Broken Bonds?

[Bramble_Opal]

We own two male buns from the same litter. We’ve had them for 4 months and they are 5 months old. They just healed about 2 weeks ago from being neutered. All of a sudden yesterday, Bramble started chasing Opal and it looked like they were fighting. There’s been fur everywhere but no blood. Opal seems very nervous and has been hiding from Bramble. We’ve even separated them, 1 in the living room and 1in the kitchen. But bramble still seems to be going after Opal. Is this common even with buns from the same litter? Also, this only seems to be happening when they are released for playtime. They do not do this when they are in the cage together. Should we still separate and re-introduce even in the evenings when they are out of their cage? (We do have an extra cage if need be).

[Deleted User]

Yes, you do need to keep them completely separate for another 1-2 months. Your bunnies aren’t bonded. Being from the same litter has no affect on bonding. They got along fine as babies, as most buns do, but once hitting puberty everything can change. I’m suspecting it happened now because one of your buns is going through a post neuter craze, which will get worse before it gets better. Your buns are adapting to the hormone changes. They need to be completely separated at all times (including playtime) while you do prebonding. So you need to change their litters between the cages and different items within their cages, as well as swapping them between cages every few days. Do this for the next 1-2 months. Afterwards you will need to begin bonding them in a neutral territory. There’s more about all this in the bonding forum.
As a side note, check Opal’s neuter site. For 1-2 weeks after a neuter a buns exercise should be limited so the site won’t open or become infected. If there was any kind of chasing, nipping, fighting, etc then you need to make sure he wasn’t hurt down there.

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