Bunnies Grooming Bunnies…?! Please Help!!!

["P&B"]

Hi… I’m new here to the forum, but not the site.  I have two very special bunnies named "Piggie & Bjorn."  Piggie being the very adventurous one and Bjorn being the very timid one.  Piggie is also very dominate towards Bjorn and demands being groomed almost constantly.  Bjorn doesn’t seem to mind, but has been pulling Piggie’s facial fur out from the root leaving exposed skin patches.  Funny thing is that Piggie doesn’t seem to mind having her fur yanked out from the socket     Anyways, she looks abused…  Has anyone else experienced this behavior and if so, what have you done to prevent further fur damage???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 Thanks in advnce…

[poopy]

Welcome Watkins! My Pookers overgroomed Medusa on her ears to the point where they were red with irritation and the fur was all matted and pastey, but not as bad as yours. My vet recommended putting domeboro powder on Medusa’s ears to prevent Pookers from grooming that area. She said you can get it at drugstores. I didn’t try it though. See old thread regarding this problem:
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/view/topic/forumid/2/postid/4343/Default.aspx

["P&B"]

Thank you soooo much Poopy…. I will try this out this evening

[MooBunnay]

Hi!

I have a rough groomer at my house Kramer likes to over groom Juli, at the moment she’s got a little bald patch at the bottom of one of her ears, and then two identical almost bald spots on her forehead, she doesn’t seem to mind either!!  I tried putting Calendula oil on the spots to "soothe" them but it turns out that Kramer just got V disturbed that his wife had "stuff" on her and groomed it wayyyyyy more, resulting in a super red spot!  I would say that unless the area is VERY red, you do not haev to worry.  Juli’s patches are just normal bunny skin pink.  If there is one specific area he is totally overgrooming, and it becomes irritated and bright red, then you will have to separate them for about a week to allow the other bunny to start growing some fur back in that area.  During that time, even tho they are separated, keep them close together so they don’t get upset!

Good luck, and don’t worry too much unless the skin is geting very irritated

["P&B"]

Hi MooBunnay,

Thank you so much for your recommendation!!! I believe that its just bunny pink right now, but scary to arrive home and see that the bald spot has grownnnnn… Sounds like its quite a normal behavior to obtain a “rough groomer” type (LOL). Well, at least Piggie likes it!!!

[poopy]

I would only use calendula in small quanitities. Krempels said it contains limonene which is toxic to small animals. However, I don’t think it is super toxic because I used alot of lemongrass oil (which also contains limonene) on my hamster before I knew about this, and nothing happened to him.

[BinkyBunny]

WELCOME WATKINS216!   How long have they been a pair?  Jack used to do this, but then Rucy and Bailey would run away, and he’d sit their like "wha? Wad I do?"   I used to help him learn by petting him and saying gentle while I gently pushed his face away.  Then when he groomed correctly, I’d just let him go and he also learned that the girls stuck around and even groomed him back.

I’ve also heard the overgrooming can mean there should be more fiber in the diet.    I know that wasn’t the case with Jack, he just had to learn how to groom properly and stop pulling out the girls whiskers.

[Gravehearted]

hi there Watkins,

how’s Bjorn doing with the overgrooming?  it sometimes can be a sign of stress – are they a new pair or have you moved or any other changes latey?

["P&B"]

Hello BinkyBunny,

They’ve been paired for about 2.5-3 months (two girls…)  I wish that Piggie would run away, but she doesn’t because apparently, she likes it.  Piggie demands that Bjorn grooms her and falls into a deep trace while Bjorn performs her duties…  Piggie has this thing where she’ll give Bjorn about 2 to 3 licks and then she’s down forcing her face into Bjorn’s for grooming.  MInd you, when we rescued Bjorn from the local pet store, she was very shy and skittish .   She didn’t like humans very much either, but I guess the good thing that came out of this is that Bjorn has  become very, very close with her mommy and daddy  since we do most of the grooming on Bjorn (so there, Piggie).  Right, the girls get plenty of fresh Timothy Hay and Timothy Pellets daily.  I’m also going to be incorporating fresh greens and fruit  into their diets.  Still a bit too young…  Oh, and by the way, they LOVE the Boredom Buster Box!!!  Their very spoils kidzzzz…    

[poopy]

Posted By watkins216 on 05/14/2007 11:41 AM

Hello BinkyBunny,

They’ve been paired for about 2.5-3 months (two girls…)  I wish that Piggie would run away, but she doesn’t because apparently, she likes it.  Piggie demands that Bjorn grooms her and falls into a deep trace while Bjorn performs her duties…  Piggie has this thing where she’ll give Bjorn about 2 to 3 lips and then she’s down forcing her face into Bjorn’s for grooming.  MInd you, when we rescued Bjorn from the local pet store, she was very shy and skittish .   She didn’t like humans very much either, but I guess the good thing that came out of this is that Bjorn has  become very, very close with her mommy and daddy  since we do most of the grooming on Bjorn (so there, Piggie).  Right, the girls get plenty of fresh Timothy Hay and Timothy Pellets daily.  I’m also going to be incorporating fresh greens and fruit  into their diets.  Still a bit too young…  Oh, and by the way, they LOVE the Boredom Buster Box!!!  Their very spoils kidzzzz…    

Medusa liked being overgroomed as well….in fact I think that was part of the problem, she was requesting to be groomed a lot meaning it was BOTH bunnies contributing to the problem, not just the overgroomER.

["P&B"]

Hi Gravehearted,

Well, she’s still grooming like there’s no tomorrow…  I wanted to thank you all for your wonderful suggestions.  They’re not too new.  Their actually inseparable   They get along really, really well even though I know that people have mentioned that the best pair bonds are female/male.  They have a huge play room to run free and play in all day until it’s their bedtimes    It’s funny, they know around the time that we’re going to be putting them to bed.  They pretend that their off busy investigating something "very" important…  Haven’t moved and nothing has changed.  Maybe, its just Bjorn’s way of getting Piggie back for not reciprocating grooming!!! 

 

[BinkyBunny]

Here’s an article from the House Rabbit Society about overgrooming.  http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-10/overgrooming.html  Some of the stuff you’ll see is the same, and one of the things that they suggested was to find another outet for your bunny’s licking obsession.   But they failed to offer ideas of what another "outlet" may consist of. 

I was thinking about it and maybe what you could try and do get a toy bunny, get Piggie’s scent on it (rub it on PIggie or rub piggie with your hand and then rub it on the toy. You may have to do this quite a bit to convince Bjorn that this is a real bunny worth grooming.

Also, make the fibers of the toy bunny don’t come loose so easily so he doesn’t digest too many fibers. (Short tight is best)

Then make the toy bunny do what Piggie usually does.  It may seem goofy, but if Piggie is losing her hair, then it’s worth a try.   So just have the toy bunny act like he’s giving a few little licks, and then push the toy bunny’s nose underneath Bjorn, and hopefully that will be the "outlet" that can solve the problem, and hopefully then in time he’ll slow down grooming and in the mean time the stunt double deal with his grooming obsession. 

Just be sure to pet Piggie during this time  if she gets jealous.

I have no idea if this would work, but it’s worth a try to prevent a bald bunny.  

[Author]

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