Rabbit fight all morning – NEED HELP ASAP

[bunnymama]

My thread is Bonding 2 female rabbits contiues, however this morning while we were at work. I think the new rabbit Gracie #2 pulled the screw out of the wall, moved the gate over and a rabbit chasin and nipping free for all ensued. I am trying to bond 2 females and are on day 52 and this happens. Neither one are injuired or hurt (that we can tell so far) but there was literally both of their fur all over the room and  in cages.  A long chase must have ensured from what I can tell. Huge fur clumps of Baby #1 and smaller clumps of Gracie #2 everywhere.  When we came home, Baby was cowering in her cage.  Gracie – just like business as usual -nothing ever bothers her.  Then Gracie ran and hid and wouldn’t come out either.  Baby did hop out of her cage long enough to show me where Gracie got in (she is a very smart little rabbit – she amazes me all the time).  When I tried to calm her down Baby keep making really strange almost pig like snortin noises (she has never done before).  We finally got Gracie into her cage and she was quite skiddish now too.  We left them, cages next to each other, each locked within their cage -no freedom right now.

NOW WHAT DO I DO?  Tonight just do bonding session as normal. I’m totally defeated and just want to give up –this has been so stressful I can hardly take it –I know I’m a whimp because I love my little Baby #1 so much I can’t stand to see her hurt or scared.  I don’t think they settled the fight over domiance yet either. They were both in their own pens when we got home.  We were gone about 3 hours total and just happened to come home for lunch a little early.  Upt to this point, they are still nipping and chasing each other during bonding. I had recently given them total view of each other which I thought was helping. They would lay next to each other with the gate in between them. But now I have no idea what they will do or what I should do. HELP PLEASE.

[osprey]

Wow, that sounds like a nasty scene.  I am glad that both of them are OK.  Since bunnies are creatures of habit, I think you should go ahead with your regular bonding session today, and be ready to intercede right away if they start to fight.  I know that bonding is very stressful on you, but you don’t want them to remember the fight, you want them to remember the pattern and the schedule.  Good luck with these two.  I know that bonding two females can be very hard.

 

[MarkBun]

It is possible that after this big brawl that they have worked out some of their issues. I have known more than one person who has stuck the two rabbits in a large cage/condo and let them work it out between them.

Do keep up with the bonding. I would actually suggest making the bonding area smaller – like a total of 8 square feet maximum.

[bunnymama]

Thanks for the replies, I’ve added them to my other thread. Had a bad session the day after the fight but last night we forced them to get along – not the best practice but we felt it important to have a good session last night. Check out the progress at:
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/forumid/11/tpage/2/view/Topic/postid/54949/Default.aspx
just go down to the bottom of the page…..thanks and have a good day.

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