Male rabbit STILL won’t stop humping

[BettyandBubz]

My male rabbit has been neutered for a month now, my female was spayed a few months ago now. I introduced them when he was two weeks post op, and asked for help on this forum, due to his persistent humping, and was advised to wait longer, and I did. It’s now been a bit over four weeks now, and not a thing has changed. All he wants to do is hump, he never stops, sometimes they’ll take breaks where they’ll flop, far away from each other, if she moves even slightly he’ll come bounding over and trying to mount again. I’ve tried spraying water, pulling him off her, loud sounds, but it just seems to motivate him. She runs, sometimes gives in, but he’s never satisfied. I’ve tried feeding them together, they’ll share out of the same bowl and it’s fine for a few minutes, then once they finish, he’s right back to trying to mount her. I know it’s not a dominance thing, he honks and sprays her, signs he’s obviously sexually excited. I know some sites say to just let them sort it out themselves, but I don’t know, it’s like witnessing ‘rabbit rape’. It’s been almost five weeks, I don’t understand how he’s still hormonal. The vet said four weeks should be enough time, but he’s still the exact same.

No bonding techniques work, small spaces are an absolute no no because he’ll just hump the daylights out of her if she has nowhere to run. I try doing bonding with a barrier but he is just determined to get through to her and won’t stop trying to push through the barrier, so it doesn’t really work either. I know I’ll probably have everyone saying, just wait longer, but I really don’t think that’s going to make a difference. He’s not getting better at all, four weeks and no difference, they can never be bonded if all he wants to do is hump, and I’m giving up hope. Has anyone experienced that with their rabbits? Do you have any advice?

[DanaNM]

Mounting and spraying can definitely be part of the bonding process, even when there are no hormones left. I know of some bonded pairs where the male will still spray the female daily.

Have you done any pre-bonding with them (cage swaps)?

I’m interested to hear what happens if you don’t intervene as much, and a bit more about the bonding space you are using. Is it very neutral? And have you tried stressing? How long are your sessions?

My instinct is to try a very large space with lots of obstacles and tunnels, and introduce an element of stress (like a car ride). The stress should make him less inclined to mount, and a large new space would allow them to run around and give her spaces to get away from him. And then just let them run around and tire themselves out. There may always be an element of mounting (my neutered 12 yr old bun honks and tries to mount his bonded mate every night like clockwork, then they cuddle afterwards), but it should calm down a bit once the excitement wears off.

The fact that his attempts aren’t turning into fights is actually a very positive thing, so don’t despair just yet! And also try not to anthropomorphize too much. If she looks very stressed, gently remove the male to let her move away, then then don’t let him chase her for more than about 3-4 seconds. You can pet him and gently press him into the ground to calm him down and keep him from chasing.

. . . 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.  

[BettyandBubz]

Thank you for your response and kind words! I tried them in a neutral space, my kitchen, several times, but the humping was full on. It was a large area and they had things to distract themselves with, but humping was his only motive, and he NEVER seems to tire out. He’ll keep it up for hours. It’s so frustrating because even though they’re not fighting my girl will flinch and run every time he comes close to her, even if it’s just to sniff. They will both flop in front of each other, but it’s very short lived as he will go get up and hump her head. The humping gets worse as it goes on, the beginning of the session he tries to hump occasionally but does do other things, but by the end of it after an hour or so he’s persistent and I’m having to pull him off her every few seconds. After a while she’ll just start to go limp, almost like she’s sleeping, and won’t even care if he humps her. I interpret it as her just giving up and feeling really sad, so I separate them when that starts to happen. He’s never ever satisfied so even if he does get to hump her for a while he’ll still persistently try afterwards. I’m not quite sure what methods of stress bonding I could do, I’m unable to do the car ride method, and as I mentioned if I put them in a carrier together he’d hump her to death. He pulls her fur out every time he manages to hump and I guess that’s even more disturbing. As I’m writing this they have a bonding session, Betty is flopping every few minutes but then of course Bubz will run up and try to hump, then she’ll spring up and run. I have no idea what to think. They’re both confusing me. I think the only reason a fight hasn’t broke out is because they’re both very passive, aside from his humping, they’ve never bit me or one another, and they’re never aggressive. Even so that’s not helping them get along either, ughhhh, it’s so frustrating.

[DanaNM]

Hmmmm, I do wonder if he would still mount while the car was running (it might be worth a shot, since they don’t fight). If you have someone else drive you can prevent him from mounting at first. You might also try on top of a washing machine while it’s running.

It is odd that he doesn’t tired after hours. It is possible that neuters can be “incomplete”, but that’s pretty rare…

I’m going to ask some folks at the rescue I volunteer at to see if they have experience with this much humping during bondings!

. . . 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.  

[BettyandBubz]

Thanks for that! I did try putting them in a carrier together but Betty was not having it. So even getting them in there would be impossible. It’s funny but loud noises and such make him worse, if I clap my hands at him or slap the ground it seems to intensify his frenzy. I can’t find anything online relating to my situation. I will say that after he’s succeeded in humping her, her back is wet afterwards, so I have no idea if he’s managing to ejaculate or what. It’s my first time bonding rabbits and I wish I had a more black and white situation, they’re either fighting or they’re not, so at least I could find solutions, but it’s just completely in between. It’s not bad, but it’s not good either.

[DanaNM]

OK so I talked to one of the lead bonders at the rescue about this and she had a couple thoughts!

First though, I just re-read your first post and see that it’s been about 4 weeks since his neuter. 4 weeks is the avg time for hormones to settle, but of course it can take longer in some bunnies. So waiting a couple more weeks might be a good next step.

If the behavior continues even with more time, it would be unusual. My friend’s first question was “Are they sure he is neutered?”, because it is so odd! Sometimes when animals are neutered very young, the other organs will make up for the hormones and start producing them to aid in development. But I don’t think this was the case for you?

There is also the possibility of an “incomplete” neuter, where part of a testes or even clump of cells remains behind, and is enough for him to display hormonal behaviors.

I know your vet brushed you off, but my friend at the rescue said she hadn’t ever experienced a neutered bun mounting that much (for hours straight) in bonding sessions, and she has bonded a lot of bunnies over the years. So she recommended talking to your vet again (or a dif vet) if things don’t improve.

Her other suggestion was to introduce a “stuffy” (stuffed animal) to help your male get his mounting out of his system. She said you could even start them off together, then move the girl to a neighboring pen and give your boy the stuffy. Even better if it smells like your female. Hedgehog stuffies seem to be very popular with our unneutered boys at the shelter. 😛

 

 

. . . 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.  

[BettyandBubz]

Hello, thank you for all your advice and helpful info! Sorry it took so long to respond, life has been hectic. Since it’s been around a month since my last update, I regrettably have to say his behaviour is even worse! It’s been almost two months since his neutering, and his humping is at its worst. Before I could have them together and even though he was humping, it was tolerable, and he would take breaks and pauses to investigate other things, so it was almost constant, but not unbearable. Now though, as soon as he sees her he starts honking really loud and even after ten minutes or so he has not stopped once from his attempts to hump her. Worse now is Betty is really not liking it, she put up with it before but now every time he comes after her she leaps away so fast that she almost injures herself, so I can’t let that happen. It’s showing absolutely no signs of dying down, it’s getting worse, and I’ve noticed now that when I sit down on the floor next to him he circles me and honks, and acts quite agitated, like nipping my clothes and showing what looks like sexual frustration. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his litter habits are abominable. They too have gotten worse and I’ve tried everything at this point.

He has no problem with peeing in his litter box, but when it comes to poo, he covers his entire room floor with it and it’s a huge mess to clean up every day. A few weeks ago it wasn’t so bad but with everything else it’s gotten worse. Betty has no problem using the litter box and seldom does a single poop outside of it, so I know it’s not impossible to train him. I’ve watched countless videos on how to do it, tips and tricks to use, but nothing works. I also find it very weird that he’s acting this hormonal at this time of year, as I heard in winter they tend to calm down a bit, so that’s also confusing. I definitely think his behaviour is abnormal from what I can see, no neutered rabbit that has been neutered for this long should be acting like this without a good reason, and I really want nothing more than to resolve it. I got him as a friend for Betty and now they can’t even be together because of how bad he’s behaving. It’s really unfortunate and I’m at my wits end with him. Nothing I do improves the situation. All the help I can get would be appreciated.

[DanaNM]

Ok, I definitely think a consultation with a vet would be in order as I agree, this isn’t normal. There could be hormonal causes, or other causes like a bladder issue.

I found these past threads on excessive mounting:

Excessive mounting

The Binky Bunny mascot, Jack, was a crazy mounter and it was discovered he had a bladder stone:

Jack & Vivian

Jack’s Story & Diet

The fact that your boy’s mounting is getting worse and worse sounds very similar to what happened with Jack and Vivian.

I actually just went through something similar with my old man bun, he was mounting his bonded mate really excessively so I ended up taking him to the vet to check for bladder issues (she did an x-ray and urinalysis). He ended up with a clean bill of health and oddly he ended up settling down shortly after that. So who the heck knows (we’ve recently moved and fostered new bunnies, so that was likely the cause), but at least I knew I wasn’t pushing him through bonding sessions when he had a medical issue.

. . . 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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