Bonding trouble

[Titanus]

Dear friends, 

I have my male rabbit for 9 months now (Misch), and he is my life. He sleeps with me every night, I spend very much time during the day with him also. But after I’ve nutered him, about a month ago, I bought a 1 month female rabbit, because I wanted to make him even more happy. That’s when my troubles started… She is a little bit odd… Doesn’t allow me to pet her, even though she likes to lick me. She is active almost all the time, which I don’t mind. She seems like she is nervous ( I’ve cometo that becaouse she bites her paper toys in a very agressive manner) Generaly, they get along ok, as long as I’m supervising them. He grooms her all the time. She being the dominant one, doesn’t return the favour, but I just realised that it’s own their bussiness to determine their relationship. They are both free range. The problem started one morning when I’ve first noticed a bold patch on his back. The bold patch is only getting bigger and bigger. And he doesn’t seem to mind when she is bitting and pulling the fur off, but now he is missing a lot of fur, and I can not stand to watch that any more. I don’t have a possibility to separate then, and I don’t know what to do. His fur is half gone, and she is still pulling it, even from the places where it began to grow again. Please help me!! Thanks!

[Vienna Blue in France]

Hi and welcome.

Firstly, males can remain fertile until 6 weeks after being neuteured, so be careful if they are both freeroam, you don’t want an ‘oops’ litter from such a young Mum..

It sounds as if Misch is lovely but not all buns like to be stroked. It dépends on the life she had beforehand as to whether she will trust you instantly or not.

It’s good that he is grooming her, but what is the size difference between the two, because if she is not yet ready to be bonded with him and is very aggressive towards him, you really don’t want to come home to a battlezone and injured bunnies.

Does she have lots of chew toys and such like? Maybe she is treating him like a toy and bored?

Fur can fall out on its own all around a bite area, when another bun is biting a bunny. My recently bonded female bun has little nips (crusty scabs at the moment) on her bottom which are prob the size of a piece of sweet corn, but the area that is bald around it is about the size of a big grape.

The fur apparently falls out automatically so the other bunny doesn’t actually have to pull it out. (so bun 1 gets away quicker)

But you need to keep an eye on them and separate them if necessary until you can get the female spayed and she can calm down too for bonding.

[Titanus]

Thank you very much for your answer!

Yes, she has a lot of toys. Also, I saw her a couple of times grooming him, so I thought that things are going ok. Anyway, I will give them more time and remain patient, and hopefully, everything will be just fine. Thanks again!

[Author]

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