Abusive Boyfriend

[Grahamiam]

Our male rabbit (Jethro) we’ve had for about 6 months has been bonded with a female rabbit (Becca) since Christmas.  They get along awesome, but Jethro is getting more and more abusive with her.  He nips her a bunch and pulls out fur.  It’s worst at feeding times (he’s very food aggressive) but he’s started doing it other times too.  Her back looks awful, little pieces of fur missing (usually about 5-8 spots at any given time).

However, she never acts scared of him, they cuddle all the time, etc.

Should I worry about this?  If so, what should I do?  I’ve tried pushing him away from her, spraying a little water in his face when he does it, holding his head down when he does it, nothing deters him.

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

I have to ask the obvious question – is he neutered? Is she spayed?
If he’s not neutered, then that’s probably the problem; he’s getting territorial and hormonal and hopefully she is spayed or else little buns will be running about shortly

[Grahamiam]

Both spayed and neutered.

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Hmm…how puzzling. I don’t really know…we’ll have to wait for the more experienced bonders to reply…:-S

[Grahamiam]

Maybe I just shouldn’t worry about it.  She moves away from him when he does it and doesn’t seem overly upset about it or mad at him, and it’s not leaving marks on her skin (we’ve inspected some) but one of our rabbits pulling out the other’s fur just doesn’t seem that healthy to me, and if there’s any way to get him to stop I’d be very glad to hear it.

We’ve tried separating them some when I feed them (like put her in the pen, set the food down, then let him in – he’ll go for the food and not her), but sometimes he does it when we first walk in the room even, or just randomly, so I don’t know what else to try.

[Scarlet_Rose]

My two do this once in a while and if I let it go too long they will have a grand-mal fight so I use a squirt bottle on the offender to nip it in the bud. Often they do it to claim top-bunny or to ward the other off, if I intervene I reinforce my position of the top bunny and they don’t argue and go about thier business and get along with no more fur nipping.

I know you’ve used the squirt bottle and nothing stops him, but I really would not recommend letting it go as it sounds like it is happening a little too often. have you tried clapping your hands and saying “NO” when it happens? Try sitting in a pen with them both and monitor it, when it happens push his head down gently and hold there for a bit, pet Becca and soothe her. Then see if he does it again. It seems to me he is annoyed with her for some reason and “marriage counseling” may help i.e. re-bonding. Keep them in separate cages, swith them between them so they don’t forget each others scent and don’t “claim” the cage as theirs, making it more difficult when they do finally get along to co-exist in one of the cages. Have bonding sessions in a neutral area and go slowly.

[BinkyBunny]

How often are they together and for how long? When they are together, where are they? What does she do when he does this?

[Grahamiam]

They’re always together.  They have a condo + pen they stay in while we’re at work and asleep (and occasionally when we’re doing other things), but they are free to roam about the apartment about 5-6 hours a day.

They’re both amazingly well behaved, they get lots of exercise, they eat right, he grooms her (she doesn’t groom him back that I see, maybe some of his nips are that he wants her to give him more attention), they flop and binky together, etc.  This is really the only quirk about them.

I guess we’ll just sit in the cage with them at feeding time and also some more at other times and be persistent with the training.

Yes we do clap and say no, however he bites her so fast it often doesn’t matter – he’s already gotten her and she’s ran off.

If it’s over food, she’ll come right back and eat, it hasn’t really deterred her diet or anything like that.

If it gets worse, we’ll try the “rebonding”.

[kimberleyanddarren]

could you perhaps feed them serperately like one in the pen one not or something? this may help

[Grahamiam]

Oh we could definitely separate them more, that just didn’t seem like a good solution to me.  If it gets worse we’ll try that though.

[kimberleyanddarren]

i didnt mean seperate them for good, just for dinner time if this is when the trouble is?

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