Bonded Pair fighting badly

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 5sd replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 8 months ago by DanaNM.

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- 05/08/2020 at 9:52 AM
  brit_onatuesday
  Participant
  7 posts
  Hi guys! I have a situation and have searched everywhere for advice. I have 2 female rabbits, BunBun is 1 year old (spayed 7 months ago) and we’ve had her since she was a baby. We decided to introduce a new bunny to the house in hopes of ridding BunBun of her destructive behavior. We figured perhaps she was lonely or bored and would benefit from having a companion. We rescued Mochi from an animal shelter 3-4 months ago, Mochi is believed to be 3 years old. I had Mochi set up in a separate enclosure from BunBun, and slowly moved their pens closer and closer into line of sight. Over the course of 3 weeks we initiated several bunny dates, car rides, and I watched them closely. Eventually I moved them together into the same enclosure, where they have lived happily for the past 2 1/2 months.
  
  I don’t know if they ever actually bonded, my reason for saying this is when they are free to roam the house, they go their separate ways. They cuddle once in a while, but neither of them hardly groom the other, even when one of them is bowing their head, rarely will one of them give in.
  
  I didn’t get Mochi fixed until 3 weeks ago, and after her spay, she continued to live happily in the same enclosure as BunBun, but things have taken a drastic turn. We moved into our new apartment 5 days ago, and yesterday BunBun and Mochi got into 2 fights, hair was flying everywhere, I had to separate them into different enclosures. 7 hours after the fight I tried to put them back into the same enclosure and they both approached willingly towards each other and bowed their heads, but no one groomed, and then another fight broke out. From their body language, I’ve gathered that BunBun is the one that seems to be the most aggressive with her ears back, tail sticking straight out and ready to lunge, while Mochi mostly stays away until she’s confronted. There have now been 3 Bunny Tornadoes, and I’m not sure if it’s the stress of the move or the fact that Mochi was fixed 3 weeks ago. What should I do? I’m going to restart the bonding process today. Is their still hope for them to live happily together again?
  
  Thank you so much for your time
- 05/08/2020 at 9:59 AM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9064 posts
  Hi there, welcome, so sorry you are going through such a stressful situation!
  
  My guess is that the combo of moving and the spay caused the break up. Mochi’s change in hormones likely changed how she smelled and triggered them to reestablish dominance.
  
  It can take a while for females hormones to drain following spaying, so I would actually wait a bit longer before trying to rebond them, just to make sure things are really settled with her hormones. I’ve hear varying numbers for how long this can take, but I think 6 weeks seems to be the most commonly stated number.
  
  Since they were fighting, it might even be good to give them some cooling off time where they aren’t even neighbors, then go through the pre-bonding period again and see how they react. If they aren’t aggressive towards each other through the fence and handle the side swaps well, then you can go ahead and move on to bonding.
  
  There are lots of stories of things like this happening, and the bond being repaired, so don’t despair! It will most likely be fixable. 🙂
  
  Feel free to start a bonding thread once you get to that point again. I do think it is important in bonding to wait for positive behaviors (grooming, cuddling etc.), not just the lack of fighting, before deeming them bonded, so it’s possible this time around they will be even more closely bonded than before. 🙂
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 05/08/2020 at 11:13 AM
  brit_onatuesday
  Participant
  7 posts
  Thank you so much DanaNM! Everything you’ve said makes perfect sense. I’m going to keep them separated without contact for 3-4 weeks in hopes of giving them time to cool off, and Mochi’s hormones to level off, as I can see there’s plenty of animosity between them still. After that I will reassess and hopefully can start rebonding them again. Thank you for the encouragement 🙂
- 05/08/2020 at 2:50 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9064 posts
  You’re welcome! 🙂
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 05/26/2020 at 12:17 PM
  brit_onatuesday
  Participant
  7 posts
  Here’s an update on the current break up between BunBun and Mochi. It’s been almost 3 weeks since the bad fight, in which during this time I’ve had them completely separated from each other (not even neighbors). It’s also been 6 weeks since Mochi’s spay. 2 days ago I put their cages side by side, but not touching. They both seemed excited to see each other and after about 10 minutes I put a card board box inbetween them to block their view.
  
  Yesterday I allowed Mochi free time around the living room while BunBun stayed in her cage watching, I felt that since BunBun has been the more aggressive one that maybe she needed to see that the space is shared and not only her space. While this was occurring Mochi actually approached BunBun’s cage and they both lifted their tails and booped noses a couple times, quickly backing away. I couldn’t tell if they were just skeptical of one another or if they were being aggressive so I sat on the floor and started petting them both, Mochi outside of BunBun’s cage, and BunBun through her cage. After a minute or two, Mochi laid down and scooted closer to BunBun until they were cheek to cheek while I pet them and they stayed like that for several minutes. When I stopped petting them, Mochi sat up and nipped BunBun’s side through the cage and I sprayed her with water to let her know that wasn’t very nice. BunBun didn’t seem to care. What do you gather from this? seeing as Mochi was never the one that started the fighting in the first place? PS. I’ve recently done some at home test, and I’m 95% sure Mochi is deaf. Could this affect anything in regards to bonding her back to BunBun?
  
  Tomorrow I plan to start the bonding process over again but I feel like I need to wait on the Bunny dating. I’m going to take it slow, and start by allowing them to live side by side, not touching, and remove the cardboard box so they can see each other from a few inches away. I’ll do that for 2 weeks and then start swapping litter boxes.
- 05/26/2020 at 10:40 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9064 posts
  That all sounds very normal and not too crazy, I think you have a good plan to go slowly with pre-bonding (but you could prob start swapping cages/boxes sooner if you want. Just make sure they can’t actually nip each other through the bars. If they are constantly harassing each other (even if they can’t reach each other) you might want to leave the barrier up. But hopefully they will settle down with some time.
  
  You can feed them their greens and pellets near each other on opposite sides of the fence so they associated those good things with each other.
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
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