My unspayed female rabbit RAPES my neutered male!

[Mike]

I have an unspayed female and a neutered male. The female has been around longer so she bosses the new male around. She constantly mounts and humps him. When he tries to run away she grabs on and rides him like a pony. She particularly likes to lick his head. The weird thing is that fiive minutes later they will cuddle each other and she will lick him. However it seems that ever since I introduced them to each other the male has become more fearful of me. It seems to me that this is because he contantly gets harassed by the female.

Should I do something to prevent this behavior or is it normal rabbit bonding?

I tried to get the female spayed but the vet told me that a 9 month old rabbit is too old for spaying. Is this true? Is she too old for it to alter her behavior, or will she feel permanent discomfort from the sudden lack of hormones? She poops EVERYWHERE to mark her territory so I really hope the vet was wrong.

[Floppy]

no 9 months is not too old for spaying. You need to go see a rabbit savvy vet!!!

[RabbitPam]

Right. It is not too old, but a vet who thinks so may be masking their uncertainty about their ability to do a successful operation. Take her to another vet. Many folks here are from your area and could probably recommend someone else. Or check the vet list on House Rabbit Society’s website for a name. (And I think she’s not raping per se, it’s dominance behavior.)

[bunnytowne]

from what my vet told me 7-9 months is good time for spaying.  I hate that when they hump and stuff. annoying. even tho is their way of showing dominance.

oh my shirt this is a cotton shirt gosh he tore it up holes all over. eeek. I liked this shirt too. COTTON!!! I can’t let him do this chewing digging on my clothes anymore I have 1 cotton shirt he can chew up. whiel I am still in it. sorry rambling

[Sarita]

I think you need to see a rabbit savvy vet too – this is not at all to old to spay a rabbit. It is a dominance behavior too, not rape.

[rabbitsmba]

9 months is too old? Oh for heaven’s sakes thats rediculous! Sorry, but that vet is not rabbit-savvy. I’m with rabbitpam on this one – they’re hiding their inability to deal with rabbits.

An unspayed rabbit has an 80% chance of developing reproductive cancers by age 5. Where are you located? I’ll bet someone could recommend a vet for you.

And all of the other behaviours you describe are completely normal for this situation.  Spaying will really help.

[babybunsmum]

my bun was just recently spayed & she was 10 1/2 months old.  my vet explained that it is easier to spay rabbits before they’re about a year old because after that they get slightly fattier around their bits BUT she has spayed buns far older than that.  the others are right… find a rabbit-savvy vet so your bun can be safely spayed & stay healthy

[Sage Cat]

I was really surprised to learn that with Rabbits the female is almost always dominant. Plus if you have had her longer – so she is totally letting him know who is boss!
It is a good sign that they are cuddling and she is grooming him.

How long have you had her? How long have you had him? Maybe he is still getting use to you and that is why he seems fearful?

[BinkyBunny]

I just am adding my ditto to the thread. Yes, this is a dominant move, and I agree you need to find rabbit savvy vet.

It’s okay to let your female mount the male as long as:

1. She doesn’t mount his head (rabbits have been known to bite the other’s privates so you want to avoid that)
2. She doesn’t do it continiously to the point that he gets mad or can’t get a break

it sounds like they do end up hanging out and so it ends well, but just make sure she gives him a break if she does it for two minutes straight.  Otherwise I would allow it so they can work through their roles in the relationship.

[natasha]

Hi guys,

I am new to this forum so let me start by introducing my two bunnies. Messi(8months) and pepe(7months). When we got pepe four months back, Messi was initially aggressive towards pepe. She would chase her around and it seemed like she was attacking her. Eventually they bonded and were inseperable for the next few months until recently where I have noticed that they are humping each other. Pepe started it with humping Messi’s head(it was the first time I observed it, do not know if it has happened before) and then Messi went all out and just chased pepe and would not let go. Initially we were fearful as we thought we got the sexing of the bunnies wrong, but after confirming it from two different vets, we know that both are indeed female.

They are unspayed and from general literature it would seem like the best idea is to get them spayed. However, there is a problem with that. I am from India and the general attitude of people here towards rabbits is too callous, there are no rabbit savvy vets and thus no one is capable of performing the spaying operation. Thus getting them spayed is not an option.

Is there anything else that can be done ? pepe seems terrified and I do not know when this can erupt into a fight and I know it can get ugly. For now I have kept them separate. But this cannot be a permanent solution.

Can someone please help ?

[MrBun&Daisy]

Natasha- there really is nobody who can do it? (I understand what you’re saying) we had to call at least 50 vets before we found one we felt comfortable taking our buns to. but of course we live in the US so we are fortunate. anyway, since it isn’t an option for you you’re just going to need lots of patience.

1. don’t let them hump head to tail. even though there are no man-bits to be bitten they can still harm each other.
2. try a spray bottle or loud noise to separate them
3. you may need to let them sort it out them selves- for 2 days my daisy decided she wanted to be the boss and was constantly trying to hump MrBun. but then magically it stoped entirely and I haven’t seen her (or him) even think about it since. I’m guessing they just decided among themselves. however if pepe seems very scared I wouldn’t let it go on too much. try maybe spraying messi whenever she starts to hump so she will get the message and hopefully settle down.

if that doesn’t work they may just have to live separately. but we have lots of bonding experts here so hopefully someone will have been in your spot before. My kids were never scared of each other so I was able to let them play it out. it sounds like you are doing your best to look out for pepe since he is frightened by it.

[Bam]

They only thing I can think of that might work would be to house them in a very large area where each can withdraw to a private spot. But it’d have to be a really big area.

(We have other members from India and it doesn’t really seem like it’s a country where many rabbit spays are performed.)

[Author]

Messages