Constant humping – rabbit bonding

[Rosie316]

Hi everyone! I really need some help. I’m currently trying to bond my bunnies. I have one male and one female, both fixed. They were both fixed quite a while ago. So I’ve been trying to bond my two bunnies, but it’s frustrating and I’m getting quite confused. My female will groom the male and when we were outside they were cuddling and grooming. When I brought them inside, my male just humps and humps and humps. And like I said, he’s neutered and had been neutered for about 6 months! My female was accepting it at first. But then she started getting fed up so she ran away and he just chased after her and keeps attempting to jump her. He also grunts and thumps. There has been no biting though. Sometimes it looks like he tries to pick a fight because he puts his face by her face and she jolts. I’m not sure what to do. The humping is non stop. My female is starting to get annoyed. (Can’t blame her!) Please any suggestions that would help! I’ve never bonded rabbits before? Do you think my bunnies can bond? Or is it a lost cause. Please help!!

[Sirius&Luna]

Hi!

Did you do any prebonding before you started bonding? (That’s where you swap them between hutches for a month to get them used to the smell of each other). And how long have you been bonding for? What have you been doing?

The humping in this case sounds like its an attempt to assert dominance. When you bring them inside, is it to a neutral space?

When they sit face to face, it’s known as a stand off, as they’re both waiting for the other to groom them, its not necessarily an aggressive move.

If you’re in a neutral space and he’s still humping, I would just gently push him off and don’t let him chase her. If you’re not in a neutral space, move back to a neutral space for a bit longer.

You can try lots of different things, so I definitely don’t think it’s a lost cause yet. They’re just battling for dominance at the moment. Some other options are trying a smaller space, a bigger space, stress bonding, smooshing them together and petting them, scattering food, marathon bonding etc. If you let us know what exactly you’ve tried already then we can suggest what your best next move would be

[Rosie316]

Yeah, they’ve been living in the same room for about a year and have been able to smell each other. I’ve also swapped litter pan and toys, etc.. I’ve been trying to bond these two for a week now. Yes, we start in neutral territory. My female has groomed him, but my male puts his face near hers and almost looks like he’s pulling fur from her face or something. His humping and grunting is non-stop. It’s stressing me out because he just humps and humps and humps! He can’t stop!

[Wick & Fable]

A week is a very short amount of time so far, based on the bonding-timelines I’ve seen on these forums. For a lot of users, it seems to take at least one month to get to a point where the rabbits are together, while still supervised, for 24 hours. It can be very frustrating, but rabbit bonding does take time.

Unfortunately I cannot offer any advice, but it’s good you are attentive that this may be stressing out the female. I believe a little humping is fine, but I believe you need to intervene for excessive humping (to my knowledge)?

S&L offered really good advice, so I think the key is lower your expectations about how quickly the bond will take. It may take a long time, but not rushing it or forcing cohabitation for an unhealthy relationship is not in anyone’s best interest, versus taking more time to bond and having everyone be happy.

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.

[Rosie316]

Nobody really gives much advice… but I don’t think they can be bonded because I’m assuming his neuter must of failed. He just humps way too much and it’s not subsiding at all.

[Bunny House]

Hi
I understand bonding can be frustrating to where you want to throw the towel in and if you keep your attitude, the buns can sense it and not want to bond. Keep doing the dates or even go back to switching them in each others houses, sometimes buns need to go back to step one to stop the humping and then they will be good. Make sure you develop a good attitude towards this or it will fail. And everyone has offered really good advice, you can take it or leave it but these are experts who have bonded before and it’s a science to get them to bond. Keep reading tricks online and on HRS for help.

[tobyluv]

Some humping (from both rabbits) can be expected, but non stop humping is not good. The female can become so stressed and irritated by it that she becomes aggressive. Then fighting, with possible injuries can occur. The female can also become depressed by that constant humping.

Have you checked him to make sure that he was completely neutered? I know that I’ve heard of a couple of cases in the past where the vet only removed one testicle, either through incompetence or being in too much of a hurry. A rabbit would still have all those hormones and the desire to hump if he had one testicle. So you may want to double check that in case you haven’t already.

I’ve read about hormones secreted from the pituitary gland which can cause humping in neutered males. I suppose a blood test would be needed to determine if he is dealing with something like that.

But it may just be his nature and it’s possible that he will calm down in time. It can take weeks or months to bond rabbits, but in the meantime, you don’t want this constant humping to occur in case it leads to fighting and injuries, plus you don’t want the female to feel downtrodden. I’ve never had this happen with the bunnies I’ve bonded, so I don’t know if it would be best to keep trying, keeping a close eye on them and separating them if it seems things are escalating, or to go ahead and separate them now and have a cooling off period. Hopefully someone else here has faced the same problem and can give better advice than I can.

[Bunny House]

I have to add, one of my males would not stop mounting my female for the life of him, it was actually because he would groom her but when he wanted to be groomed, she would ignore him which made him mad and mount her until she groomed him, I went back to bunny dates and then they were good, your male just might be emotional

[Rosie316]

This is really helpful thank you. I think this is what’s going on. He was neutered a long time ago (about 6 months) so he has had a lot of time to calm down. But he hasn’t calmed down. They were together for about 3 days but his humping is too much and my female got annoyed and started humping him. That caused him to try and fight her. I separated them for now because I don’t think it’s possible they’ll be fully bonded with his non stop humping. This may be tmi but when he humps his pink thing comes out. Is that because he’s trying to breed with her? My female let him be the dominant bunny and so I’d assume he’d get the point after a few days, but he never did. That’s why I think the vet must have missed a testicle. How do I find out if he still has a testicle? When he was neutered the vet was SUPER fast with it. He was done about 20-30 minutes after I dropped him off.

[Rosie316]

My female grooms him a lot though. They seem to really like each other except for the fact that he seems really sexually frustrated.

[DanaNM]

I really think you just moved too quickly into the new space inside. 1 week is seriously no time at all. You need to “cement” the relationship in each location before moving into less neutral space. You also didn’t mention how long sessions were or anything like that?

Think of it this way: you meet someone out in the world, say at a park or something. You might become friends with them right away. But then say that person just shows up in your home and is like “I live here now!”. You might have some things to sort out! You need to get them to completely trust each other before moving them into their permanent home, and this takes time.

Humping is a dominance display, and the fact that he didn’t hump outside makes me think it’s not a “failed neuter”, but a dominance display in non-neutral space.

Return them to the area where they were cuddling and grooming (sounds like a pen outside?). If they are still good in that space, then work up to a few days of sessions that are many hours long. If they are still good in that space, find a NEUTRAL area where you can have them spend 24-48 hours together (supervised). After that time, if things are all still good (no chasing, lots of grooming, etc.), you can progress to “semi neutral”. This means an area that is in sight of where the buns live, but not their primary living space. Continue supervising until they are as good in semi-neutral as they were in neutral.

. . . 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.  

[tobyluv]

Even though I mentioned it has happened, it would be rare for a vet to only remove one testicle. If your rabbit still has a testicle, you should be able to see it. Hopefully, he will let you hold him so you can get a good look. They look sort of like pink kidney beans. If you don’t see a testicle, then it may be that he is just an over excited bunny. Have you ever placed a plush toy animal with him to see if he humps it? Does he ever hump your arm or anything other than the female bunny?

If you don’t see a testicle, you could always take him to the vet for a blood test to check his hormone levels and see if anything is out of the ordinary, but it seems more likely that he is over excited or over stimulated when he is with the female. If you rule out any medical causes, maybe patience and starting over with the bonding procedures will do the trick. I’m not sure whether or not you should stop the sessions for a few days before starting over, though.

[Rosie316]

I’ll try to summarize what I did as best as possible. I have a friend who owns a rabbit rescue and I brought them there first (comepletely new area) so she could help me because I was a bit nervous. They were together that day for about 2-3 hours. The next day we did bonding in the living room where they both have never been and lots of grunting and humping on the males part. My female let him assert dominance. I brought them outside where we did more bonding and there was humping. The only time he didn’t hump her was when I was in the pen too and petting them so they’d cuddle. The next day we did more bonding in the kitchen. They spent the entire day together and there was humping and grunting on his part. But she was grooming him and they were laying together. I brought them to my room and kept them in a small pen. They spent the night together. He still was humping but there was no fighting. She was grooming him. Then I kept them together for 3 more days. They were not separated in those 3-4 days. The lady at the rabbit rescue said every time I separate them the humping will start up again like the first time they meet. Since there was no fighting I kept them together for as long as possible. When the jumping hasn’t subsided at all the rabbit rescue lady was surprised. It’s the fact that they’ve been together for 4 days and humping hasn’t subsided at all. And they saw each other more than 4 days but were together 4 days straight, nights included. Then my female humped him and they started fighting so I separated them. Every time he sees her he humps and grunts. If her back side is facing him he humps. If she moves he humps. If she lays down he humps. It’s continuous. If he was just trying to be dominant would he do that? Would he stick his penis out if he was just trying to assert dominance? It really seems like he’s sexually frustrated but I don’t know.

[Rosie316]

I’ll be away for about a week but when I come back I’ll consider bringing him to the vet to do that. Maybe he’ll also have an idea of what’s going on and could check to see if he has a testicle. (The vet and vet who neutered him are different)

[Rosie316]

If he’s overly excited can he be bonded then or no? He doesn’t hump my arm or stuffed animals. But he didn’t do that before he was neutered either and he was neutered at 6-7 months.

[DanaNM]

I’m assuming the pen in your room was not as neutral? If so, I think you progressed too fast, as you don’t want to move in to less neutral space until they are perfect together in neutral. Marathoning is definitely a way to bond bunnies, but it must be done in a very neutral space.

If humping only happened at the beginning of the date and not at the end, I would agree with the advice you received from the rescue (that everytime you reintroduce they will hump). But, it sounds like that isn’t the case?

In your situation, I would step it back a bit and go for a more slow and steady approach before trying the marathon. I would try a couple of stressing sessions (car rides are my go-to), followed by sessions in a very large very neutral spot. See if stressing them first makes a difference (it can be hugely helpful).

This doesn’t happen with every pair, but for many pairs, every time you change locations, they will want to reassert things. That may be what’s going on here.

If you are really concerned that his neuter was incomplete, have your vet (or a different vet) check. That way they can finish the job!

. . . 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.  

[Rosie316]

It seems like everything is perfect except for the humping. That’s what negatively impacting the bond. I can try to do a very neutral spot but I already have done very neutral spots. I even put them together at the rabbit rescue so it was a totally new environment. Do you really think he’ll stop humping? I’m doing more prebonding now. He’s in a pen and she free ranges. They can see smell and touch each other. She grooms him through the bars. She lays right next to the pen. It’s just his humping. He’s probably fully neutered. Like other said, he’s probably just really excited. He may not be able to be bonded with her I guess because of how excited he is.

[DanaNM]

With pre-bonding make sure you are swapping who is on what side daily (and don’t clean the litter box right before you swap them). The more he gets VERY used to her scent, the less likely he is to get so excited when they are together!

. . . 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.  

[Bunny House]

Do you have a stuffed animal that you can get her scent all over and then give it to him and he can’t mount it until he sees he gets nothing back? I know it is often used in hard bonds when buns want to fight eachother and it helps get the agression out so when they bond there is little agression

[Rosie316]

I can try the stuffed animal method, but I don’t think he’ll hump it. He only humps her for some reason! I’ll be away for a week. He’s in a pen and she’s free range. They can see smell and touch each other so hopefully that will help him get better used to her. When I get back I’ll do litter pans and blankets. I really hope it works out because I’d love for them to be friends!

[Rosie316]

The only thing is there is very little aggression. Just constant humping on his part. But I’ll definitely try it.

[DanaNM]

Swapping sides daily or every other day, or at least litter boxes, is important. Side by side is good, but you want them to really really get used to each other’s scents and lose track of territory.

. . . 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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