chasing

[allie]

please help i have a male and female bonded pair and the felame has always chased the male. she will chase him biting his butt until he gets in the cage and then she is fine and she will groom him and stuff. she doesn’t always do it and some days are good and she doesn’t do it at all and some days she barely lets him out of the cage. the male runs so fast he knocks into things and i’m scsred he’s going to hurt himself. idk what is causing it or how to stop it one time i moved their cage from one side of the room to the other and it seemed to get better for a while but now it’s back to how it was.

[Luna]

Hi! Are they both fixed? How long have they been bonded for?

[allie]

hi! yes they are both fixed and they have been bonded for about 4 months.

[sarahthegemini]

Bonded bunnies do not chase and bite. The odd chase here and there, yes but chasing and biting absolutely not. What bonding steps did you do?

[allie]

we put them in cages next to each other for a week and had supervised visits until there was no more aggression. do you think they’re not bonded? they seem perfectly happy until the male goes somewhere that she doesn’t like. in the cage they always groom each other and lay next to each other. i’m not positive that she actually bites him, there’s no hair pulling or anything. and i would understand if she did it once and a while but she does it so often.

[Sirius&Luna]

at the very least, it sounds like you need to ‘cement’ their bond. It sounds like she’s still territorial about bits of the room, so try confining them to an area where she doesn’t chase him for a couple of days, then gradually increasing their space. As soon as she goes back to chasing him, reduce their space back a step.

[allie]

i’ll try that, thank you!!

[sarahthegemini]

Yeah tbh you skipped a lot. Did you do any pre bonding aside from having them in nearby cages for a week? Pre bonding is swapping litter trays, bowls, toys etc even actual living space. This helps them become accustomed to the other’s scent whilst also making them sort of lose track of what is ‘their territory’ You need to do this for a month and then start actual bonding sessions.

“They seem perfectly happy til the male goes somewhere she doesn’t like” – that in itself is a big red flag.

[sarahthegemini]

Oh and how old are they?

[allie]

i did swap the litters out. i don’t know how old they are because i got them from a rescue and they had no idea. the vet said probably a few years. what do you mean by red flag?

[Deleted User]

I think what sarah means by “red flag” is that, in a truly bonded pair, they don’t have this whole “my territory, your territory” thing. They are equals sharing living space, so if one is getting upset at the other going into a particular area, that is a “Red flag” that their bond is not cemented and that there may still be some issues that they need to work out.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By allie on 12/12/2017 12:14 PM

i did swap the litters out. i don’t know how old they are because i got them from a rescue and they had no idea. the vet said probably a few years. what do you mean by red flag?

But was the litter swap just for the one week? As I said, pre bonding needs to be done for at least a month. And by red flag, I mean it sounds like your rabbits aren’t bonded at all – bonded bunnies do not chase their buddy away from certain areas over and over again and keeping unbonded rabbits together is dangerous. 

[allie]

do you agree that to fix it i should decrease their space and slowly increase it?

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By allie on 12/12/2017 2:41 PM

do you agree that to fix it i should decrease their space and slowly increase it?

No, you need to start at step one which means separating them and pre bonding. 

[allie]

yeah it was only for a week or 2. i was going by what the rescue lady was telling me to do. i know i should have done more research. i think they are bonded at least some because most of the time they are snuggling and grooming each other. she will go days without chasing him and then one day she changes her mind and wants him in the cage. he never chases back or anything and they have never fought.

[allie]

another this is i moved the cage from one side of the room to the other and she completely stopped chasing him for weeks. and then it started again.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By allie on 12/12/2017 2:44 PM

yeah it was only for a week or 2. i was going by what the rescue lady was telling me to do. i know i should have done more research. i think they are bonded at least some because most of the time they are snuggling and grooming each other. she will go days without chasing him and then one day she changes her mind and wants him in the cage. he never chases back or anything and they have never fought.

The fact that she goes days w/o chasing him and then days where she constantly chases just shows the unpredictableness of her behaviour. Please, do the proper bonding steps. They are not bonded.

[allie]

Posted By sarahthegemini on 12/12/2017 2:51 PM

Posted By allie on 12/12/2017 2:44 PM

yeah it was only for a week or 2. i was going by what the rescue lady was telling me to do. i know i should have done more research. i think they are bonded at least some because most of the time they are snuggling and grooming each other. she will go days without chasing him and then one day she changes her mind and wants him in the cage. he never chases back or anything and they have never fought.

The fact that she goes days w/o chasing him and then days where she constantly chases just shows the unpredictableness of her behaviour. Please, do the proper bonding steps. They are not bonded.

i will

[Author]

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