  1 posts
  Hi all,
  
  This is my first post here and hoping maybe someone has some ideas to help.
  
  Situation:
  
  My husband and I have 2 rabbits. We adopted Floppy about 2 years ago. He is a neutered male rabbit. About a year later, we adopted Bouncer. We were told that “he” was actually a “she” and figured it might be nice for Floppy to have a friend. We took “her” to the vet to get a check up and schedule the spaying. We were then informed that we actually had a boy bunny.
  
  We attempted to introduce Floppy and Bouncer together using an exercise pen as a barrier. They immediately started grunting at each other and trying to attack. We tried this a few more times after Bouncer was neutered and it still happened, so we have been keeping them separated. Our house is mostly carpeted and both buns enjoy ripping up the rug, so they both get out time in the kitchen which is bunny proofed. It would be wonderful to let them both out together rather than allowing just one out at a time for exercise/play.
  
  We keep a baby gate up to keep buns in the kitchen. The other day, Floppy was out in the living room having some supervised play time. Without warning, he launched himself over the gate in an attempt to attack Bouncer. Nothing happened, we grabbed them immediately and separated them.
  
  I’ve read that putting them in a stressful situation (such as a car ride) may help them bond. Neither minds car rides and I’m not sure what else we can do to try to get them friendly with each other without putting either of them in any danger of a rabbit attack.
  
  They both get along fine with my Chihuahua who is also a male. They just hate each other!
- 09/23/2016 at 8:59 PM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  For stress bonding when car rides wont work, i used the box shake tactic. You put them both in a box (leave it open) that is big enough for them to sit and lay down a bit, but not big enough they can actually fight. Keep them in the box and whenever they show any signs of aggression, shake the box until they stop. If they dont stop, couple that tactic with a water spray bottle or loud noise
  
  First, though, you should work on prebonding. Keep their cages/pens close enough that they can see and sniff, but not close enough that they can nip one another. Youll want to leave their cages and pens like this until they seem to stop caring about one another being so close. While waiting for this, every few days you can swap their items around. Give Floppy’s litter box to Bouncer, and visa versa. Then the next day, give Bouncer’s food dish/hay rack to Floppy and visa versa. Just swap their items back and forth every day or two until it becomes obvious they no longer are territorial over their items. Itll also help them ease into sharing territory as each pen/cage will have both buns scent in them
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