Weird acting in the morning

[Alia123]

Hello

I have two bunnies – male and female, both around 1 year old. The male – Jack is with me for 6 months now, and female – Lara for about 1,5 month. It took them less than one day to become friends . Sure, at the beginning Lara was a little bit afraid of Jack and she has been running away from him, but after few hours they started lying next to each other. Usually during the day they are both quite lazy. Most of the time they sleep next to each other, but in the evening they start partying (they run together, jump and so one) . So everything seems to be fine. Unfortunately there is one problem. Every morning around 6am Lara starts to squeal, she runs all over the cage and she looks like she was afraid of Jack (and he is doing nothing wrong, he just stands there in one place and he seems to be very surprised by her acting). And this situation repeats every morning, day by day. Do you know what does it mean?

[Deleted User]

Bunnies don’t just make friends. They need to go through a formal bonding process (which takes longer than one day). Without that, fights can happen. It sounds like she didn’t really get a chance to settle in before you introduced her to Jack, which can be stressful to a new bunny. The fact that she is squealing means something is very wrong. Bunnies that aren’t bonded can get along to a point, but you can’t keep them together.

Keep them completely separate at all times and go through the bonding process (assuming both are spayed+neutered). Spend 1-2 months prebonding them by switching items between their cages and switching them between cages. After 1-2 months of this, you can move on to formal bonding sessions in neutral territory, starting out with short 5-10 minute sessions and progressing to longer ones the better they do together.

[Deleted User]

Bunnies don’t just make friends. They need to go through a formal bonding process (which takes longer than one day). Without that, fights can happen. It sounds like she didn’t really get a chance to settle in before you introduced her to Jack, which can be stressful to a new bunny. The fact that she is squealing means something is very wrong. Bunnies that aren’t bonded can get along to a point, but you can’t keep them together.

Keep them completely separate at all times and go through the bonding process (assuming both are spayed+neutered). Spend 1-2 months prebonding them by switching items between their cages and switching them between cages. After 1-2 months of this, you can move on to formal bonding sessions in neutral territory, starting out with short 5-10 minute sessions and progressing to longer ones the better they do together.

[sarahthegemini]

Rabbits don’t usually squeal unless they are very afraid. A bunny will not be friends with a rabbit they are terrified of.

[Deleted User]

Squealing is never an appropriate sound. Your rabbits are not bonded, this process takes weeks (even months) to cement a relationship, and you can’t cement a relationship that you didn’t work on. They were never friends yet and you’ve let them live together. It’s honestly quite surprising that neither has been injured yet.
Even if you don’t witness it, it sounds like they are fighting. Rabbits are more active in the morning and less active through the day. When they are all riled up in the morning, one could be picking a fight with the other.

You really need to have them living in separate cages. Rabbits can seriously injure or kill one another. I’m not exaggerating, especially if this is happening daily you need to intervene before it goes too far.

[Author]

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