Young Rabbits – suddenly started fighting

[Dan]

All

Looking for some advice here….

We have recently bought two young female rabbits, both are now 8 or 9 weeks old. They are from different litters. 

At the farm, where we bought them from, they were in an housed together with other rabbits for about 1 week. We brought them home on the 23rd Dec, and they have been in their new home for about a week living happily. We have witnessed them grooming each other, playing, and flopping out next to each other. They were getting along fine. But suddenly on New Years day they started fighting, to the point that one of the bunnies now has a bite on her ear. 

Both have different personalities, one is very chilled out and relaxed(Connie) Whilst the other likes to investigate, and is a little more nervous(Hilda). Hillda also seems to have more of a wild behaviour, for example she marks her territory quite a lot more and i’ve noticed that she likes to seek grooming from Connie regularly – and i think this is where the tension comes in, because Connie will often ignore these requests. 

Since the fight I have basically split the enclosure into two. They can still smell and see each other though. It’s literally another  

Every night we have been putting them next to us on the sofa. They get along fine and there are no battles – in fact, they groom each other. When we return them to their enclosures we allow them some time to roam around together, however we can see the tension building again…so we quickly separate them into their enclosures again. 

I know the best course of action is to have them spayed in the first instance. However in the meantime, is there anything else we should do? or is there anything that we’re doing wrong? 

Below is a photo of the rabbits, and their split enclosure. 

Sorry for the long winded post!

Thanks

Dan

[Gina.Jenny]

sounds like hormones are kicking in. the set up is mostly fine, but even small rabbits can easily jump that height and if one jumps into the others area, there could be a much worse fight!

[Dan]

Thank you Gina

The enclosure is 3ft high – can rabbits jump that high? I assumed not, but then again these bunnies are surprising us every day.

I will get some netting to put over the top.

[Mikey]

One of my rabbits can clear 4 feet in one jump The other two dont care to jump, so im not sure on their jump height, but most rabbits can jump/climb pretty high if they really want to

Since your two’s hormones have kicked in, it would be best putting something on the top of their cages just in case

[Vienna Blue in France]

Hi Dan and welcome
Gorgeous bunnies

Yes, bunnies (especially young, light as a feather ones, can jump very high, surprisingly so). And some even climb, literally, like a spider-bun..

Also they can fight (and mate ! ) through one row of bars, is there any way of pushing your middle in a bit (the enclosure, not you!) so both the two barriers fill the width completely in between them ? Just to be sure. I know it will make the space smaller, but it will be safer.

And don’t forget to swap them over every day, so they don’t get overly territorial with one area. Don’t swap toys or litter trays, just the buns

That looks the same solid puppy pen as another member’s AxGizmo… is it heavy ? (ie unmovable)
I would have to get the 120cm high one as I have a kanga-bun !!!! (My other bun is too heavy now to boing as she did when she was 1 yr old!)

[Dan]

Hi Vienna

It’s funny you should mention the middle section. As you can see they overlap, and i put a clamp on there to stop them moving apart. There was a very small gap between if you pushed it to the left slightly. Foolishly I assumed that a) they wouldn’t even try to push the panel and ,b) they wouldn’t be able to fit.

Today Connie got through, and they began to fight again. So we have made improvements – both panels are now completely clamped together, and i’ve put some card in between. 

It is a puppy enclosure. It’s pretty secure, and when all the panels are together, you can’t really lift it without lifting the whole pen, so i can’t imagine either Rabbit could lift them. But, not taking any chances, i’ve put a metal object in place to wedge the middle section down. If they get through this, then they deserve a medal!

Thanks for the tips, I will swap them over tonight.

[Vienna Blue in France]

They are Houdinis, rabbits are, especially if they know they’ve already acheived something, they will try 10 times harder to do it again !

and us bunny slaves tend to get very good at DIY’ingand bunny proofing everywhere…. but only after buns have shown us where the weakness was !! LOL

I’ve got clamps like that on my xpen, but Henry likes chewing the plastic on them…

If you can come up with a cunning plan, then it would be better if they can see each other (i’m sure they can smell each other but seeing is important as well) and also most of our buns prefer to drink from a bowl (a heavy dog bowl, or else it will be tossed over!!), so just keep an eye that they are getting enough water.

Welcome to the world of double bunnies…. you’ll never have a dull moment again !! (my living room currently ressembles a zoo enclosure (with me on the outside!!!) LOL

[Author]

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