Suddenly aggressive

[Jrassic]

I got my two girls at the same time, and believe them to have been together from around 8 weeks. They’re about 14 weeks now and have always been cuddly and lovely toward each other without any problems. Scout, the smaller of the two, constantly snuggles into Hero and is obviously very submissive to her. 

Yesterday I witnessed Hero attack Scout and had to physically separate them. Scout has bites around the base of her ears and the back of her neck. I kept them apart for about 30 minutes and then brought them back together and tried feeding them pellets near each other so they could reconnect. They seemed okay, but then about 10 minutes later, I noticed Hero chasing Scout again and trying to bite her. So I repeated the processes of separating them for a while and then trying to bring them back together. 

For the next few hours, I noticed Scout being overly submissive to Hero, laying flat as a pancake next to her, nuzzling her face into Hero’s side as she often does. And on occasion, Hero would move to lay in front of her and they would touch noses. For the rest of the night and all of today, they seem to be back to how they were.

But I won’t be working from home in the daytime this week and I’m concerned by what I might come home to after work every evening.

Does anyone have experience of bonding and behaviour between two girls who have always been together? I expected this had they come together at different times, had one already claimed the space as their own, but this seems to have come out of nowhere. And at 14 weeks, they’re still too little to be neutered.

Should I be worried or can I scratch this up to a one-time thing? And if I can’t, should I worry this could become more violent? I may be over-panicking as a new BunMum and appreciate the expertise of the group. 

Thank you.

P.S. Here’s a photo of them because they’re just too cute.

[Doodler]

Hi Jrassic! What you are experiencing is absolutely normal. Your bunnies are not bonded and this isn’t a one time situation.

You will want to separate them immediately and then they should be spayed, healed and hormones settled before you start the prebonding process to hopefully eventually have them bonded.

Things can definitely become more violent and this can happen very quickly.

There is a lot of great information in the bonding section on this website with links also to other resources.

[Sirius&Luna]

As Doodles said, unfortunately this is very common as bunnies reach maturity. At this age, they start to become very hormonal, and baby buns that have previously been happy together will often to start to violently fight.

I’m afraid now you must separate them before serious damage occurs. Bunnies shouldn’t really ever be together until both are neutered/spayed. For now, you should keep them separate, with double layers of fencing so that they can’t bite each other through gaps. It would be good if they could still see each other though. During this time, I would suggest swapping them between hutches every other day too, so that they don’t get territorial about areas, and continue to be used to the scent of each other. Then, once they’ve both been spayed and given a month to recover and drain hormones, you can start to bond them. Hopefully, since they didn’t have a huge, blood-spilling fight, they won’t hold any grudges, but it will still take some time.

Check out the bonding information in BUNNY INFO to familiarise yourself with the bonding steps.

[Jrassic]

Thank you both for your help. It’s so sad to think of them as anything other than bonded as they are 100% happy together save for this one instance. Right now they’re currently laying on the rug in front of me, nose to nose, half asleep. Occasionally, one of them will raise their head to groom the other’s face and then they’ll nuzzle back together again.

I’ve managed to rebuild their pen so they sleep apart, and hopefully, they will be okay as they always sleep curled up together.

I plan to get them neutered as soon as I am able, but as they’re 14/15 weeks now, it could be another 8 weeks before they’re old enough.

[Doodler]

I know no one really wants to hear this, especially after having already added two babies to your home, but I would highly recommend keeping them separate 100% of the time. As you have already seen they can be aggressive and they can be aggressive with no warning and at any moment.

I know it’s hard to imagine with how cute they are together that worse may happen but there is a high probability things will get worse before they are ready to be spayed. The risk is not worth it. Not only is there risk of severe injury but if fights happen this can hurt their trust of each other which can cause the bonding process to be that much harder.

I know it’s difficult but just keep in mind that you are doing what’s best for them at this time to make things better for them in the long run.

[veronica]

I’ve been reading bonding experinces, now I am confused. I have two brothers lops aged 7 months or so, they are both neutered I believed from what I had read that two males would not re bond, so I got two females they are currently around 10 weeks old and all sweet and cuddly with each other, my idea was they would be companions when bigger for each of the boys.
Now I read that even the female rabbits will start being aggressive with each other when the hormones kick in and have to be seperated, is this in all cases? the babies are from the same litter, I was hoping they would live together till they were big enough to be bonded with the boys.
How shall I proceed?
shall I try bond the boys ? one boy “met” one of the girls this morning through the pen bars, and promptly bit her on the nose making it bleed.
I would love for someone to tell me how to proceed, thank you.

[Jrassic]

Got up this morning to find they had broken through the pen bars somehow and were curled up together. Pains in my ar… – I’ll head to the hardware store today to get more supplies to reinforce their pen.

And I’ll keep them separated until they’re neutered (and recovered), however hard it’ll be, and then start rebonding them. 

Thank you for all the help.

[Asriel and Bombur]

Hi Veronica, you’ll have better luck at getting an answer if you start your own thread.

To answer your questions, it’s entirely false that boys will not bond once they’ve been neutered an gone through the proper bonding process. There are perfectly happy male pairs, and most trios are 2 males and 1 female.

Yes, you need to keep your girls separated starting now for safety measures because when hormones kick in (relatively soon) they will probably get pretty nasty with each other. Bunnies don’t recognize family units so either way, there is no real bond. Females are more aggressive and territorial than males, so it’s usually more difficult to bond two females than two males.

Either way you decide to proceed, all bunnies need to fixed, You can choose to have a trio and a single, 2 pair, or a quad. Either route you go just remember to go slow and be patient.

[veronica]

Thank you.

[Author]

Messages