neutered males, still spraying, viciously fighting

[missmissi]

We have a 120sqft aviary on our deck, against the front wall of our home, with lots of ramps, platforms with hideouts, toys, ample feed, water, large litter boxes and heat lamps for winter. The structure has a dividing wall with a pass through door for us. It’s covered with steel mesh all over, used on the divider wall too.

2 males, neutered 3 and 4 weeks ago.                                                                                                                                                                        Each side has 1 neutered male and 2 spayed females.

We have windows on each end of the aviary, so we can watch them play, it really is very cool

Both are still spraying like crazy. So our Windows have streams of spray/urine running down; I clean them with Windex and a squeegee sometimes, but it’s hard to do and a real chore.

The males are curious about each other through the screen but no aggression that I see.

I tried putting everybody together over the weekend by opening the divider door, I read that having so many new buns introduced at the same time would deflect attention, lessen the probability for fighting. The little male would not stop attacking the bigger one, even though the littler one kept getting his butt kicked every time he did it. The spray bottle never worked, I had to reach in to pull one out every time. 

I need to try again to place the all together in a pen or unfamiliar place next, but I do not think this will change things for the boys. I read about putting them in the car for rides – does this work well? Any other realistic positive outcome experience suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

[Sr. Melangell]

Car rides? Not sure about car rides, some bunnies don’t like car rides, it does take time to recover from neutering, I was going to put a funny comment about bunnies going out for car rides, but I best not BB will tell me off.

[Bam]

Car rides is a good idea, but I’d wait a couple of weeks (2 or so) since they are so newly neutered. Their hormone-levels don’t drop to zero right away. The first time after a neuter is often referred to as the “post-neuter craze”, meaning that the bun’s behavior is more terrible than ever during that time hormonal wise. Spraying, fighting, humping -all of it gets worse before it gets better.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Ditto, Bam.

[Author]

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