4YrOld Neutered Boy Suddenly HUMPY W/ Wife!!!

[Dee]

Hi Everyone,

I have two 4 year old bunnies, my boy BunBun and girl Nelli. They have been happily bonded since August 2008. BunBun was my 1st bunny, we had him for about 2 months, neutered him, then took him on a bunny dating spree and he chose Nelli as his wife. Bun was very hormonal and humpy for the first week or so with Nelli, as he was only 2 weeks neutered (big mistake- give it at least a month!). Nelli was never aggressive in response- she’s very timid. Since then, she’s grown a bit larger than Bun, but he has remained the dominant rabbit. It’s worked out fine until the past month or so. In May, he came down with an ear infection/mild head tilt, which resolved after 10 days of Baytril and metronidazole. That probably has no connection, but figured I’d mention it.

  Anyway, he recovered from that and hopefully won’t have any repeats- I watch him like a hawk for any ear shaking, etc. But the new problem is that he is relentless with poor Nelli- he’s always trying to hump her! I think he might be nipping her or grabbing her fur with his teeth too. She’s a very furry girl- a fuzzy lop, so she’s got plenty of fur for Bun to latch onto. Although she could probably kick his little butt, Nelli just runs away from him. She’s such a nervous bunny to begin with, this really has her upset. I’ve tried scolding him, physically removing him from her or simply shielding her from him, and yesterday I even picked him up, which he HATES, and held him on my lap for a while to calm him (or scare him!) into behaving. Today, he’s right back at it.

  Does anyone else have this problem? Should I just let them be, since nobody is getting hurt? I don’t want him to think that he is no longer allowed to groom his wife- I don’t know if he understand that I’m trying to prevent him from humping her,  or whether he just thinks I don’t want him near her. I certainly don’t want to end up “unbonding” them by interfering, but also don’t want Nelli to be tortured day and night- or for her to get mad and injure her little husband. He’s a Polish mix, very small boned and delicate compared to Nelli. Also, do you guys think that he could have a physical problem that is causing this behavior? Perhaps his ears bothering him and causing aggressiveness…? Bunnies are so strange! Thanks for any advice .

 

[Sarita]

You know that sounds like BB’s Jack and his bladder/kidney stones. I know Bunbun has had some urinary issues as well so it makes me wonder if that could be his problem as well – the stones or a UTI.

[LBJ10]

It could be something wrong, like Sarita suggested. Or it could be that something changed that made BunBun feel he needed to reassert his dominance. Humping is a way for bunnies to say they are in charge.

[Dee]

Hi Sarita & LBJ10,
Thanks for the replies- both of your suggestions make sense!

Sarita, I remember hearing about Jack’s nightly humping activities. He was such an awesome bunny – pretty much an legend around here! Did his humping get worse when he his stones were acting up? That would make sense, really- they probably have a vague discomfort in their belly region and maybe that is a way to try to relieve it . I think I’ll cut BunBun’s pellets back- the last time I was too free with the pellets, he got sludge again. He always pees in weird places when he feels like it, so it’s hardto tell if there’s anything up with him. He hasn’t been posturing, so that’s good. But he hasn’t been as enthused with his greens as he usually is this past week. Hmmm- definitely something to watch. I’d feel awful if I was treating this as a behavior problem and it was really symptoms of illness instead.

LBJ, it also might be that Bun is reasserting his dominance after his head tilt episode. He must’ve been quite scared and felt very “un-Kinglike” when he was so off balance. Maybe now he’s letting Nelli know that The Boss is back! I just feel so badly for her- there are clumps of her fur laying around and he’s always chasing her. I’m not sure if I should seperate them for a few hours- they are free range- no cage- so I would just put up a barroer between the rooms. At least that would give Nell a break.

If this doesn’t resolve by next week, I think I’ll take Bun in for a check-up, just to be safe. Then if he’s fine, I guess I’ll hafta bring back the good ol spray bottle from his just-neutered days!

[LBJ10]

That makes sense and is certainly a possibility. If he’s pulling chunks out, then I would try separating them for a bit to give them a chance to calm down. You might have to do some bonding session-like activities.

[Author]

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