New Male Baby, Adult Spayed Bun Lunging At Me

[MathildaTheBun]

Hi! I have a 1 year old mini lop Daisy (spayed about 6 weeks ago). I know that baby/adult bonding isn’t very successful but a baby male (8 weeks) came into my care today. I have a seperate cage for him in a room Daisy rarely goes into. I am planning to wait until he is neutered to bond them and keep them seperate until then. Daisy knows there is another bun here though, and when I put the baby in his cage, Daisy went into the carrier he was in and pooped in it. Now, whenever I walk towards the room the baby is in, she lunges at me and chases me away! My husband is making fun of me and saying “Who’s really in charge here?” but honestly, I’m not quite sure now lol Is she mad that there is another rabbit here? Is this a maternal instinct perhaps? Most of the info I have found discusses keeping them seperate, but does this mean keep them seperate entirely or can they meet for a few minutes a day? Any advice is appreciated!! I don’t want Daisy to be mad or upset but I also don’t want to be afraid of my pet rabbit :/

[Azerane]

Keeping them separate means keeping a barrier between them that they can’t bite each other through. Some people house their new rabbit next to their existing rabbit in a different cage. This allows them to get used to the site, sound and presence of each other without there being any potentially harmful interactions. She is probably becoming territoriality aggressive/defensive because she can smell the new rabbit, which she can probably also smell on you. For the time being, for feeding times and things I would feed your existing rabbit frist, before feeding the new one so that you don’t have the smell of the baby on you before feeding her. Given her lunging, it may be worth keeping the new one out of site for a week a week or so until Daisy settles down a little and isn’t lunging and acting so territorial. Once she’s a bit more settled, then bring the cage with the new little boy near where Daisy’s cage is for them to get used to being near each other. You won’t be able to introduce or bond them until you have had the boy neutered, but until then you can certainly use that time for them to get used to each other and preparing for bonding by scent swapping. This includes switching toys and food bowls between cages, you can also swap them between cages.

[MathildaTheBun]

This was extremely helpful! Thank you!!!

[MathildaTheBun]

So this morning Daisy catapulted herself into our bed about 3-4 times and starting digging ferociously into our pillows (and my hair). Can this be attributed to her territory aggressiveness too?

[Gina.Jenny]

It can take more than six weeks for some buns hormones to settle post spay. If you are in the Northern hemisphere, the longer days could also be affecting her, as in the wild, longer days signal a bunny that its a good time for babies. Bringing in an unaltered boy bunny at the same time that her hormones are still settling after her spay, and the days are getting longer could be sending some of her bunny hormones haywire, causing her to become very territorial.

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