At wit’s end… Rabbits keep attacking :(

[calipa_st]

I got Calvin to bond with Lucky, and Lucky and him did great at HRS and at home it’s been…well, to put it bluntly…hell.

Lucky is locked in my bedroom, Calvin takes hours to catch so he sometimes gets free time in my childrens room (no places to hide) Rodan is the only one that gets to run around downstairs but also in half an ex-pen trying to bond him with calvin

 

Lucky just chewed through the gate at the top of the stairs and viciously attacked Calvin. I had been trying off and on for two hours to capture calvin but by myself it’s near impossible. Lucky got Calvin’s ear I don’t know if I should go to the vet, it had lots of red blood but it has stopped. he is cleaning himself off and eating hay currently. I have metacam and an antibiotic (from when rodan or calvin my gosh I don’t remember who now, ripped lucky’s lip.) I could clean it and give him medicine to avoid infection… It’s midnight here, I’m searching for a 24hour vet that knows rabbits, but I don’t even know if he needs stitches!

 

this is just crazy. How can I have three completely unbonded rabbits? I love them all but I’m worried I can’t do this. I tried to bond them, calvin and rodan make process but only in the kitchen and when there is zero food/hay involved..otherwise, rodan gets territorial. they live side by side peacefully but it’s much too small IMO for a rabbit to live in. ugh, I don’t know what to do.

[Mocha]

Oh my! That sounds vicious! 3 rabbits (especially all males) are generally very hard to bond together because two might be best friends and the other might be the odd one out. Maybe you can ask about your rabbits ear to an online vet? Tommorrow morning you need to go to your vet though. Is the cut on Calvin’s ear an open gash? If so he might need stitches. If you want, you can put some of that antibotic on his ear, but I wouldn’t mess with it too much.

What have you tried for their bonding? Take them on a car ride in the same carrier or put them on the washing machine while it’s on.
If the bonding isn’t getting any better and if you have the time and money maybe you can adopt a fourth rabbit as an even number of rabbits usually bond well because each rabbit has someone to go to.

[Sarita]

Moving to Bonding.

[calipa_st]

sorry Sarita, I wasn’t sure where to put this!

Mocha- So, any time Lucky comes out he attacks. No matter what. BUT, they had done bunny dating at HRS twice and had a 45 min car ride together with no fighting. it’s been awful at home, and after lucky needed stiches, he went upstairs and Rodan and Calvin showed lots of promise

I have a fourth, but he’s a foster. He needs to be neutered and has messed up all the progress I made with Calvin and Rodan because Rodan is not happy that he’s here. I’m thinking of putting the rabbits in the basement…but it’s cold and unfinished, the washer and dryer are down there and no one ever goes down there so I didn’t think it’d be good for rabbits. Lucky lives in my bedroom. I’m getting a plexiglass type babygate today so if the bedroom door gets left open, he can’t get downstairs.

Bonding wise, I’ve tried neutral territory (basement) calvin and rodan went nuts on each other, but when I tried the kitchen in a larger space, they did a lot better. they tend to ignore each other.
I’m going to wait a week for Calvin to heal then do a car ride with them then a bonding session
I’m in school and have two kids so I haven’t devoted enough time to the bonding sessions like I should

[calipa_st]

Also, can I put neosporin on a rabbit’s ear?? I gave him metacam last night and whatever the pink antibiotic for rabbits is. it was prescribed for lucky who is the same weight as him so I assume it’s the correct dosage

[Sarita]

As long as it isn’t the pain reliever it is fine to use.

[Sindri]

After searching for answers about Neosporin it seems to be safe to use except for Neosporin plus. I am sorry to hear you are having issues with your bunnies. I only have 2 that I tried to bond and it was not good. Just now I thought one rabbit was in her bunny room so I closed her door and let out my other one only to find that she wasn’t in her room and the 2 got into a fight thankful I separated them quickly. I also had trouble catching my bunnies that was really frustraiting for me so I also know what that is like. I wish I was of some help to you with your situation.
Oh and I read about the plexiglass gate I have one too. I got the tallest one I could off of Amazon it works really well. Waiting and then doing a car ride sounds like a good idea. Hopefully a break will be best for now. I wish our rabbits could understand us so we could tell them to all get along and make bonding much easier. hehe I hope things get better. I wish you the best of luck!

[Taysmama13]

Hi Calipa! I’m so sorry you are going through this. I don’t have any insight because I’m new with rabbits and having a heck of a time with my own. Just had an emergency visit that ended in stitches, metacam and the pink stuff (smz-tmp) for both my boys because I stepped away for a moment. I agree with Sindriona and wish they understood us and would just be friends to make everything easier for everyone. I have a large fence splitting my livingroom in half for my rabbits. It’s not ideal but it’s what I have to do. I’m having a hard time with 2 boys, I couldn’t even imagine more than that! I hope everything works out for you and the end result is a happy bunny family!

[calipa_st]

Home from work, his ear looks fine…looks more superficial than I initially thought. He’s also eating and drinking so that’s good.

I moved him back next to Rodan, where he is most comfortable, and moved the new foster up to my childrens room which they said was okay temporarily…going to see a vet next week and see where we can go from there. I want to keep him, but I canNOT have four unbonded. My home is only 1000sqft and two in living room one in master bedroom and one in second bedroom. way too much separation! If I can bond rodan and calvin, it’d make life so much easier!

[Beka27]

I’m intrigued by your basement… Could you section off an area to use that for a bonding space? I assume none of them have ever been down there? Not to house them there permanently, but just for bonding sessions. You can also use the washer for some stressing beforehand.

[calipa_st]

Beka- It’s a decent sized basement, mainly storage.. I did try a bonding session down there, I put an ex-pen down there and attempted it the way HRS did it (with calvin and lucky super close, like in triagle of an ex pen) but with rodan and calvin and they attacked each other…I’m still cleaning up fur from that mess!
Once Calvin heals, I’m going to do a car ride with them then work in the kitchen again then the basement for more space. Possibly the kids room as well since it’s the only room where they can’t hide

[Alfiebuns]

Hi!

I have no advice to offer you sorry but wanted to say that I am in a similar situation, I have a bonded pair and 2 singles, all bedroom buns and I have been attempting bonding for a while now. Recently this has ended with one of my buns ears being severed and needing lots of stitches. It didn’t heal unfortunately so she has a huge chunk missing out of her ear. Our house has been a mess for the last year as we have transparent fences stuck up witH hideous tape everywhere to allow the buns to have freedom and still interact but safely. We’re constantly climbing over the fences and also have to prepare 3 separate trays of food, litter trays, hay and water bowls and it drives me crazy but my bunnies are happy, as I’m sure yours are too, so it is worth it.

I completely recognise your frustration and guilt, I found it very helpful to start a thread on here as it easy to lose sight of the progress you have made and just feel lost so it’s nice to have something to look back at during those moments.

You clearly love your little fuzz balls so be proud of what you’ve achieved so far and hang on in there, good luck!!

[tanlover14]

Awww, Calipa. I’m so glad I stumbled upon this thread. I would love to help you bond!

First off, breathe! Bonding IS hell. Haha! And those of us who have been through the ringer… definitely understand.

Second, I wouldn’t give up on this basement idea. Did you try to make the x-pen in the basement smaller or bigger? (what was the original size when you tried it?) I’m kind of zoning in on the fact that you had success with them outside your home…. but when you came home, they began attacking. That tells me that when you’re bonding, there is something setting your two off. And my guess….not to be mean… without knowing much…. is that is may be you. Haha! Are you interacting with them while bonding? Where are you sitting and how often are you talking/encouraging/petting them? Can they see you while they’re in their bonding area? These are all things you need to look and access. Your presence could easily be what is setting them off. I used to hide during some of my bonding sessions because I could see them watching me and before I knew it everyone was riled up and scuffling. Cutting yourself off can be as simple as putting up a sheet so they can’t see you and sitting behind it or putting them in a box and peeking in through a hole you make.

Before I ramble to much, I’m curious as to your thoughts?

[calipa_st]

hey tan!

so, we just can’t put Lucky near any rabbit. He is just always on a mission to hurt. He attacks through the ex pens so we have to put calvin and rodan in the bathrooms, so lucky can have free time… Lucky comes down the stairs, tail straight up looking for a fight. If I put Lucky in the ex pen (36in height) he climbs out, he can’t even be in it when rodan is having free time because he climbed it in an attempt to attack rodan…so him even living next door to another rabbit is out of the question.
But, Rodan and Calvin seem to really enjoy living side by side…they sniff each other (minor nipping) and bonding sessions aren’t bad between them, only minor fighting where yelling or spraying stops it. When Lucky gets in a fight, he latches on and it’s super stressful (my boyfriend gets angry if I even attempt to bring Lucky out…so I try not to step on his toes with that. animals fighting really freak him out. but, he has zero clue what goes into bonding and does not help with it.)

In the basement with Calvin and Rodan, I used a regular ex pen but made it smaller so they had to be near each other. it caused fighting. They did better in my galley kitchen, it’s relatively small… they ignore each other unless there is food and then Rodan gets territorial

[JackRabbit]

Take a look at this amazing web site http://www.wheekwheekthump.com/. (You may recognize the bunnies in the bonding pictures!) We had to take a break from bonding our trio when one of them had a bout with GI Stasis, but the web site has great info and I’ll be following the advice there when we try again.

[Slowebot]

I was having terrible luck bonding my bunnies anywhere in my apartment, even the bathtub. I attributed this to the bathtub still kinda smelling like me/home and my first bunny still considering it his territory since the scent was there. So I took the bunnies outside instead and actually took them to a parking lot that was close to a slightly busy street and put them in a pen together. That was the first time I saw actual, harmless nipping instead of full on attacks.

From your description of their interactions at the HRS and in the car, the bonding doesn’t sound impossible! I think you might just need to dedicate a good chunk of time into bonding at least once. I would take them outside for an hour, stuff them in a carrier together, maybe drive? If that goes well then put them in the bathtub? Something else I had success with was moving furniture around in my living room and setting up a pen on floor the bunnies had never touched. I also doused the entire corner in vinegar to get rid of any scent and covered the walls of the pen so that they couldn’t see they were inside. I eventually removed portions of the wall after an hour or so. I ended up marathon bonding my bunnies, but I understand many people cannot sacrifice that much time at once to bonding. But the parking lot thing was so successful I was afraid of separating them.

When I changed areas (outside, to inside, then room to room) I would start of with a larger pen that I could get in if needed to separate a fight. If they were okay I would decrease it until it was the size of a litter box and I would leave them like that for a while until feeding or play time. It forced them to be close which worked for my bunnies, but this of course requires a degree of trust that your bunnies won’t hurt each other. Since I took them outside, I had seen no nipping. They did chase and form the yin-yang but it was always quickly ended with a clap or shout. When you decide to trust your bunnies will be up to you and how you measure your degrees of success, there is a certain amount of risk, but also make sure you feel comfortable! I really hope that you can regain some hope and confidence with some success!

I agree with tanlover14 that blocking off their vision might help! I set up FaceTime between my computer and phone and then watched television and my bunnies at the same time. They actually did a ton better if i wasn’t watching.

Lucky sounds mega determined, but you should test out the parking lot thing. At least take him out there and see if he seems more on edge (he seems super confident). If he seems tense then try adding the one bunny into the mix, and then if he still seems fine try another bunny. Wear gloves, have the spray bottle, a broom, whatever it takes to make you feel more confident. You can even take a noisemaker out there to put him more on edge. Once he’s stressed he’s going to go for the first form of comfort he can which will hopefully be another bunny and then you’ll have something to build off of. The key is to figure out how to properly stress Lucky so experiment a little!

[Slowebot]

Also sometimes weird things spook bunnies and maybe you can wrack your brain for something Lucky doesn’t like. Sherlock (for some unknown reason) either doesn’t like it when I cook or he doesn’t like the smell of melted butter because he flips out when I’m cooking pancakes! He’s not even in the kitchen! But if I walk into the room smelling like I’ve been cooking I can’t get near him, he thumps and looks terrified. So for instance while I was cooking pancakes would’ve been an interesting bonding opportunity!

[calipa_st]

What about when Lucky attacks us?
He jumped on my foot in the middle of the night the other night… he pretty much attacks anyone that smells like other rabbits now. He somehow cut my toe and it was gushing blood at 3 in the morning! And he woke up my boyfriend digging on him one night… he is pretty aggressive towards humans lately. I don’t know what happened. He used to be my little sweetheart, super bonded to me always licking me. Now, I get so scared when he is near me because he always bites me after smelling me
He is better when he gets time downstairs, and lays with me and is seriously the perfect rabbit.

I do not think I want to bond him and Calvin, I would rather bond Calvin and Rodan

[calipa_st]

I’d have to find out what spooks Lucky, nothing scares him…not the vacuum or loud noises. He just attacks anything he views as a threat. Maybe the car, but he’s more curious than anything

[calipa_st]

this is what the kitchen bonding sessions look like. basically Calvin trying to escape and rodan just sitting there waiting to snuggle

[Slowebot]

Yeah one of my bunnies was pretty aggressive for a while during bonding. I just made sure to wash my hands really well. But what I ended up having to do was just refrain from really handling any bunny things or bunnies during the bonding process. They do become territorial over basically anything. Lucky seems to be just extremely confident and territorial. I totally understand if you don’t feel like bonding him to other bunnies for a while. He might benefit from getting a little bit of a break and getting over the smell of the other bunnies a little more. In the meantime try to experiment with what might scare Lucky, it might be something random, lile banging pots or even a whistle might do it.

If Rodan and Calvin aren’t attacking each other but rather avoiding each other most people give that time I think. I liked to make their space smaller and smaller until my bunnies were forced to touch and flop and eat together because they could barely move. Also the banana thing is worth a try at least once, that was a big hit for me and I was super skeptical of it.

Also is Lucky a free-roam bunny? It might also help tone down the aggression to limit his space to one thing like a cage or room until you can get him to adjust and play nice. His aggression may be that he feels like so many bunnies are intruding on his area, if you give him one designated only Lucky area, no humans or bunnies, he may calm down.

I was heartbroken when Sherlock bit me. He was so cuddly and sweet and I had never seen an aggressive side to him at all. I know how sad that can be. It takes time for that to calm down, it’s been 3 weeks since I finished bonding them and I’m just now seeing him revert back to normal. It helped for me to remember that when he was attacking me he was literally thinking I was someone completely different because when I was fresh out of the shower he would cuddle with me and groom me. Lucky is still sweet somewhere under there, just be patient and take precautions against confusing him with scents. Another thing is he might be really jealous too. I still see jealousy between my two buns, if I give one attention, the other will nip, and then they’ll chase each other away.

I do wish you luck, your bunnies are all so cute and I can tell you really want them to enjoy each other as much as you enjoy them individually. Stay confident and you’ll get there eventually!

[tanlover14]

I’m really busy this morning & don’t have time to write a full post (I’ll respond more later) but since JackRabbit posted my bonding blog link…. check out this!

http://www.wheekwheekthump.com/2014/03/10/understanding-rabbits-bonding-dominant-behaviors/

It will give you a different perspective on Lucky. And how his interacts are not aggression based but rather fear based. It’s important to understand why your rabbits do the things they do to help with the bonding process. I will check back later, calipa!

[Author]

Messages