Food aggression in bonded pair

[attemptedquad]

Hi everyone!

Bunnies: Bear (F, Senior) and Sage (M, 3ish)

Bear came from horrible living conditions for years and has a high food response, likely partially caused from that. With both pellets and greens. Sage was a feral boy who was found at around 6 months and was always more of a hay boy. He’s kind of picky with his greens and doesn’t care a ton for pellets, but eats a bit more now than he used to.

They’ve had some issues for probably the past year or two, where they would be eating greens and then one would take the food out of the other’s mouth. After one would take it, the other would run off and hide with the piece they stole I tried to mitigate this by creating a couple of different stacks of food in the room and just keeping an eye out to make sure they were eating enough.

This behavior has seemed to escalate over the past couple months. There was likely an increase when they were moved in a closer proximity to my other rabbits. When moving them to a different area, the behavior still continues though. Now, Sage will just go up and nip at Bear’s behind or grunt when she is eating greens. Even if there’s two stacks of food. I’ve started luring Bear out of the pen and closing the door so she can eat her stack in peace, and when I do this, Sage doesn’t seem to be interested in his stack at all. I’m starting to worry if this could happen with other territories as well. Today, I tried putting hay in their big greens bowl, and when Bear came up to eat it, he did the same thing he would do with greens. I haven’t seen it happen in the litter boxes, but I’m thinking of putting up a camera to see if it’s happening at other points in the day. Anyone with experience with something similar? They cuddle most of the day.

I haven’t seen this happen at all with pellets.

[LBJ10]

Stealing food from each other usually isn’t a concern. Bunnies are weird and they will think whatever the other bunny is eating must be the good stuff. If nobody is losing weight because of it and there is no actual fighting, then I wouldn’t see a problem.

If you separate them, could you try giving Sage his first? Perhaps if he sees Bear doesn’t have any yet, he will be more interested in his own.

[attemptedquad]

I tried separating them tonight again and this time he ate most of his too! He left a little bit behind and then when I let Bear back in, he tried to guard it, but not eat it. I tried dumping the leftovers throughout the cage and then he didn’t seem to care. He’s such a weird little rabbit lol. I think he’s more tense and territorial than usual with the new neighbors, so his normal annoying behavior is just ramped up.

[LBJ10]

Scattering doesn’t sound like a bad idea either. I’m glad he seemed more interested in his own food this time.

[Author]

Messages