Humping a faux rabbit

[BumiBunny]

Hello all!

This is my first question that I haven’t been able to find any answers to, and hoping someone will shed some light. Bumi is an 8 month old male holland lop that is unaltered. He is super sweet although very skittish so we have been working with him very slowly on getting him used to us (me and my husband) as well as just normal day-to-day objects. For instance, he was terrified of the sound the hay bag would make the first week we had him, but now he knows what it means and will playful nip at the bag when I’m refilling his hay rack.

 He has been so sweet in fact that he hasn’t shown any boy-bunny puberty behavioral traits. He has impeccable littler habits save for a few pellets that he leaves around his cage; he has never shown any territorial behavior including nipping and spraying. He is the only bunny in our home. I was waiting for all these behavioral traits to show up and they never did (or they still may be on their way haha). I was actually wondering for awhile if he was really a she! …That is until he mounted the stuffed bunny we gave him for companionship. He has since been to the vets for his first check-up and was confirmed that he was really a boy and we will be neutering him in November. (I have been saying “my husband” but we are actually getting married in 7 days!! So we didn’t want to put any stress on Bumi or our bunny-sitters by scheduling his surgery beforehand. He wanted to make sure we were around for all his surgery time and recovery time.)

 Anyways, my question is: is it harmful to let Bumi hump his toy in the meantime? I don’t keep the toy in his play-area all the time (otherwise I am pretty sure he would become obsessed), and now only when he is supervised and only for a short period of time (usually under 10 minutes). He usually will groom the toy passionately, and then mount it for while, and after he is “satisfied” he has sometimes cuddled up to the toy. I think he is receiving some sort of sanctification from the activity because he usually has this trance look on his face and his body is usually very relaxed. XD

 We will be neutering him very soon as I want him to have as stress-free of a life as possible since he already is a nervous bun. He hasn’t tried humping anything else, including us. I find the whole ordeal humorous, however I’m not sure if it is promoting a lifestyle that might be counter-productive–like if this will make him aggressive. Although he has never acted out negatively before, mid, or after the humping activity-I have interrupted him as well as taken the toy away from him mid and after the activity. The humping started maybe last month and he has only had contact his his faux bunny partner maybe 5 times since then.

[kirstyol]

Sounds like your bun is trying to show the toy he is the dominant bun, I doubt its harmful to him to be honest, he is probably getting companionship from the toy. Getting him neutered might not actually stop the humping though as humping is as much about dominance, my neutered boys will occasionally hump each other or their toy rabbit but not very often. As long as he seems happy with it (and it sounds like he is) and not trying to fight with the toy or anything like that I doubt its doing him any harm, it may even be what is preventing him from humping you.

[Bam]

I’m inclined to say that it’s pointless to try and stop him from humping the faux rabbit. It will get better when his neutered. A neutered rabbit may still be dominant, but I think your bunny is humping his faux friend in order to procreate. Bunnies need to procreate as much as they possily can during their short little lives in the wild. Girl bunnies are induced ovulator meaning they ovulate when they are being mated, they don’t have heat-cycles like dogs. All this is of course nature’s way to ensure the survival of the species, since rabbits are prey to so many bigger animals.

You can teach a dog not to hump, but rabbits are very different from dogs. Dogs have co-evolved with us humans for like 50000 years. The house-bunny is a relatively new thing, the domestic bunny was bred for its meat and skin. Rabbits don’t really take orders from humans, and it’s not because they are being spiteful or disobedient.

And as Kirstyol points out, he probably would try to hump your feet or sth else if he didn’t have his faux girl-friend. He seems to believe they’re in a relationship since he grooms her and cuddles with her. A rfelationship like that can be so important to a rabbit that the rabbits get depressed, then physically sick if separated. So I think it may even be harmful not to let him have his “friend” =)

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