Rabbits both territorial after being neutered.

[a llama]

Hello, I am the owner of two male rabbits named Oreo and Ben. Oreo has been fixed for around 4 weeks while Ben was neutered before we adopted him at the rescue shelter 6 weeks ago or more. That being said, both of these rabbits have had the recommended amount of 4 weeks to get rid of their hormones and yet they both start showing territorial behaviors while they are together. Should I be giving their hormones more time to go away or is this normal bonding behavior? 

In a recent post I’ve made also regarding their behaviors during bonding, I found out that it might be beneficial to spend some time with Ben re-assuring him in the bonding area before starting the session due to the fact that he gets stressed out from being picked up in any sort of way. I’m not sure whether or not this would be the best thing to do as he might be getting territorial during the time alone he has in the bonding area.

Also, I decided to see how they would react during a 4 or 5 hour session together in an area with a slippery floor. This is exactly what I did in their previous bonding session and they have shown me that they will both completely ignore the slippery floor and get territorial of the bonding space after a certain period of time; they will both spray, territorial poop and pee all around the bonding area (the only one mounting is Oreo). The only sort of activity they’ve had in the bonding area I used, the bathroom, was another bonding session I did the day before. Regardless of their territorial moments, they will also show positive behaviors such as flopping next to each other, eating and grooming themselves during bonding, and ignoring each other at moments. I’ve even tried to put pellets on their heads, but the only one who will eat those pellets is Ben which doesn’t seem to be helping their relationship at all. I am constantly doing forced snuggles between them to prevent negative behaviors, but they will return to their previous behaviors shortly after every time I stop petting them.

However, while the rabbits are not together, Oreo exhibits major changes from the time when he was neutered (Ben hasn’t showed any hormonal behaviors during play time). Before Oreo was neutered, he couldn’t even play normally as he would see Ben in his cage and just go around the room thumping and territorial pooping for the entire time he was playing. Now, 4 weeks after being neutered, I see that he will now show happy behaviors such as binkying, flopping and grooming. The only territorial behaviors I’ve seen from Ben is while Oreo is playing and Ben is inside of his cage. When this is happening, Ben will suddenly stop everything hes doing and run around his cage, biting the bars closest to Oreo while doing so (Ben is not cage territorial as he will let me in without any problems; he just acts weird in the scenario previously described). Because of this I’ve had to surround Ben’s cage with the play pen I currently have to minimize Ben’s territorial behaviors and stop any nips/bites through the cage bars, but he becomes normal during play time. Are these types of behaviors normal? Anyway, your time is appreciated and any help would be amazing. Thanks!

[Dface]

Are you doing cage swapping and prebonding?

Also pellets on head doesn’t do much, the idea is that they have to lick off whatever it is (most people mush banana)

Sounds normal enough tbh. Reading through past bonding threads can give you a better picture of normal and not, but all bonding is individual

[Author]

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