Male rabbit keeps on nipping girl rabbit

[Faye]

How can I stop my male rabbit from nipping at my female rabbit he also chases her a little and makes a grunting sound at least I think it is a grunting sound . I’ve been trying to bonding them for over a month now and it has not been working. I have don’t the bathtub, the dryer in the laundry room, and a slippery room. My female rabbit will groom him but then he will nip at her. I have sprayed him when ever he nips and he sometimes stops and I have also just pushed him away from the female. Both of them are spayed and neutered.

[Mikey]

Nipping is how rabbits show “I dont like what youre doing”. Pushing him away when he nips isnt a good thing and can actually make him act out aggressively. Nipping is how rabbits communicate, and its completely acceptable. Stop trying to stop him from nipping

Acceptable: Nipping, short mounting sessions, noises, ignoring one another
Unacceptable: Chasing, lunging, boxing, biting

[Faye]

Thank you so much mikey. Is it alright if my male rabbit is pulling out a little hair on my female?

[Mikey]

That would be fur pulling and/or biting, not nipping. Nips are quick and usually painless, while bites can pull hair and possibly draw blood. Nipping is ok as its a form of communication. Fur pulling and biting is aggression, and not acceptable. Rabbits have paper thin skin, so it can easily cause her problems (bleeding, scabbing, dry skin, infection, ect) if he continues pull her fur

How long did you prebond them before bonding? How long have they both been spayed/neutered?

[Faye]

So my female and male rabbit have been prebonding since the end of April. And she has been spayed for about 2 months. He has been neutered for more then a year. I still have their cages next to each other also

[Faye]

Pepper (my female) also has dry skin on her ears that just appeared. And thank you so much Mikey for your help I really appreciate it. Have you ever bonded your rabbits?

[Faye]

But I have never seen him but her on her ears

[Faye]

Bit^

[Faye]

So I decided to buy another ex pen and put one of the wire door in between them and they were doing pretty well Pepper (my female) would groom my buck and then my buck flopped. But when I have them without the wire in between them my buck bits her and there is hair flying so then I separate them. So what should I do when he bits her?

[Mikey]

Sorry for not responding earlier; my internet went out and I ended up losing this post…

Ive had a trio for about a year and now have a pair and a single due to health problems Bonding my boys was very easy after prebonding.

Stop putting them together. When you prebond, you keep them apart but close. Youll prebond them like this for a full month. After the full month, youll start bonding sessions in a space neither of them have ever gone. Youll start with short sessions multiple times a day and over the course of a month or few, youll increase to several hours a day

[BlueBunniesMummy]

Hi, I’ve got a similar issue to this and wondered if you could maybe help please?

3 bunnies, all neutered/speyed. Two boys, one girl. The boys are just over a year old while the girl is 7 months.

The boys live in their own hutch, and are fully bonded – they were litter brothers. Ollie is dominant of Basil.

I got my lil girl, Twinkle, in mid July this year. Before she arrived I’d cleaned the whole room and reintroduced the bunnies to it complere with a separate pen in there for Twinkle.

Ollie has never been too bothered one way or another by Twinkle. Basil has hated her from the word go. She’d come to the fence, lower her head trying to make friends with them but Basil will always nip her nose, side wherever he can reach and pluck her fur. To some extent it’s always seemed like Ollie was defending Twinkle because sometimes when Basil would pull her fur/growl at her, Ollie would then chase or nip Basil…I dunno if that’s just wishful thinking that Ollie was telling off Basil for being mean?

I’ve since moved house and the bunnies now have their own room so it’s new territory for them. Again, hutch for the boys and a pen set up next to it for the girl.

They’ve always had their meals “together” either side of the pen fence to help with prebonding.

After Twinkle was speyed, waited a good month before trying to introduce them without a fence between them – using neutral territory too (the bathroom/bath) where none of them have been.

Half hour session went okay with Ollie/Twinkle, a few little nips but nothing untoward.

Next day, tried the same with Basil/Twinkle but only 20mins ish as it wasn’t going well. All Basil wants to do is lunge at her aggressively, pull her fur and be an absolute brat towards her. Twinkle doesn’t retaliate at all, she scarpers away and wants to hide in a corner/behind me.

A few days later I tried another 20min session with Basil/Twinkle and the same happened if not worse as Basil just lunges at her anytime she moves (whether it’s in his direction or not). As a result Twinkle is now pretty scared of Basil, to the extent she took her breakfast out her bowl this morning and went to sit in the middle of her pen where Basil couldn’t reach her (as the boys were on the other side of the fence having their breakfast).

I’m aware with rabbits you need to perservere, I’m just a little wary of Basil intimidating Twinkle so much when she doesn’t seem to have any wish to give him a piece of his own medicine. I don’t want her to get hurt or retreat into herself because she’s scared of Basil the brute…

Any advice you could give would be much appreciated, thanks.

[Faye]

Ok so good job on the prebonding. How long did you do prebonding before you started bonding them? Also have you done any stress sessions? Also if he is bitting her hair out try to stop him because that’s not nipping. Also when I bonded my female rabbit (Pepper) was terrified of Irony (my male) but after they were bonded she wasn’t as scared and they both got along. But don’t give up it took me from May-August. Also will your female bit back or defend herself in any way? Also are all the bunnies eating their food in the same cage?

[Mikey]

Hi BlueBunniesMummy, this thread is old enough that its not very active any more. You will get more advice for your specific situation if make a new post in the bonding forum instead

[BlueBunniesMummy]

Posted By Faye on 12/17/2017 1:00 PM

Ok so good job on the prebonding. How long did you do prebonding before you started bonding them? Also have you done any stress sessions? Also if he is bitting her hair out try to stop him because that’s not nipping. Also when I bonded my female rabbit (Pepper) was terrified of Irony (my male) but after they were bonded she wasn’t as scared and they both got along. But don’t give up it took me from May-August. Also will your female bit back or defend herself in any way? Also are all the bunnies eating their food in the same cage?

They havebeen sharing the same room/prebonding from mid July 2017 – present. Stress sessions? I always stop Basil from pulling at her hair. No, she doesn’t defend herself at all, she bolts away from him. No, they don’t eat in the same pen. As I said, they have dinner close together on opposite sides of Twinkle’s pen. 100% putting them in the same pen for dinner wouldn’t end well as Basil is only interested in lunging at Twinkle as soon as she moves, there’s no way he’s going to behave and eat. I’ve tried having food in the neutral area when bonding them so far and neither bunny was interested in the food.

I’ll be making a new thread to continue this discussion.

[Author]

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