Bonded pair just had fight :(

[Snowleopard]

Hi everyone, I’ve been posting quite a lot recently, so apologies if you get tired of seeing my username come up! I have two bonded bunnies, Woolly and Chewie. Chewie is in the middle of recovering from GI stasis (taking her to the vet in a couple of hours to check if she needs any more meds). Woolly has been very caring and has been grooming her lots while she’s been poorly. However, this morning while I was in the kitchen (I didn’t see what started it) they were both seriously chasing one another, circling, Woolly’s fur went flying. I managed to stop it by putting a towel in between them and now Chewie’s gone into a corner and Woolly has gone back to hopping around. Fortunately I don’t think think any skin got broken. Although I didn’t see who started it, Chewie is the dominant bun and as far as I could see, only Woolly’s fur got pulled, so I’m assuming Chewie started it; Woolly’s acting very scared of her, though he’s just started tentatively grooming her again.

Do I need to keep them apart until she’s fully recovered? What should I do? Do I have to start the bonding process again? I
really don’t want to break their bond and Woolly has been a great source of comfort to her while she’s been unwell, but the fight seriously scared me.

[SeeShmemilyPlay]

1) I have the same worry about posting too much, but I do genuinely enjoy getting to read about Chewie and Woolly!
2) I had something similar happen between my two buns seemingly out of nowhere while my bun Eve was getting to be herself again after being spayed, only she was the one who was afraid. Just one day out of nowhere, Theo (who had previously been comforting her during recovery) started chasing her and humping her (he’d been fixed for months). She even seemed scared of him and hid under my bed and refused to go back into their cage when Theo was in there even though she’s usually more than willing to do so (they get treats when they go in their cage with little prompting.)
With my personal experience, I watched them closely for a couple of days to see if anything else would happen, but luckily nothing else happened besides Eve getting a bit annoyed by Theo sometimes, and after two days they were back to being best buds.
A helpful user whose name I can’t think of atm suggested that it could be hormones flaring up, and they might be seeing if they really are meant to be bonded or not. In that case, it was said they should be separated as to not watch the bond further break, and do bonding exercises again to solidify a healthy bond. I would personally first try just putting their enclosures next to one another’s and seeing if that would help; that’s the only bonding tactic I needed to bond my buns with (seeing as they were both 3 or 4ish months old it’s a helluva lot easier, though), so possibly since they’re already bonded you don’t need to use as extreme of tactics?

I would personally just keep a very close eye on them for the next couple of days, and if anything happens, separate them and try bonding again after a bit. Hopefully it was just the one incident!

[SeeShmemilyPlay]

It was Mikey who gave me that info!

[Mikey]

Yep!

I would keep them apart for a few days (no more than a week) so that Chewie can continue to heal from her stasis episode without being irritatd by Woolly. Keep their new cages/pens close to one another so they can still see and smell one another, but cant bite. It wont ruin their bond, just sort of put it on pause. Swap their litter, toys, water, ect every day so they can keep all territory fairly even with their scents being on everything. After shes healed up from Stasis, you can put them back together and all should be fine. If theres a bit of mounting and nipping, you might need to do a day or two of bonding just so they can solidify what they had before

[Snowleopard]

Thank you both so much for the advice. Thanks again Mikey!  They’re currently free-range buns, but I do have some metal x-pen-panels I can put up between my living room and bedroom (so one bun could be in my bedroom and the other could be in the living room); would that be suitable? SheShmemilyPlay, thank you for your kind words! So reassuring to know other owners and buns go through the same things.
Thank you for your advice, I watched for a few hours and luckily nothing happened and Woolly went back to grooming her as normal, will continue to keep watch and might put the panels up during the night.

[Mikey]

Yea, keeping them in different rooms for a few days should be fine If possible put a litter box on each side of the gate, or make it a hay area so they are still forced to interact once in a while

[Author]

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