The humping has turned violent

[sharper]

  I came home for lunch and my boyfriend had the bunnies out in the play area.  And Bailey was humping Hailey as per usual over the last 3-4 days.  I didn’t understand it, but Hailey would just give an innocent nip at Bailey and she would stop for a while.  (these 2 girls were spayed a week before I adopted them) Bailey was persistant and kept bugging Hailey.  They would end up running around in circles so Hailey would nip at her to stop.

This has been usual and so I let them still hang together because they were bonded when I adopted them and it never got bad.  They always end up snuggling together and showing love.  So today, it’s the same.  I’m sitting in the living room watching TV and I hear a loud squeal.  I never heard something come from a rabbit like that!  I ran into the kitchen (their play area) and there is HUGE ball of fur still hanging from Hailey’s chin and Bailey huddled in a corner.  I picked up the ball of fur and it was all attached to a piece of skin.  I looked at Bailey and she’s spun around checking out her butt under her tail.  I picked her up and she squirmed, but I could tell right at her anus, she’s bleeding.  We hold her down and settle her and blot up the blood.  It’s right on the edge of the anus where she got bit.  Bailey was still crying a little.  I cuddled her and put her back in the cage.  Hailey is still hanging in the play area.

So now I have no idea what to do.  Should I keep them separated? I don’t want them to become unbonded, but I dunno.  I just don’t understand since they cuddle and groom each other, why this is happening.  They don’t fight at all.  But Hailey really meant business and I’m afraid she might do it again.

[Sarita]

I think I might at this point just keep them together supervised and see what happens – that way you can intervene if it assertiveness turns into aggressiveness. It’s hard to know what happened while you were out of the room.

Poor Bailey. Sounds like Haley might be ultra sensitive as well.

[sharper]

They seem to do well in the cage together. The humping issues only seem to happen in the play area most of the time. I left them separated and went to work. My boyfriend saw that Bailey was feeling better and acting normal, so he put Hailey back in the cage with her. He’s home all day today and will keep an eye on them.

He messaged me and said the piece of skin looks like part of her vagina. I really have no idea what I’m looking at when I look down there, but I’m pretty sure it was the anus. The bleeding has stopped but I’m kind of worried about any bathroom problems now. Going to make sure she can go to the bathroom okay or we may have to make our first vet visit.

[Sarita]

You know, I had adopted a pair of rabbits to a lady and she was having problems with them so she brought them back to me and I put them back together and they were fine. We finally determined that the problem was all the extra’s in the cage (toys, tunnels, etc…) that was causing the problems which they did not have at my house but she would put those in the cage and problems – weird I know. So I just wonder if there is something in that area that is upsetting Hailey. You just never know what goes on in their heads.

Hopefully that will heal with no problem – I would just watch it daily and keep it as dry as you possibly can. Seems like the rexes have very think skin – I guess because of their very soft fur.

[sharper]

hmm…well there isn’t much in the play area. just a few pine comes, paper towel rolls, a sheet laid down over the slick floor, and sometimes a small paper sack. But the area is really huge compared to their cage. Maybe I need to make the area smaller so there’s not so much free space?

[Sarita]

Yes, you might try that and see if that helps since it seems like the play area is the problem. Maybe reconfiguring like you are saying may help. Also try taking all the extra’s out and see what happens and then slowly add them back in and see if that changes her behavior.

[sharper]

I’ll definitely try that. In the meantime, I came home from work this evening and it looks to be swollen and hasn’t dried up. I’m wondering if this is just a surface wound I can put some neosporin on it or will I need to watch her throughout the night and bring her to the vet tomorrow. That’s another subject for another thread in the Q&A forum. I’m going to take some pics and make a new thread

[MooBunnay]

I think you’ll definitely need to take a little break from the bonding while you deal with Bailey’s injury. You should probably also check Bailey all over for any other injuries because sometimes they can get bit a couple of times and it is hard to see under the fur. I think if it were me I would wait until Baileys injury had healed, and then re-start the bonding. To re-start the bonding I would definitely use some of the stress technique to keep them from hurting each other. I usually take my bunnies in the car for a ride before I start any bonding so that they are too nervous from the car to start fighting with each other. Other recommendations have been to run a vacuum while they are in the cage together because the noise makes them nervous, or to put them in a carrier and just walk them around the house so that they are too busy trying to figure out what is going on to fight each other.

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