Its good you caught them fighting before one seriously injured each other. Bucks have been known to even kill each other if left to their own devices. Baby rabbits are not really bonded with each other in the early months of life; they are ok with each others existence until hormones take over. Keep them completely separated until a couple weeks after the unneutered one gets neutered, then try rebonding them. It may be a slow process, but with enough time they will probably be fine together again.

As DV has already said, baby bunnies don’t bond. They can get along until hormones, but once hormones kick in they will be aggressive with each other. Bunnies don’t recognize family units so being a brother is irrelevant to them. Once hormones hit all they want to do is fight or mate. From now on they need to be completely separate at all times.

After your second one has been neutered, you’ll need to wait a month for his hormones to die down, and continue swapping items between them, then you can start short bonding sessions in neutral territory. If it’s not neutral they will fight and make things worse. In the mean time, keep a barrier between them at all times. Bunnies can fight and get seriously injured through cage bars.

You don’t need to worry about them ‘losing their bond’ They’ve fought. Badly by the sounds of it. Any ‘bond’ they had is already gone. Besides, baby bonds aren’t true bonds because (as you’ve witnessed) hormones make their behaviour unpredictable. I agree with the advice A&B has given.

I think because they’ve fought it would be best if they could be completely apart from each other to allow them to forget one another before you start pre bonding (swapping hutches etc)

Some bunnies are just grunters, but not necessarily mean. Most of mine grunt at me, but are huge sweethearts. Rabbits grunt as a response to their territory being invaded, hence his grunting when you open the hutch. Its normal bunny behavior and is not harmful, as long as he is not actually being aggressive.

If he didn’t usually grunt, it could be a result of the post-neuter hormonal spike. 2 weeks is definitely still within the realm of it existing. I think it took Wick a month to settle.

It’s great that you’re being patient. I know that can be hard!

My Xavier does lift his nose up while keeping his body down and with him it is a request to hang out and socialize. Of course with him almost everything not begging for food is a request to hang out and socialize. 😉

I don’t think there’s anything wrong going that route.

Just in case I had looked to see if there were any places by me that offered such service but couldn’t find any. I was starting to feel that I couldn’t do the bonding as well. I had decided that I couldn’t trust a stranger with them even if I did find one.

Personally if I needed more help I would find a place that offers consultation like the House Rabbit Society. They may allow you to bring them in or come to your place to help. This way the buns aren’t living away from you plus going through the stress of bonding. Another thing to consider is that they might get along well at another location but it’s not unusual to have a set back when they get moved back to their home.

I think you are still too soon after the neuter so they probably would have you hold off on bonding at this stage anyway. Hopefully you’ll see things improve in a week or two and feel better about being able to do it yourself. I totally know the feeling. When I had two bucks they fought right from the start and I knew it was going to be a long slow process. I wasn’t sure if I had the nerve to do it but more prebonding helped immensely.

I know you said that he was still grunting at you. What kind of one on one time do you have with them?

It’s far too early in the process to worry that the bond won’t happen in the long run. I understand how easy it is to worry considering what has happened so far.

I went back to clarify what their set up is like. I know you said you had a two story hutch but they are now separated. How are they set up in relation to each other at this point? In other words do you have one in the top and one in the bottom, have them in separate rooms now, etc?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the grunting is a combination of hormones and him knowing the other bun is right there. He could also be worried about what you might be coming to do or he could be also trying to tell you he thinks he’s top bunny.

When they are ready for prebonding again I think it would help if they were able to be next to each other as opposed to stacked like they are. They need to learn trust each other again so it’s important for them to be able to see each other. With my bucks I had anout a 6 inch gap between pens but spread some hay in between them so they could eat by each other. I fed them their pellets and greens so they ate those by each other as well. You want to start building positive associations between the two of them again. Of course the full pen swaps are also very important.