Excessive spraying

[a llama]

Hello, I am the owner of two male rabbits, Oreo and Ben, whom I have been trying to bond for around 2 or 3 weeks. They have both been fixed for at least 6 weeks and I did pre-bonding with them for about a week. At this point in their relationship, they are much better than when I saw them together at first, however there are a couple of issues I have seen present since the start of their bonding and I have no idea of how to “fix” them or if the issues are even supposed to be fixed at all. Anyway, that is the purpose of this topic: Oreo won’t stop spraying Ben when they are together and Ben has a little bit of a trust issue with Oreo(Ben won’t let Oreo smell his back even though he doesn’t intend any sort of harm).

Despite the fact that most online sources tell me that rabbits will stay hormonal for an average maximum of 4-6 weeks after surgery, Oreo still seems to still be pretty territorially driven as he will not hesitate to spray Ben several times during their time together which gets annoying to both Ben, who’s fur is always soaked with urine and for me because I have to be cleaning too oftenly. I have seen websites talking about habitual spraying when rabbits are fixed a little late in their lives, although I am hoping this is not the case because Oreo is only two years old and habitual spraying would be a big issue for their bond. But, what confuses me is that even though Oreo seems to be territorial with all his spraying and territorial pooping, he has not shown any signs of physical aggression towards Ben. Oreo has even been the one to be showing especially positive behaviors, most notably being when Oreo decides to groom Ben in short, 5 second periods multiple times in a bonding session.

Because of Oreo’s territorial, but non-aggressive and somewhat peaceful behavior around Ben, I decided to put them both in a mostly neutral cage together and separate them if it was to become necessary. Initially, Ben was a little annoyed of sharing his previous territory with Oreo and was a little more prone to nipping than usual, but this behavior was pretty much gone after about half an hour and they were both tolerating each other without any fighting past that point. Oreo’s reaction, however, seemed exactly the same as it was previously; he was constantly spraying and grooming Ben and himself at times, flopping occasionally and sleeping next to Ben if he would allow it. Ben usually didn’t have a problem with Oreo coming to sleep or snuggle with him, but that tolerance dissapears pretty quickly when Oreo starts smelling Ben’s backside, as mentioned before(Ben will turn around defensively when this happens). Other than those issues with Oreo’s spraying and Ben’s trust problem, their behaviors generally seem to be pretty positive and actually quite promising. Also, I let them play together in a large play area where I previously let them out one at a time and their behaviors were identical to those in the cage, except that they both did a few binkies and seemed happy playing in the same room, but not together.

For Oreo, should I be waiting a few more weeks under the possibility that he is still hormonal? And for Ben, how can I get him to completely trust Oreo? Anyway, any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[Mikey]

(Ill explain in depth later, if I remember)

Youre moving two fast. You need atleast one month of prebonding and atleast two months after neuters to bond. You shouldnt start bonding until hormonal urgers have stopped. They should not be sharing a cage yet, unless you can be with them 24/7 not letting them leave your sight, even sleeping next to them, for atleast 3 days straight; more days if theres any signs of aggression or hormones. You need to take it all back a step before Oreo’s warning nips turn into aggravated bites caused by Ben’s hormonal behaviors.

[a llama]

First off, in the time I put them in the cage together, I was with them at all times and they did not have a fight for the whole time of around 5 hours. And I’m aware that they shouldn’t be sharing cages yet, but the whole thing was a sort of “experiment” of which I was hoping to see a change in Oreo’s behavior (you got Ben and Oreo mixed up; Ben is the one that nips, Oreo is the one who sprays and grooms). Also, when you said that Oreo is still hormonal, how can you tell (If I knew how to tell when he’s hormonal, I would have no problem with waiting until those hormones go away)? And is two months post-neutering really necessary? Another thing I was confused about is that I’ve been hearing about people who only do one or two weeks of pre-bonding and their rabbits are fine with that; unless I’m mistaken, pre-bonding is only for them to get used to each others’ scents and I would be pretty sure that they’ve been around each other long enough to tolerate their scents. Lastly, I do try to stop Ben’s nips when they get a little too repetitive, but I do allow some nipping as I’ve also heard that rabbits will nip to express dominance (I haven’t seen any of Ben’s nips encourage them to fight, as Oreo will usually just become submissive and groom Ben after he’s been nipped).

[Mikey]

Sorry for the short response earlier, I was in a small unexpected rush. Sorry if it came off blunt, just wanted to get the basics out as quickly as possible before I had to run Sorry for mixing up the names in my hurry as well!

Putting them in the cage even as an experiment can become a problem. Aggression is not always fighting, for what its worth, and nipping can quickly turn into lunging, biting, and/or fur pulling with an irritated bun. Spraying is an hormonal action, so that is how it shows he is still hormonal. Two months wait is best to ensure the two dont start building up a grudge or dislike towards one another. You mentioned theyre starting to escalate by nipping more often.

Prebonding is them getting used to one anothers scents and sharing Those who have only prebonded for a week or two have gotten incredibly lucky. Prebonding should be for atleast a month, but longer can only help. When you prebond, you swap their items once a day and allow them to mark up everything with chinning, poops, and pees. All while cleaning as little as possible to allow them to swap scents and get used to sharing their territory. Its also great when one rabbit is still hormonal (rabbits scents change after their hormones subside after being neutered/spayed), as it allows the second bun to adjust with their scent change.

You shouldnt really stop nipping as its how rabbits communicate that they dont like something (“I dont like what youre doing”). You should try to change things around to avoid excessive nipping, however.

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