Discouraging Face/Head Mounting???

[Brown Hare]

Hi everyone!

We’ve been planning on getting  Chocolate a friend for a long time now–and we’ve finally done it!  Last week we went up to a rabbit rescue in Durham, NC to let Chocky pick out a girl.  We ended up with a sweet Jersey Wooly about 2-3 yrs old.  She is VERY spunky and active…much more so than we are used to!  We’ve named her Sophia. 

So far they’ve been getting along very well–there has been no fighting or serious aggression.  Sophia is very affectionate and last night groomed Chocky for a full 5 minutes!  There is still some chasing/grunting/fur tugging/mounting going on, but its beginning to slow down and they are becoming more civil towards each other.  They are still working out the dominance hierarchy though, and, unfortunately both rabbits are very insistent about mounting each other the WRONG way (face/head).

It usually happens like this:

• Sophia begins grooming Chocolate’s face/ears and then it turns into a face-mount.
• Chocolate has a hard time catching Sophia when he wants to establish his dominance.  He is older and three legged and she is so nimble and quick that he usually cannot even catch up to her.    When he does get ahold of her though, it either turns into a face-mount or some side nipping.  

I’ve been pushing the dominant bunny off when I see them doing this, but they don’t seem to get the hint and they keep doing it this way!    Can you guys give any recommendations as to how to get rabbits to want to mount the CORRECT way? I don’t want anybunny to get bitten or hurt.

Thanks, 

Brown Hare, Chocolate & Sophia

 

[RabbitPam]

Offhand I don’t know of a way to get them to turn around, just to get them to stop doing it that way immediately, which is very important. It really can cause them serious damage. A strainer made of netting that you can wedge between them is useful to separate them without using your hands. It might make them avoid having it around again, and go to the normal humping position where a strainer does NOT appear.

[Elrohwen]

I don’t think there’s really any way to get them to stop it – mine always face mounted when the other asked for groomies and rarely mounted the correct way. I think you just have to keep pushing off the one on top and redirecting them.

[Brown Hare]

Thanks guys.  I know this is a sort of weird topic… you’d think that they would have better instincts about this sort of thing!  

I don’t have any netting, but I’ll try it with a towel.  I’m about to let them loose in a few minutes, so I’ll see how it works.  

 

[LBJ10]

Oh I don’t know. When Leopold and Wooly were first introduced, Leopold would hump Wooly every which way. He didn’t care what end he had. I just monitored them and pushed Leopold off if it looked like he was getting too rough. Unless a claw goes into an eye, there really isn’t a whole lot of concern. And they get over it eventually.

[RabbitPam]

LBJ10, the additional risk is to a boy’s, ahem, parts. Chomping on those can cause some serious and painful damage. Any bite that means business is much more potentially damaging to another bunny (can draw blood, tear skin) than it would be if one bit us. Plus retaliation can escalate into a worse fight using back feet to hurt the other one. It only takes seconds for them to need a ride to the vet.

By netted strainer, I mean those things you use to drain water from boiled macaroni. The half circle things with a handle you use in the kitchen. Can probably find them in a dollar store. A caulender with a handle I guess it would be called.

[Elrohwen]

I used a plastic dust pan for separate bunnies – it worked well and had a convenient handle for keeping my fingers out of the way 🙂

[LBJ10]

Pam – Haha! Well Wooly doesn’t bite, so I guess I didn’t need to worry so much. But I can see if it was a rabbit other than my sweet little Wooly, then it is probably a different story.

[TriBun]

Lol, you guys crack me up. Brown Hare, I don’t have any helpful suggestions, I just wanted to say yea for getting a new bunny . I love the name Sophia that’s darling. Pictures please

[jerseygirl]

You could try gentle turn one around the right way when they get it wrong. As in place him/her in the right position. lol
Obviously you don’t want to allow the mounting to go on too long but it can help establishing their relationship, what is ok and what is not according to them.

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