Male humping spayed female- bonded?

[Dandelion and Coco]

I have a male bunny called Dandelion who is almost 9 years old, not neutered, and a 6 year old female bunny who is spayed. They have been together since he was 5 and she was 2. Originally, we had two males (Dandelion and Burdock) but after Burdy’s death aged 5 due to a leg injury we immediately adopted Coco. She was kept near Dandelion but separate for the first week until she was spayed, and a few days after her surgery they were introduced. Dandelion lay gazing at her for that fist week and I thought that it was “love at first sight” so I connected their cages together after a few dates. They never fought and seemed happy living together but now and then her would chase her to try and mate.

In the last few months (they have been living together for years now), I started to bring them into the kitchen for snuggles every weekend. Coco’s fur got a bit matted around her bottom so I have been bringing her in to brush her. I would let Dandy hop around the floor and sit on the couch with Coco, then put her down for a play when she was done. When she was on the floor with him, he would chase her around, honking/grunting and trying to hump her. She would run away but he would chase her. Eventually, she learned to leap onto my lap to escape him but is always shaking and scared, often squeaking (but she is a noisy rabit, she purrs, growls and squeaks!)

He has always done it a little when they are outside but she runs away and he quickly used to give up. He chases her around when they are outside more often now and doesn’t give in as easily. It isn’t just dominance, he is actually trying to mate. she just wants to be friends but he wants to mate. On one occasion, they had to go to the vet. We put them in the same carrier but I could feel them thrashing as I carried it, so I opened it in the kitchen. Dandelion was on top of Coco and she leaped out from under him into my arms, trying to claw her way up me to sit on my shoulder in panic. I calmed her down but he had definitely succeeded in mating with her- I felt it when she sat on my lap straight after. The poor thing was traumatised and I separated them to take them to the vet.

Is there anything I can do to help the situation? All he wants is to mate. My doe wants to be friends, but he has other ideas. Neutering him at age 9 is out of the question really, so I would appreciate any advice to help my bunnies.

[jerseygirl]

So he’s like this also in their living area?

How long ago was the vet visit? Did Dandelion check out okay health wise?

I’m actually in a similar situation but with a desexed Buck (9) desexed Doe (5). He started to become more like this around age 7 or 8. I’ve wanted to investigate adrenal tumours but haven’t had much luck with vets wanting to test. I had a blood test done and figured they’d check testosterone, given the situation I described. But they didn’t. The last vet I spoke with suggested doing a urine test first so I’m going that route now.

In their shared living space, I have some areas that she can hop up onto to get away from if if she needs to. There’s literally only enough room for her to perch up there. They deal with it mostly but I do separate them for several hours if I think she needs a break. Only trouble is he’s just as bad when they reunite.

[Dandelion and Coco]

Thanks for the advice Jerseygirl,

She can get away from him in the hutch and garden and she can run faster, but she wants to be friends and can’t really spend more than 10 minutes with him before he tries again. They went to the vets to have their claws clipped about two weeks ago, but he has an appointment for an eye spot on Friday so I can mention it then. What a coincidence that your buck started acting like this at 8 too!

I sometimes leave him in the hutch while I groom her but she isn’t the most confident bunny around humans and is extremely scared if she is alone with me. Dandelion’s presence reassures her but if he gets near her he tries to mate again, and this scares her too. Normally she gets away but on the rare occasions he succeeds she is absolutely traumatised and extremely nervous for the rest of the day. Unfortunately this happened before the trip to the vets and she jumped six feet from the box to the floor when he was put in the box next to her again (I wasn’t going to leave them like this, I was about to take her out)

Also, he is extremely dominant and instead of eating next to him she takes her food and runs away to eat it, except for pellets which she can’t really carry off so has to eat from the shared bowl. She doesn’t like to be separated from him either, and is distressed equally by being assaulted by him and being away from him. I want her to be happy but I’m not sure how I can make hr happy 🙂

Good luck with your bunnies. I hope there’s nothing wrong with your buck.

[Mikey]

If they share a cage, i would separate them into two cages as the first step. That way they can see each other through the bars and all of that, but he cant hump her or chase her. His hormones can easily kill their bond if he continues past her comfort limit, and nobunny wants that to happen at their ages. They might have to stay separate until you can find a reason for his hormone spike and combat that. Sadly, i dont know of any ways to decrease hormones other than spays/neuters. It might be something to talk to your vet about

[jerseygirl]

Are you noticing any pattern when he is particularly hormonal? Time of day or time of year?
Even desexed rabbits can have slight elevation in hormones during certain times of the year.
The vets I saw even suggested my boy might be picking up on an intact doe in the area. But they live inside so I don’t really credit that theory much. They also suggested dementia… lol.

Interesting about his eye. Is his vision affected? Some of my boys humpiness coincided with some vision loss and I use to think it was some sort of coping mechanism for him.

Binky Bunny had a rabbit (Jack) that became excessive like this when she was bonding him with a new rabbit. Both were long term desexed. It’s normal to see some of this with a new bond but then it usually lessens. It didn’t with him, however, It turned out he had a bladder stone and they think he was doing this as some sort of displacement behaviour. I’ve always kept that in mind. That there may be a hidden health issue that’s not obvious at the root of the problem.

[Dandelion and Coco]

This behaviour started in early spring (February here) this year. I’ll mention the behaviour to the vet on Friday, maybe it is to do with his eye. He was also quite bad last spring and even tried to hump me when I was sitting in the run (I knocked him off when I noticed) ! Separating them is not really an option as she wants to try to snuggle with him and he lets her sometimes, but other times he goes straight for her, but thanks for the suggestion.

It is mostly when I bring them inside, but Coco gets very scared when he is not there and I need her to let me groom her tangled fur. Also, the only time I get to play with them properly is when I bring them in, but I end up spending all my time separating them and calming them down. I don’t really know how I can fix this in the short term. Thanks for the advice ??

[Mikey]

Youll want to separate them. If she says shes had enough and youre not there, a fight will break out. An angry rabbit doesnt stop in the middle of a fight, they will go until one or both is severely hurt. Or, she can get mad enough that it ruins their bond and they stop getting along until they are rebonded. You can keep their cages close to one another so they can cuddle through the bars

[Dandelion and Coco]

Thanks for the tips Mikey, I’ll see what I can do. I’ve heard of squirting misbehaving rabbits with a small amount of water from a spray bottle when bonding two together to separate them, so I might try squirting him when he is distressing her? Do you think this would work? Thanks 😉

[Mikey]

You can try it for sure. I did that with my nethie and he would stop (he had such bad hormones before being neutered) being mean to everyone. But when i used the same tactic on my mini rex, it would make him madder, so he would pull fur out and nip pretty hard. But it is worth a try i think! If you notice it doesnt go well, you can try other tactics

Another tactic that might help, If you can separate them, is the toy decoy tactic. Put a stuffed animal in your females cage and let her do whatever she wants with it for a few weeks. After its full of her smell and fur, put it in your males cage. It might help him get his instincts out until the season is over, since this seems to be a seasonal thing for him

[Dandelion and Coco]

Thanks Mikey, I’ll definitely try the toy decoy tactic. I can’t get a photo of the current housing setup to upload, but they are temporarily living in a hutch and run combination until I have a custom made playhouse-style hutch made for them in the summer. There is a large grassy area that they have free run of in the daytime. There is a hutch with run beneath it and an additional, smaller run attached in front. The only way I can really separate them is by putting one in the small run and the other in the main hutch. This is not ideal, so I would probably swap them over each night and let them play together in the daytime in the garden where they have plenty of room to get away from each other. Do you think this would work? ??

[Mikey]

That sounds good to me! I had to do something similar with my unaltered male for a while. Plus, they will still have time to play during the day with one another so its not like theyre being split completely, just for a few hours

[Dandelion and Coco]

Update: Coco is in the run and she has a brand new bowl, water bottle and wooden cottage that Dandelion has never seen. She also has the familiar litter box and cardboard tunnel that smells of them both. When we let them out to play together in the daytime, Coco’s area will be kept shut. The idea is that Dandelion will have no access to Coco’s area for a few weeks until we link the areas again, so that she can establish it as her territory- the upstairs of the main hutch is already his territory and she has no real territory of her own, so we hope that this may stop her from letting him push her around all the time.

We found a product in a local pet shop (trusted rabbit-savvy pet shop with on-site vet that also has rescue bunnies) that they use on their bunnies to stop them mounting each other. It is called Bitch Spray and is designed for dogs, but they use it on their rabbits with success. You spray it on the female and the smell puts the buck off. We are going to spray Coco before we let them out to play together tomorrow and see if this helps. Coco seemed disorientated and confused at first, but she can see Dandelion through 2 layers of wire and sniff him so she is settling in. Dandy doesn’t seem too bothered by the separation. I hope this works, thanks for the tips ?

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