How do I get her to stop humping my cat?!

[KatzenFutchen]

We just got our bunny Cancer (pronounced san-sir) in March (Easter bunny) and she has always been really good, getting along with our cats and dog very well, until about a week ago. She started constantly pestering my large (22 lbs!) neutered male cat Twiggy constantly, following him around everywhere. And now she is mounting and humping him every chance she gets. He takes it well right now and usually just runs away, but I’m afraid that eventually he will become fed up and accidentally hurt her. I’ve also noticed her leaving a lot of poops in the places where Twiggy likes to hang out; I think this is a sign of territorial marking, but I’m not sure why. Is she trying to express dominance over him or is he just trying to get some lovin from him?

I know that this is probably a result of her hormones since she’s is not fixed yet, but is there any way to get Cancer to leave the poor guy alone in the meantime? She likes being a free-roaming bunny so I’d hate to pen her up.

 

 

[MarkBun]

It is the hormones and there’s not much you can do to stop that unfortunately. She’s trying to be the boss of him with the droppings and the humping. The good news is that she’s just about old enough to be fixed so I’d start looking for a rabbit saavy vet and get an appointment set up.

In the meantime, you might want to see about dividing the house up so that the rabbit doesn’t have full run of it – that way the cat can escape her when he needs some alone time.

[jerseygirl]

I agree.  I know it’s difficult to reduce their space but it may only be temporary and for the safety of Cancer and Twiggy also. In the meantime, maybe give Cancer a substitute soft toy that smells like your cat (provided she won’t chew it too much).

[KatzenFutchen]

I just had a very disturbing discovery today: as it turns out Cancer is a HE not a SHE! Thinking I was proficient at sexing rabbits I checked when I first got her(him) and thought it was a girl, but it turns out I was wrong. Perhaps Cancy was too young at the time to tell. Today Cancer was humping Twiggy again and I pulled her(him) off, accidentally touching something unpleasant underneath. Turns out it was- you guessed it- a penis. I was mortified. However, this discovery really helps to explain the behavior. I’m setting him up to be fixed next week and I hope it helps to curb the humping and pooping, but I wish there was another way…
Thanks for the replies guys!

[jerseygirl]

Don’t worry, they are commonly mis-sexed. The bright side is now he can be fixed sooner / with a female you’d likely have to wait til older. Good luck with his surgery. It should really help calm him down.

[SirThumpsey]

Sir Thumps a lot tends to hump my dog and recently started to hump one of his stuffed toys. I thought that was a decent substitue but there is “stuff” all over it so I had to throw it away. Bunnie humped a slipper when she first met him (thats how I knew he was a boy)…Needless to say as a result some of my poor dogs toys had to be thrown away. He will always get more but it gets a little irritating for him, I’m sure.

Sometimes I wish animals could speak english. It might makes things a little easier.

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