older bonded pair – sudden behavior changes

[thomasjrusso]

I have a pair of older house rabbits, both about 9 years old, a neutered male and an unspayed female. They have been harmoniously bonded since they were kits and have been the best behaved rabbits I’ve owned. They are healthy and active.

Several months ago, over the winter, their behavior changed drastically. The male now constantly chases the female and mounts her. They don’t fight, just a few nips now and then, and occasional aggressive response from the female, but I can tell they are both very stressed out all the time. I used to let them run free in the house, but now in addition to the constant mounting, they are pooping and peeing outside of their litter box, (from the stress I imagine.) I corral them now and separate them for much of the day. I’m sad because it seems like their quality of life has gone down quite a bit, and we don’t enjoy their company as much either.

I had hoped that this behavior would eventually pass but it has continued for months. What’s going on?

[LBJ10]

This isn’t unheard of in older neutered males. Potential causes could be bladder stones or an adrenal problem.

[DanaNM]

My senior bun got like this too. I agree it would be good to have him checked out by a rabbit savvy vet to rule out urinary issues and adrenal issues.

My bun got a clean bill of health, but I also found that his mounting gets way worse when I feed him parsley or dandelion, so I’ve pretty much cut those out of his diet.

The other thing you can do is to provide lots of hides, tunnel, things to jump on top of, and other obstacles for your female to get away from him.

I also just noticed your female is unspayed. She could be going through hormonal changes as well that are triggering this. Reproductive cancers are extremely common in female rabbits (75% by age 4 in some studies), so I would have your female checked out as well.

. . . 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.  

[thomasjrusso]

update:

after doing some research I found a discussion about giving small doses of melatonin to small animals to balance testosterone.

so I gave it a try @ 1mg per day for my little guy. after 2-3 days his sex-pest behavior stopped, completely… like a switch was flipped.

he doesn’t seem to be affected in any other way, still active and alert and eating, peeing, pooping just fine.

so I feel like this is a miracle!

but are there any short or long-term risks I need to be aware of? I couldn’t find any warnings.

thanks for your help!

[Azerane]

That’s really something that your vet would best be able to advise you on. Did you have him checked over? Changes like that can have underlying health causes. It could be an issue of your female’s health too if she’s putting off hormones that are encouraging your male.

[DanaNM]

I agree that it would be good to have him assessed by a vet. They can advise on the dose, and you can make sure you aren’t masking a medical problem with the melatonin.

. . . 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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