Advice on my Holland Lops Tigger n Thumper

[LuvMyLops]

Hi all, we need some advice on our almost 12 week old Holland Lop brothers (as far as we know). The issues are:

1. Tigger seems to be continuously pooping everywhere, I mean the boy moves a muscle and poop drops out…..constant trail behind him LoL. We put it down to being a baby and no muscle control, but please tell me this will improve. He pees anywhere as well at the moment too but not as bad as the pooping. Thumper is overall better and tends to do majority of his business in the litter area.

2. Thumper recently has started nipping our clothes to the extent that he bites through and catches skin….ouch. As all rabbits they nip/bite towels, cardboard etc but how do we stop him from biting us accidentally.

3. Thumper has started humping Tigger, who tends to take it for a little bit then just moves away as many times as needed. I believe this will get better once neutered.

4. They have already had a fight last week on the 4th….chased each other and there was a little fur from both on the floor. Nothing since except the humping. They still clean each other and cuddle up etc.

So, from my understanding we should separate them now and keep them apart until neutered (spayed if wrong on sex) then either immediately put them back together or wait and start letting them play together in a neutral area and slowly put together again.

I have also read that they can stay together now and after neutered/spayed as long as the fighting doesn’t get bad…..a little tiff is ok.

I must say, we are a little confused as to which route to take.

We have the Living world deluxe habitat xl and a play pen attached to it for them. They make a lot of mess right now pooping everywhere as they are babies, so separating them would double the cleaning work. I am thinking of making a temporary divider in the cage to separate them as it might just be needed for a couple months.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Tigger….Harlequin color

Thumper…..Blue Eyed all white with a little grey & fawn color on his back area, was told he’s a broken magpie color.

[Wick & Fable]

Yes, you need to separate them immediately, especially since a tussle and humping is occurring. When they are neutered, you need to wait a month as well so their hormones fluctuate back to normal. When that’s done, you start pre bonding then bonding, so don’t just throw them back together. There are a lot of bonding stories on the forum and at BUNNY INFO tab on this site, so I recommend reading it over.

The pooping will probably improve when they’re no longer sharing space. They seem to already be hormonal, and the pooping is territory marking. It may be amped up because of the shared space. You also need to actively train a rabbit to be litter trained. While some people say it happens naturally, a lot of rabbits don’t do it naturally. For Wick’s training, all poop was picked up and put in the box, all pees were cleaned immediately, and whenever he did poop or pee, I’d first put him in the litter box. Every. Time. That worked well.

I also don’t know what’s the youngest a rabbit can get pregnant, so I hope none of the humping resulted in a pregnancy.

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.

[Deleted User]

They absolutely need to be separated immediately, and kept that way for 1-2 months post neuter. During that time you prebond by swapping their items between their areas and swapping them between areas. After this, you can begin small sessions in a neutral area.

As for the cage, it might be best if you give one the xpen and one the cage. I have that living world deluxe habitat, and splitting the cage in half is not enough space, especially if you have that step up/shelf attached to it, and as they grow they will definitely not fit on each half. They both need adequate room to hop around and lay out. So putting one in the cage and one in the xpen gives them a good amount of space each. I’m trying to visualize that with the one that I have and it’ll be difficult to keep your xpen-cage together setup that way, considering the door to the cage doesn’t split the cage in half.

The pooping should get better once they are neutered, but sadly they will always poop a lot. When you’re bonding them eventually, they might leave territorial poops, which can be a lot.

[Deleted User]

Hi and welcome! I remember seeing these cuties in the welcome section! Unfortunately, there is a lot of inaccurate information on the internet. So it’s great that you found BB!

They do need to be separated immediately. If you allow them to be together, their fighting will get worse (trust me) and you will have a VERY difficult time trying to bond two rabbits who started to hate each other because they were fighting. Rabbits should never be allowed to live together without first being bonded. Even littermates will turn on each other when they reach sexual maturity (around 3-4 months).

I agree with A&B that the cage will be too small. Also, I can’t visualize how it would work because you would need to create a barrier in the xpen as well? Best to leave one in the cage and one in the xpen. They will both need to be allowed several hours outside of the cage to exercise. I recommend getting another xpen to block off a section and make a run where they can each have a turn at running around.

[LuvMyLops]

We have them separated now….1 in the cage and 1 in the pen. They look so lonely since they cannot see each other either.

[Deleted User]

I felt that way when I first separated my boys, but it will pay off when you have a happy bonded pair in the future

[LuvMyLops]

When we let one of them out in the 2nd pen for playtime, can that playpen be next to the other bunny’s cage………..so they can see/interact with each other or should it be in a separate area where they can’t do that.
At the moment we are not letting them see each other at all.

[Deleted User]

Seeing each other is totally fine, you just don’t want them to be able to touch each other through the bars because if they turn out to be one of each, they can actually mate through the bars. You just want to make sure the pen is far enough away from the other one to not mate or nip. 6 inches is a good rule of thumb.

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