New Bond Fighting – HELP?!

[Dreya T]

So we were totally convinced that our rabbits were bonded – they’d stopped fighting, they groom and cuddle and everything else. We put them together permanently on Friday night, and left them in the cage to settle.

We’ve let them out this afternoon for the first time, and there have been three major fights – tussling, we think there were claws out, fur pulling. We shut them inside the cage after the second one and left them to it for an hour and they were fine. We let them out again, just in the hallway this time (the space their cage is in) and they’ve had another scrap inside the cage, except there wasn’t enough space for as much moving about.

What do we do? They haven’t done this for ages, and the whole flat is now re-arranged for their co-existence, and we obviously don’t want either to get hurt but we don’t want to split them up again.

EDIT: There was another big scrap and we’ve split them up, pending help from you guys!

[KatnipCrzy]

If you consider the fights as major- they need to be separated and continue to work on bonding. It sounds like you have things rearranged- but a large vet bill will be worse than moving some stuff back around.

[Tate]

How old are they and are they neutered?

[OskarAnnie]

When I first put my rabbits together (about a month ago) Oskar would mount Annabelle making her want to fight him, Oskar quickly got away and then Annabelle seemed satisfied after pulling out some hair, but no REAL fights happened. If they continue to fight and it turns out to be aggressive fighting instead of just a little scuffle, you’ll probably need more time to bond them.

Don’t separate them though unless the fighting gets dangerous, otherwise they’ll think that’s how they can get rid of the other rabbit.

[Elrohwen]

My two got into a couple scuffles more than a month after they moved in together full time (which was after a month or so of bonding sessions where they never fought). Sometimes these things happen and you need to decide if it’s serious or not. I found that mine did this around 5am when they were waking up and getting hungry (now, a year later, Hannah still chases and nips Otto when she’s hungry in the morning, so I can see how a scuffle would start). After their first fight I slept on the couch for at least a week or two. Their fights looked scary, but they just pulled some fur and did some chasing and circling.

Now if your two are seriously fighting and trying to draw blood, I would separate them and go back to bonding sessions in a neutral area – they might not have been ready to move in. If the fights aren’t serious, give them more supervision and keep them together (maybe take things out of their cage that they can be territorial of) and they will probably work it out.

[lynnbunn]

I recently had a huge bonding series.
I tried my bunny, Romeo, a neutered teenage male, with two spayed teenage females.
This is just bad territory because teenagers seldom have controllable tempers. You may want to look into their age.

Anyways, the first female, Apricot, didn’t make it with Romeo. They hated each other. It looked okay at first with lots of grooming so I put them in the same cage. I let them out to play once and they started to fight (fighting with “I’m gonna kill you”.)

I swapped her for Tigerlily, now Romeo’s permanent buddy. They never really fought but Tigerlily would snatch little pieces of fur from Romeo. This behavior slowly ebbed away until last week when I enlarged their housing. Now, every morning, there is a small patch of Romeo’s fur in the area.

From my experience, I’m pretty sure rabbits are bipolar, especially if they’re teenagers or incompatible. Another huge problem is the problem of territory. NEW TERRITORY WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS. You will have to supervise them in new spaces. It’s best not to let them onto huge parts of space until you’re pretty sure they’re bffs.

For you, it sounds like you need to re-bond them. Try again from the beginning with completely neutral territory. Make them have dinner together. Please be wary about breakfast time, as I have found the morning makes rabbits a little grumpy.

If you can, split their area into two and have them just next to each other for a week (carefully though, because they will fight between bars). Your rabbits, like my Romeo and Apricot, may actually grow to hate each other, so be careful. Switch their housing areas everyday so they grow used to each other. If all they want to do is fight, you can attempt a “stress session” where you put them in a box and gently move the box around. They will look to each other for safety.

Bonding is tricky business, but it’s so much worth the while.

GOOD LUCK~~

[Dreya T]

Thanks for your help – we have still got them separated. We can’t leave them alone together because they start chasing and pulling out fur within minutes. We’re going to start again from neutral territory – I’m aware that they’re both still teenagers and will settle into their personalities over the coming months.

Frankie is very timid and not nearly as happy around us as he was before we put them together for the 36 hours they were in the cage, so we’re concentrating on getting both bunnies happy with us, and then we’ll start putting them together again.

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

I finally got my two bonded and then we moved which seemed to disrupt everything for a bit. They had to be separated unless I was closel supervising and we gradually went back to full time togetherness. Even now, every once in a great while I will find evidence of a little scrapping (ie tufts of fur, usually Comet’s fur around the lving room). Comet doesn’t groom Chubs as much as he gets groomed and I think this frustrates him every so often. When I find the fur, I usually put a little banana on Chubs head and let Comet groom it off which seems to settle them right back down. (At least, this is my take on things.) Have you tried the banana trick? It was key with my guys since Comet is just not super into grooming. He is totally non-aggressive but he just doesn’t like to groom so Chubs gets frustrated. It was their biggest issue during bonding and then the disruption of moving seemed to jumble things. Until they are really concretely bonded, it can be tough to keep them mellow! Hang in there

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

I finally got my two bonded and then we moved which seemed to disrupt everything for a bit. They had to be separated unless I was closel supervising and we gradually went back to full time togetherness. Even now, every once in a great while I will find evidence of a little scrapping (ie tufts of fur, usually Comet’s fur around the lving room). Comet doesn’t groom Chubs as much as he gets groomed and I think this frustrates him every so often. When I find the fur, I usually put a little banana on Chubs head and let Comet groom it off which seems to settle them right back down. (At least, this is my take on things.) Have you tried the banana trick? It was key with my guys since Comet is just not super into grooming. He is totally non-aggressive but he just doesn’t like to groom so Chubs gets frustrated. It was their biggest issue during bonding and then the disruption of moving seemed to jumble things. Until they are really concretely bonded, it can be tough to keep them mellow! Hang in there! This is the most frustrating part for the humans since we think we are there and then aren’t! Almost!

[Author]

Messages