Full blown fighting

[hinkypunki]

I guess a bit of a backstory is in order.

So last June I adopted my first pair of house bunnies called Janus and Bilby. Two 6 month old neutered males that are brothers and were supposed to be super good together and were only adoptable as a pair. First after I got them there was a bit of fighting (stress because of the move and only a week after they were neutered) but it quickly settled down. Every once in a while I would find a chunk of fur from Bilby but never from Janus. This slowly got worse and I would start seeing Janus chasing after Bilby and nipping at him. At the same time Janus was overgrooming Bilby to the point where Bilby had no whiskers and was starting to get bald spots around his eyes.

In January I got a female rabbit, Gizmo, to try to balance the relationship between the two, but was only giving them short sessions together since Gizmo wasn’t spayed. One day that month I was checking Bilby’s fur and noticed several spots in his coat where the fur was very short (maybe 1-3 mm) the size of my thumb. I was very shocked and realized the stress Bilby must be under with the abuse from his brother and separated the two after getting advise from here.

In February I spayed the female and kept the three separated but in the same room (Janus in a cage, Gizmo in a pen and Bilby roaming free). When the month went on I started rotating which one was where so they could get used to each other’s smell and each could get some time free. I also let Janus and Bilby run free together every other day, but only under supervision and not for long time.

In the beginning of March I really started really focusing on bonding Bilby and Gizmo and she really is perfect for him. He is a bit skittish and nipped a bit at first, but she is super forgiving and very sweet so once I put them in my bedroom for two weeks in adjoining pens I took the plunge and joined the two permanently (still in my bedroom just in case). It took maybe 12 hours for them to start to eat and cuddle together and for Bilby to completely stop nipping at Gizmo.

Meanwhile Janus was in the living room mostly in his cage but got to run free under supervision.

I always felt bad for Janus being all alone in the room, so today I let him come into the bedroom with his cage (he was free, Bilby and Gizmo were in their pen). It was horrible.

When Janus realized his cage was open, he started by stomping and growling while jumping towards the pen. Then both Janus and Bilby were simply tails up, ears back and then they started lunging at each other. Poop was flying, paws were pouncing, there was growling and biting and I was so relived that there were bars between them ’cause this was simply horrible. They were clearly in some sort of fighting stance that I have never seen before (and closest thing I found on youtube was a video of wild rabbits fighting). I of course put Janus back in his cage and after seeing Bilby on an obvious lookout, I put Janus’ cage back to the living room.

Now what should I do? Is there hope for Janus and Bilby? I feel super bad for Janus for beeing alone (he doesn’t seem very happy) but the stress he is putting on Bilby isn’t acceptable. I also don’t like Janus’ cage to be a permanent solution, and it was never intended to be.

[Linette]

I have had trios of one male with two females, but not the other way round. Two males alone is hard enough, add a girl and OH MY!

Sounds like the brothers have always had some sibling rivalry.

Sounds like the situation is just making Janus more and more unhappy. I would actually keep him totally separate from the couple. Sounds like he wasn’t thrilled when he had a brother partner, so being alone might actually suit him better than any relationships with the other two.

Do you feel he would benefit from his own gal? Do you have space and resources for that?

It’s so horrible when they fight that way. The first time I saw a rabbit fight (wow, nearly 30 yrs now) I couldn’t believe it, it looked just like a fight in the cartoons (but not at all funny) when there is a ball of dust and every so often a body part juts out…except instead of dust it’s tufts of fur, but that moving ball of fury…yikes!

I am afraid if you let him near the couple, the rivalry between him and his brother could interfere with the bond with the female, sometimes when tempers are high they get misdirected and can affect other perfectly happy relationships.

I hope you have someone handy to give YOU a big hug, what a stressful situation.

[Svandis]

Okay so heres my input.
If they had only been neutered for a week, I wouldn’t ever have called them bonded. Any bond they had before their neuter is kind of “forgotten” when they get neutered. Their scentes change and their relationship with each other changes.. they should have been re introduced to each other in a neutral area.. which brings me to why your rabbits started fighting. I think it was purely a territorial issue. You brought Janus into the other buns’ teritory, and bunnies can get extremely territorial. I would keep Janus cpmpletely seperate from the others for a while and if you chose to try and bond them, I would start from scratch – as if they were strangers and not brothers, and do bonding sessions in a neutral area.

I didnt meen to be very negative in this post, im just giving you my two cents on what i think could help

[NewBunnyOwner123]

I have to agree with Svandis. You’ll have to start from scratch it seems. It’s pretty common

[hinkypunki]

Thank you so much for the advice I’ll try again in a neutral zone and see what happens. They were neutered 9 months ago, but their relationship was never a healthy one.
After I put Bilby and Gizmo together, it’s like Gizmo is teaching Bilby to be happy again. They are absolutely perfect together, so I might wait awhile to reintroduce Bilby and Janus to give Bilby time to really solidify his relationship with Gizmo.

[Svandis]

That sounds like a great plan! Good luck

[Gracie]

I’m in the midst of bonding a trio with two males (George, Rory) and a female (Amy). Rory and Amy were bonded when I adopted them. Have been together for years. Putting all three of them together always resulted in a fight when I first started bonding. Similar to what your describing. Rory and George would fight. I’d break them up but then George and Amy would fight, then Amy and Rory would fight. I found that doing individual pair dates made all the bunnies less overwhelmed and territorial. Now they can have friendly trio dates. If you want to try that when you reintroduce Janus, it really helped cut down fighting.

[Gracie]

I’m in the midst of bonding a trio with two males (George, Rory) and a female (Amy). Rory and Amy were bonded when I adopted them. Have been together for years. Putting all three of them together always resulted in a fight when I first started bonding. Similar to what your describing. Rory and George would fight. I’d break them up but then George and Amy would fight, then Amy and Rory would fight. I found that doing individual pair dates made all the bunnies less overwhelmed and territorial. Now they can have friendly trio dates. If you want to try that when you reintroduce Janus, it really helped cut down fighting.

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