Bonded Rabbits Fighting

[Kelsey]

My Rabbits have been bonded for the last few months but have recently been very humpy, it seems to be getting a little bit hostile, with bits of fur being pulled out. It’s quite sporadic and only seems to happen every now and then – they still groom each other and cuddle up, but this has been going on for the last week. I wonder if it’s Spring?? Is that a thing? 

Any advice welcome!

Thanks,

Kelsey

[sarahthegemini]

I’ve read about spring fever. Not sure if that can be attributed to actual fighting tho. My rabbits are definitely a bit friskier – they sniff each other’s bums intently and go round in circles but then they just stop and carry on with what they were doing before. I’ve never had to intervene. I wouldn’t feel comfortable if they were pulling fur and fighting tho. Maybe try a stress bonding session? My two had a little scuffle about 7 weeks into their bond and we did a stress bonding session and since then, no issues.

[Mikey]

Pulling fur while mounting, or pulling fur from circling/boxing/fighting? All fur pulling is aggressive, but fur pulling while mounting is sometimes an “accident” where as fur pulling while fighting is always to harm

If you notice mounting, remove the top bunny after a few seconds, then pet them both for about a minute or so. This will calm both of them down, hopefully

If its during fighting, youll have to restart the bonding process as somewhere in the past few days/weeks their bond has broken as bonded bunnies dont fight. On the plus side, rebonding them should go fairly well since you already know they like one another, you just need to remind them

[Kelsey]

The fur pulling is from mounting. They haven’t had any actual fights.

Nina is mounting Gastons head – and digging her claws in so its hard to get her off of him. Gaston will then attempt to bite or chase her.

When this isn’t happening they get on very well, typically Gaston is the dominant one! Very confusing – I just got caught with a little bite myself, generally they seem ok but this isn’t ideal, i don’t want it to get worse?

[Bam]

If Gaston starts mounting Nina’s head you must separate at once. She could seriously harm his little penis with her teeth.

“Spring fever” as Sarah mentions is a thing with rabbits. The increase in amount of daylight affects a whole set of hormones, not just sex hormones. But even a neutered rabbit has a bit of testosterone production left in the adrenal glands.

[Blue Moon]

my rabbits were doing the same thing. granted it is probably because poppy isn’t spayed but what i did was separate their cages with a grid of wire (cages touching)

and let them have about 15min playtimes. on weekends they get to go out doors (for about 4 hours)  in a play pen i made. Because they have so little time together all they do is snuggle and groom each other. ( sorry if this doesn’t help)

[Author]

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