Do I let them fight?

[Kayla]

I’m seeking some advice on bonding bunnies! I have a mini lop and a Flemish Giant, female and male. When I first started bonding about a month ago they would fight. So I separated them right away and moved them into separate rooms, purchased large 4×4 pens for each of them. I started doing bunny dates in the bathtub with some food and they minded their own business. So I let my male out into the main living area where my females pen is. I had him first, so the main living areas are technically his territory anyways. I put her in the kitchen as Theodore doesn’t normally go in there. They sniffed each other out through the pen and fought back and forth for about a day and then started backing off. Now they’re playing together with the pen still separating them. She shares her grass matt and they go to town on it and they binky around side by side and lay next to each other. My question is, if I let her out of the pen and they fight, should I let them fight for a little bit so one of them can establish dominance? Or should I separate them right away? I just don’t want either one to get hurt. ?

[Sirius&Luna]

You absolutely never let rabbits fight while bonding. Rabbits can literally fight to the death, and that risk is far higher when you have a giant and a dwarf rabbit. While bonding, it is your job to protect both bunnies at all times, and you should be intervening before any fights start. It’s worrying how many fights these bunnies have already had.

Are they both spayed and neutered? It’s also important to prebond, where you swap the bunnies between areas, so that your original bunny stops feeling territorial about ‘his’ space.

Rabbits can establish dominance without fighting. This can be done with nips, demands for grooms and short humping. These are acceptable behaviours while bonding, and do not risk the rabbits. Fighting does not establish dominance, it just makes the rabbits hate and fear each other.

[Daisy]

They hump, chase and groom to establish dominance. When they fight they just want the other bunny dead, thus nothing good will ever come from letting two bunnies fight. Did they fight immediatly or did it take some hours/days? If the fighting happened right away, these bunnies are probably incompitable with each other. Just like humans a bunny can have a personality that clashes too much with the other bunny to be able to live together.

If it did not happen right away, you still have a chance to try again if you go through proper bonding.

[Author]

Messages