First bun fight *details inside

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

FACTS – Bun Cash – got him on 4/15/17

Shadow – got him on 5/06/17

Both said to be 8-9 weeks old when aquired.

So current estimated age is Bun – 6 mon Shadow – 5 mon and they are both boys.

Shadow has been to the vet for his regular check up and he had to have his teeth trimmed (found out that he has a malocclusion *think that’s how it’s spelled?, it’s the way I got him and it’s ok pretty cheap to maintain) has NOT been neutered *his date is Sep 18th.

Bunny Cash has been for his regular vet check up and as of Friday he has been neutered (his teeth are impeccable lol)

Prior to Friday, the neuter date, both of these buns cohabited without any issue what so ever. Very loving to each other and Bun was particularly very friendly overall. Was ok to be picked up and would totally let you pet him **if he knew you** with me he was extra friendly cuz of course I have the Bunanas!

Shadow however is not having much of the interaction pleasure, which is fine, he’s his own bun and when he’s ready me and him will be best of friends. 

I apologize for the long post but wanted to fill in the questions that I might be asked.

I specifically asked the vet two things, do I need to keep them separated and if so for how long. Thinking that the fact that shadow was still fully intact maybe it would cause some type of rukus with the boys. The advise I got was, you should keep them apart for a day, after that just make sure that bunny cash doesn’t over exert himself for a week.

I thought to myself how wonderful seems fairly straight forward. Easy peasy.

Well since friday bunny cash has gon BUN -NUTZ, first night he seemed to be aggitated and i thought it’s probably because he misses his friend and his rear was sensitive. i put him in the small cage for the night because the big cage has different floors and i thought well if he tries to jump he might hurt himself. so on saturday late in the afternoon i decided i would let him out, separately from shadow for some stretching, only in the kitchen area. nothing for him to climb on so on and so forth. well he keep pulling at the big cage and trying to climb it so i moved it out of the kitchen. he still didn’t calm down, so i thought ok been 24 hours i’m gonna let shadow out for a bit with him and just monitor them. did that he seemed to chase shadow around a little bit but nothing i thought was serious. mind you these two tried to hump each other often during the day before this, was told it was due to them not being neutered. i saw bun try to mount him a couple times but no actually humping. shadow didn’t seem to care much cuz it was normal for them. not long after i heard what seemed to be some zoomies, went to check on bun and checked his surgery area and noticed it was a bit red. decided to lock them up for the night. next day i go to let bunny cash out and he starts boxing me, never had done this before, i was taken back a bit because this is my sweet guy and he got neutered, i though it made them LESS aggressive. so all day sunday bun is hot having anything to do with me or my son, totally unusual. he was still confined to the kitchen but we checked on him often. when i picked him up to check his surgery area he was combative, again never did that. I thought ok i let shadow out maybe he’s missing his friend. after a while seemed like bun was ok with shadow but still not us. get them to go back inside, still separated so bun doesn’t jump. Then sunday night lock up i hear loud noises from the kitchen, i peek in on bun and he’s going crazy in the cage, standing up biting the top and side bars pulling hard too. digging and tipping over his stuff, seems very aggitated. so this morning i let him out after a while, i was able to pick him up but still seemed figgity, checked his area seems to be ok. let shadow out and boarded the kitchen walk way so they can’t get out. Bun tore apart the barrier and got out about 4 times. this is held in place with some very heavy containers. he still found his way through. he never did that before. combative when i try to get him to go away for me to fix the area. by this time i’ve already spoken to the vet, vet tells me he’s basically pissed off at me and to bribe him with treats, keeps saying i can’t tell you much about his behavior but my point to the vet was, this is my easy bun, he’s never been like this. i even said is he moody cuz of hormones? vet didn’t say yes or no just said that the testosterone will die down within 10 days or so… since the vet tells he’s just angry, i thought ok maybe he’s right so i relaxed a little. left bun and shadow to go on about their business, moved the barrier i had and put the baby gate up so they can look in the living room and see me, i’m sure they could care less but that’s what i think anyways lol.

at about 7pm i hear this aweful crazyiness in the kitchen, sounded like a WWF match. i run to look and hear are my buns in a full on knock down drag out match. scared the crap outta me i’m like , hey hey hey while i’m trying to climb over the baby gate, once i’m over i was trying to separate them and bun is chasing shadow around the kitchen. i finally get bun close enough that i grabbed him and put him in the cage. he was not happy about that, he instantly starting lookin for a way out to get back to shadow. i found tufts of shadow hair on the floor  i can’t say for sure who started it but i know it seemed like shadow was the target. once i put bun in the cage he starts climbing the walls looking for way out and biting the bars. he’s never ever done any of this.

my question is, has anyone experienced this? did you vet give you any further info? why AFTER the neuter is he so mean and if it is hormones how long did your bun seem to act that way??

I do not want to keep them locked up and even if i do let them out separately i feel like the other will want to climb to wherever the other is, either cuz they want to be with each other or beat the bunfur off each other.

help?

[Deleted User]

Check their neuter sites, as a fight of any kind could have opened it. They should have been separate from the start due to hormones. Bunnies make friends as babies and hormones ruin that. You need to keep them separate at all times for the next one to two months while the hormones fade. After that, you can start doing bonding sessions in neutral territory.for the next month or two, just do a bunch of prebonding by switching things between their habitats and changing them out of their habitats. It’ll let them get used to each other’s scents. But they must be totally separated from each other even during play time. It takes a second for a deadly fight to break out.
As for the behavior, that’s the post neuter craze, and will typically die down after a month or 6 weeks. It really does take a bit of time for the hormones to go away. My boys were neutered 5 weeks ago and they are just now getting over that rush of hormones. It gets worse before it gets better, so to speak. It’s something you just have to wait out and be patient.

[Deleted User]

Correction: they need to be separated for 1-2 months after bun 2’s neuter. You can never put an altered bun with an unaltered bun. As I said, fights will happen. The neutered bun will also probably still show signs of being unaltered due to living in such close proximity with an unaltered bun. You can’t really start bonding them until October 18th at the earliest. And bun 1’s behavior could potentially stay the same due to living with the unaltered bun.

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

Well I talked to the vet, he said they were ok to be together as long as I noticed 0 aggression. I do understand what you are saying though and it makes a ton of sense. I have a pen that I can put a divider in and that should be ok.

I did ask these questions of my vet, I may have to seek out another Vet.

Up until today they loved each other like crazy, thank you for responding and telling what I suspected to be true. My better judgement told me it wasn’t just that he was mad at me. Not that I don’t think they do get mad just that this was way overboard from when i have known him to be upset with me.

Again thanks for the response 

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

Well I will keep them separated at this point.

bun has only been altered since friday and has not been in the same cage since. he has been in the same area supervised but only for a limited amount of time since friday. his behavior is worse than the unaltered bun at this point. i dont think that shadow – unaltered has affected buns behavior in such a short time, plus bun has been like this since friday night after we got back home.

i didnt wait long to start calling the vet and asking questions. 

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

once bun’s surgery is healed i will switch them between cages, can’t do that now because the one that shadow is in is 4 tiers and bun isn’t suppose to jump.

but i do put the food bowls in each others cage. i put a blanky with bun that smells like both im sure. next i will move the cages closer and let them out in a divided play are but with places for them to bump noses.

when i asked the vet if i could still keep them around each other he seemed to think it was fine as long as supervised, i will be researching more vets.

my poor bun, he seems so anxious all the time now.

thank you for the info!

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

before anyone answers, i want to reiterate that i asked all these questions. i did not do anything with my buns that i did not ask about first. i thought i could trust the word of a vet.

before i get chastised for any thing that i did incorrectly.

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

before anyone answers, i want to reiterate that i asked all these questions. i did not do anything with my buns that i did not ask about first. i thought i could trust the word of a vet.

also please read my post completely. sorry it’s very long

before i get chastised for any thing that i did incorrectly.

[I have sweet furry bunz <3]

Posted By Asriel and Bombur on 8/21/2017 10:37 PM

Check their neuter sites, as a fight of any kind could have opened it. They should have been separate from the start due to hormones. Bunnies make friends as babies and hormones ruin that. You need to keep them separate at all times for the next one to two months while the hormones fade. After that, you can start doing bonding sessions in neutral territory.for the next month or two, just do a bunch of prebonding by switching things between their habitats and changing them out of their habitats. It’ll let them get used to each other’s scents. But they must be totally separated from each other even during play time. It takes a second for a deadly fight to break out.
As for the behavior, that’s the post neuter craze, and will typically die down after a month or 6 weeks. It really does take a bit of time for the hormones to go away. My boys were neutered 5 weeks ago and they are just now getting over that rush of hormones. It gets worse before it gets better, so to speak. It’s something you just have to wait out and be patient.

yep sounds about right, post neuter craze, i wish the vet had told me that. thank for the reassurance! I’m patient its them that need that LOL

[Deleted User]

Things like this are a common thing. Often vets aren’t as clued up on rabbits as people presume, especially when it comes to behaviour. I’d recommend looking in the bonding section of the forum. There’s so many people that have great advice on bonding rabbits, I would take this advice over a vet any day. Reading through other people’s experiences is really helpful and you will learn so much. Bonding can be a very time consuming process so you’ll have plenty of time to read up on it before you put the boys back together

[Author]

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