Food Aggression Between Bonded Pair

[CatapultJesus]

I have two buns, Gus and Penny. Both fixed and have been bonded for years now. I believe Gus is the primarily dominant one. They’re in love most of the day; they can get comfy together, groom each other, and generally they’re inseparable. But…

Penny really loves food. She doesn’t hog it, I think they both eat equally, and when they’re full they’ll leave the food dish of their own accord. But Penny is a tyrant for it. If there’s ever a moment where she thinks Gus got food that she didn’t, she will chase him down with all the speed in the world and torment him with butt nips until she’s certain he’s got nothing.

It can be an awful cycle to watch; if there’s any chance food is nearby, Gus could even just make a single hop and Penny will seemingly attack, then Gus will flinch and move away, which Penny takes as him trying to get away with food, so she will give chase, and Gus will flinch and move away, which Penny…and so on until Gus can back himself into a corner and fight back. Gus has seemingly got so bothered by this over time, that he’ll often instinctively run into a corner and get ready to defend himself whenever he leaves Penny’s side, even if she doesn’t give chase. Over the past year maybe, its escalated to the point where Gus is beginning to stand up for himself, and they get into little nip fights back and forth a bit and I’m worried where it’ll escalate to next.

We’ve tried making when they get fed a bit more of a surprise, such as keeping their pellets in different parts of the room, so they never know when exactly they’re being fed and Penny doesn’t get a chance to go into a frenzy before food is ready. But before doing this, Penny would get super excited when she heard a food dish or veggies being cut up, but now its escalated to the point where she’ll get super excited and begin tormenting Gus any time my girlfriend or I get off the couch or walk nearby.

We don’t know what to do. We could try feeding them separately, but again, its not their eating thats really the problem, they don’t hog food and once they’re eating everything is good again. If we did try separating them, I feel like thats really only bypassing the issue for 20 minutes of their day, and does nothing for all the times she chases him into a corner during the other 23 hours. On one hand, I think Gus beginning to fight back is a good thing, and that there might be a breaking point where he really tells her who is boss and she realizes she can’t do this anymore, but on the other hand, I’m not sure if that’s really how it works and worry it can just keep getting worse, into more tormenting until they full on hate each other and begin fighting.

We just need advice, help, anything. We’re open to any ideas we’re not thinking of, because honestly we have none at this point.

[Serenity]

Hello! So sorry to hear about your issues!
I’ve seen and heard of this kind of thing all the time. My bunny, George used to torment his brother over food the same way even though they would get the same amount. So, I stopped feeding them pellets altogether. They would only get hay and i would let them play outside to eat grass (for the fresh part of their diet) and they didn’t even smell any pellets for I think a month or two. By the time I finally started giving them pellets again George had seriously calmed down and hardly even tried to fight off Fred for food. Now here are no problems at all except the occasional display of dominance.
You could also try physically holding down Penny when you get out pellets and putting food in front of her first then waiting a few seconds before you let Gus have some. This may seem like giving in to her tantrums but it’s often the only way to solve a problem. I don’t think letting them fight it out would be a good idea because it likely will break their bond to the point where they’e fighting over everything – not just food.
Hope this helped!

[CatapultJesus]

Thanks for the advice.

I think we’ll try holding her or separating them altogether for a bit. What makes it difficult is how frequent this is. She doesn’t just start chasing him down when she hears Pellets, but rather any time we walk into their area, or anytime Gus is just trying to have a fast run somewhere. Any time there is any movement between what could be feeding hours, she’s on alert.

We’re so incredibly stressed by it. We fear we screwed up for too long and that we can’t fix it.

The only thing I can think of is just keeping them separate for a bit and start over.

[joea64]

Panda and Fernando are generally very good about sharing food, whether it’s the hay in their litterbox (in fact, they often seem to be taking turns sitting in the box nomming hay) or their daily pellets and salad, which they queue up to the bowl and eat peaceably; as with hay, I often observe one bun quietly eating their greens while the other is doing something else, and then the other takes their place at the bowl without fuss.

The only real food competition I see between them is over treats, and even then it’s mostly limited to herbs and such. They used to squabble over their Oxbow Simple Rewards cookies at first, but I quickly took up the habit of giving them their cookies simultaneously and they’re very good about that now. Herbs, though – they LOVE to try to snatch a morsel out of one another’s mouth. Panda does this more than Fernando, but Fernando, naughty bunny, will latch onto the nice juicy stalk that his mom is chewing the leaves off of.

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