Neutered Buck chasing and humping Spayed Doe

[lylazoo]

Hi, i’m new here and this is my first post but I need help.  I have 2 holland lops, a boy and a girl.  they are brother and sister and i bought them together when they were 2 months old.  They were born 4/25/12 and I had them spayed and neutered at 4 months.  They are very bonded to each other, they groom each other and sleep together.  They seemingly love each other very much.  Both are calm and good pets, no bites or nips at all.  Just within the last couple days, the boy has started chasing the girl around their cage like crazy.  They knock everything over and he chases her and then when he catches her he tries to hump her.  The entire cage is turned upside down inside and there is fur everywhere when we stop them.  We take her out and baby her and comfort her, which she seems to appreciate and love.  I’m worried he is going to hurt her.  It has only happened in the evening and only a couple times.  Like I said, this is new.  He never did anything like this until the other day.  When they are out of there cage roaming the living room for 5-8 hours a day, they are fine.  They never display this behavior.  It’s only been a couple times in the cage.  This is scary.  

Any ideas what is happening or what I should do?  He is not showing any aggression at all towards us but I don’t want him to hurt her.  I appreciate any help you can give.

Laurie

[Stickerbunny]

It is a dominance thing for bunnies to hump each other. My male humps my female if she gets on something he considers his. Like, the litter boxes, sometimes he will hump her for it. For the most part you just have to let them work it out. If she is overly stressed or you think there might be a serious injury, stop it, but if it is just humping allow it.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree with Sticker, while humping can be distressing for the human, unless it is causing a great amount of stress or aggression, it’s best to let them work out dominance issues on their own. Some bonded pairs hump occasionally their whole relationship.

[LBJ10]

In their own little bunny world, something made your boy think he needed to reassert his dominance. It’s normal. Unless there is injury or excessive stress, then let them be. They will work it out on their own.

[Elrohwen]

As others said, this is normal and they’ll work it out. You don’t need to separate unless it escalates to fighting.

How big is the cage? I would recommend giving them lots of room and providing places for the girl to get away. My girl humps far more when they are in a small cage (4’x4′ is small for her) and when my boy doesn’t have good places to hide.

[lylazoo]

Thanks for the responses.  I figured it was a dominance thing but it just got a little scary a couple times.  It hasn’t happened since the night before I posted this so maybe they worked it out.  

They have a nice big cage with two sections.  It’s actually an outdoor hutch but we keep them inside and they actually roam outside of the cage free for minimum 4 hours but usually 6-8 hours a day.  They have a large play area with a cat tree they climb up and tons of toys and games.

They seem happy now, hopefully it stays that way. 

Thanks again.

Laurie

[lindsay715]

My two have gone through the same thing, after about 5 months of successful bonding. It went on for about two weeks before things calmed down. There isn’t much you can do except separate them if he starts to hump her face – if she bites him in this position, nasty injuries can ensue. Mine never got to the nipping point, and it sounds like yours are close enough that they won’t either.

Good luck

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