Help! Bunnies bond broken?

[Pettiwhisker]

Hi! I’m new to this forum, so I hope I’m posting this in the right place.

I have 2 bunnies (2 boys) approximately 6 months old. We got them from a pet shop and think they are brothers but I can’t be sure. They have always got on with each other, always grooming and snuggling together. They were neutered 2 months ago.

However, a couple of days ago, we had trouble in paradise. Early in the morning, I think they had a fight – maybe lasted less than a minute. I didn’t see the fight as by the time I got to the hutch to see what all the noise was, they’d stopped but there was fur everywhere. I separated them immediately and tried to reintroduce them. Although there was no fighting, the bigger bunny (Sephi) started to chase the smaller one (Cloud); I think the fur belonged to Cloud but I couldn’t see any injuries to either bunnies. I kept them apart for almost 48 hours but allowed them to see each other through a gate and sniff each other; at first there was a lot of thumping on Cloud’s part but then it calmed down. So today I decided to try reintroduction again. For about 5 minutes, they played fine together, foraging for treats etc. and then for no reason I could see, Cloud bolts and Sephi starts chasing him. The weird thing is that Sephi doesn’t seem to be chasing him to attack him; when he catches up with him he just looks at him. This happens on and off throughout the day, but never escalated any further. In fact, for about an hour during all this, they sat next to each other while Sephi groomed himself and possibly gave Cloud a few licks too.  I’m confused because a lot of advice online suggests that Sephi might be being territorial and trying to assert his dominance as the bigger of the two, but from observing them today, I’m not so sure. Most of the time, when Cloud bolts, Sephi is basically doing nothing and barely puts up a chase.

I guess the question I’m trying to ask, in a very long winded way, is whether this is normal and fixable? They were so loving together and I’m absolutely devastated this has happened; not a great start to the new year. I’m going to carry on trying to rebond them by getting them together for short, supervised play in the hope that they become accustomed to each other again.

Both bunnies are active and eating well. Sephi seems jolly with binkies and bunny 500s; Cloud is a bit more subdued but he  was always the calmer of the two.

The other thing to add is that after neutering, they stopped rubbing their chins on everything, but I’ve noticed they’ve started doing this again…does this mean the neutering hasn’t worked?!!

Anyway, I hope someone is able to help. Thank you in advance for any help/advice.

 

[Wick & Fable]

It is normal for young rabbits to begin not getting along when they reach puberty. Young rabbits, because they aren’t acting on hormones, tend to get along very well with any other young rabbit, regardless if they’re siblings or not. What you are seeing is likely them working out, as young-adult rabbits, who is the “dominant” one in the relationship. This is a necessary step for rabbit relationships — that being said, sometimes it can result in fighting and injuries, which we definitely do not want and will lead to unhealthy dynamics.

There is information on bonding rabbits in the RABBIT INFO section of this website. You may not need to go all the way from step one if there is some foundation of a relationship still there, but especially if the fighting starts to get more frequent or intense, you need to be prepared to separate them into different enclosures and be more systematic about who is out and when/where they can be together.

In terms of “neutering working”, having another rabbit in their territory often triggers hormonal-like behaviors. Chinning is actually something rabbits will do all the time (from my understanding). Behaviors we typically don’t see in neutered rabbits are urine spraying and humping, though those behaviors can come up during the bonding process (especially humping).

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Pettiwhisker]

Thanks Wick! That’s really helpful.

They’ve never humped anything and the spraying stopped shortly after they were neutered. I didn’t realise chinning was just standard behaviour; I think most things I’ve read put chinning in with humping and spraying!

I allowed Sephi to chase Cloud today to let it “play out”. I just made sure I was there to step in if it got too intense, but it never really got there.  I’ve separated their sleeping quarters so there’s no risk when we can’t keep an eye on them; during the day I’m hoping they can have supervised play dates to reestablish the bond.

I’ll definitely check out the bonding advice. They had such a sweet “bond”; it’d be so sad if they lose that!

What are your thoughts on “stress bonding”? A lot of people suggest this online!

[Wick & Fable]

Stress bonding is somewhat controversial because you are inducing stress. I think it is highly dependent on the pair you’re working with, your timeline, and what resources you have (ex. time to dedicate, space, physical things you have). To my understanding, stress bonding “works” because the rabbits lean to each other for comfort, but there are times when that isn’t what is happening due to some of the factors I mentioned. For example, between my Wick and Fable, Fable is a very anxious and easily stressed rabbit, due to her past. When we would try stress bonding sessions, such as a car ride or being on my lap in a carrier while I bounced my leg up and down, she would get overly stressed and just shut down into a bug-eyed mess. Wick is tolerant and easily adapts to stress, so the dynamic would be Fable tightly-wound up in a loaf with bulging eyes and Wick just sniffing around. Stress bonding was not effective for my two rabbits. What “worked” was setting up a pen in my bathroom for a week and having them in that neutral area for an elongated period of days.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[DanaNM]

Wick covered all the bases, just wanted to give my two cents on stressing. I have had success using it as a tool, especially with tough bonds, but it should never be the main method. I also find the tiny space with stress methods very inhumane (and many HRS chapters are in agreement on this).

After pre-bonding and all of that, I like the first introductions to be in a very neutral space. If you’ve only got a small space available (like a bath tub), you can try that, but I’ve often found rabbits fight less in a large area. It seems they have more room to move around each other and avoid full on conflict.

I have often used car-rides as a tool to get past difficult spots. For example, my very first pair would fight on sight. Car rides together stopped them from fighting and helped us get past that stage. But most of their sessions were just in neutral space with no additional stress.

I really like the methods described in this super detailed powerpoint: https://rabbit.org/articles/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Bonding-Bunnies-PPforrabbit.org_.pdf

Be sure that when you are working with your buns you are in 100% neutral territory. If you are seeing a cycle of chasing and escalation, I recommend a full-stop with some weeks of pre-bonding to make sure you don’t get into a cycle of negative behavior with them. Bunnies can hold grudges, so the more they fight, the harder it will be to repair the bond.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Pettiwhisker]

Thank you both for the advice! Just an update; we’ve been having supervised play dates in the bathroom (a neutral area); Cloud is still pretty skittish and running away a lot but no fighting so I classed that as progress. On advice from the vet, I bought Pet Remedy calming spray and tried it today. I’ve never used it before so was quite sceptical but I think this gave the breakthrough I needed. Cloud has been so calm today; they’ve been eating and playing together, and it’s been almost non-stop grooming. There has been a bit of chasing but not too much. I’m still going to keep them separated unless supervised as it’s early days but it seems a step in the right direction.  Again thank you for your help! It’s been so good speaking to other bunny owners (with far more experience than me)!!

[DanaNM]

Glad to hear it!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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