Is Rabbit Dominance Ever “Finished” ?

[Binks]

 Yeah hi I have a little concern, my rabbit had babies about 2 months ago and I decided to keep one and let the mother and baby start sharing the house together and eventually move them into the same cage at night.

 The mother is about 6 or 7 pounds and a lop mix, her baby on the other hand… maybe half a pound? 1 pound? she’s only about half the mother’s size and seems to be the delicate type. [If you need a picture for size compare let me know]

 One thing about baby-bun real quick …She loves to follow her mother around like a dog on a leash, not for milk, but for fun! She’ll binky around mom-bun, flop over, present herself for a grooming, and just overall have a good time.

 Why am I telling you that? Well, mom-bun has been recently trying to mount the tiny [and completely ignorant] baby for dominance! Rude!

 Mounting a baby bun barely half her size has proven to be difficult for mom-bun as baby-bun can crawl out. Mom-bun has been very persistent though and keeps trying again… and again. 

This has been raising concerns as a 7 pound rabbit [possibly?] putting her full weight on top of a half pound rabbit may result in possible injury! I have started pushing and holding mom-bun away in fear of her crushing the poor babe. 

Here are my questions:

Do rabbits put their full weight on each other when trying to be dominant?

Will the baby bunny’s spine be alright?

If I let mom-bun go ahead with the crushing dominance to get it out of her system, will she eventually stop?

a quick response would be appreciated as my mother [human] wants to put them in the same room again to see what will happen later…

Thank you

[LittlePuffyTail]

They will continue to act dominant/aggressive unless they are both spayed. You need to separate them, preferably where they can still smell and see each other until after they are spayed and given time to completely recover (about a month). Even though they are mother/daughter, they will still have aggression/territorial issues that could result in somebun getting hurt.

[Binks]

…Thanks for your help. :/

[Mikey]

Yep, this will continue until theyre both spayed. It may even get worse as the babys hormones start to come in as she gets older. Rabbits dont understand family relationships. If they see another bun, it is just another bun to them, not mom/dad/brother/sister. And when they see another bun, they establish dominance by mounting, fighting, chasing, ect until the other bun shows complete submission. If the other rabbit does not, rabbits will often fight to the death. This is why in order to house two rabbits together, they need to both be spayed/neutered.

[joea64]

I agree with the others – the buns need to be separated right away, close enough so they can continue to see and smell each other (for pre-bonding) but under no circumstances allowed physical contact with one another, and spayed (in the young one’s case as soon as she’s reached sexual maturity and is old enough for the operation to be performed safely), then kept apart for up to another month while the residual hormones dissipate. Only then can you begin actual bonding. That, by the way, will also allow the younger bun additional time to grow and put on weight without being hassled by the older one.

As Mikey says, rabbits don’t have a concept of family relationship. Their social structure as house pets/companions is defined by bonded friendships, and for those to happen, they need to be neutered or spayed. My own Panda and Fernando, who are coming home Sunday , are a good case in point. Panda is Fernando’s mother, along with the mother of three other kits. They were rescued in January/February by Friends of Rabbits (a rabbit rescue serving the metropolitan Washington, DC area) from a Maryland shelter not long after Panda had kindled her litter. While I don’t know exactly how it was all done, I’m very certain that the Friends of Rabbits people separated Fernando and the other kits from their mother once they’d been weaned and before their hormones could really kick in and mess things up, being allowed to stay in sight/scent range of one another but not permitted to physically contact one another, while each of them was spayed/neutered in turn, allowed to heal and get rid of their hormones, and then properly bonded one to another. It’s really paid off done the proper way – Panda was very close to all her kits once they were bonded, before the other three were adopted out, and she and Fernando are real cuddlebuns, they’re snuggled up with one another or grooming each other half the time and the other half they’re never more than a few hops away from one another. Establishing a parent-child bond between buns can definitely be done, it just has to be done right.

[Bruno001]

I have no idea.

[Deleted User]

This might be a silly/unhelpful question. But where is the bunny who got your female pregnant? And have you even identified the sex of the baby bun yet? Everything everyone has said about this not stopping until both rabbits are spayed/neutered is correct. I understand that some people might be unaware of having to spay for hormonal/health reasons and can sometimes only associate this with being done to prevent pregnancy. You might end up having more issues than just dominance if this baby bun is in fact a male. And if the male who got your bun pregnant with this baby is still in the vicinity this could add problems also. I know these aren’t things you mentioned or asked for advice on but I just thought I’d chip in with that aswell just in case.

[Binks]

They are both females. 

The baby now 2 months old really loves her mother bun and is really submissive and always presents and lays down next to her when they’re out together, it’s a real shame they should be apart, but I understand the dominance will not end.

The father recently died but before he died he did shed a lot so his scent is pretty much leaking out of the room he was in which has to be kept closed as the mother is simply obsessed with finding him again and it has since driven up her dominance with the [baby] bun, so I decided to keep them separate as I cannot afford to neuter them right now.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it, bye. 

[Author]

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