Dominance – How long does it take? 2 weeks of humping…

[Kiki]

Hi,

So I started in a small box on the washing machine. After around 20 sessions (twice a day) LOTS of grooming no signs of dominance.

Moved out of the box into a tiny cage. Once on the ground in the cage. Its on. My boy humping my girl. She circles and bites. So I constantly stop this.

My girl thrusts her face fwd for grooming all the time.

My boy grooms my girl a lot.  (maybe 1.5 – 2 hr total spread through 16 hrs)

My girl only grooms him occasionally since the humping started.  (maybe 5-10 mins total spread through 16 hrs)

Buns are in the cage together whenever I am home and awake. 16 hr days on the weekend and 5 hrs on weeknights.

They only occasionally sleep or lay near each other (maybe 1 hr total spread through 16 hrs). Usually opposite corners when resting.

This “cage match” has been going on now for 2 weeks. Tried both smaller and larger cages. No real change. Only thing is my girl doesn’t usually bite now when being humped just runs away and I break it up. If I wasn’t there to intervene though I suspect it would end in tears…

No food dramas or other fights. Just the occasional nip when my boy aggressively demands grooms cause he isn’t getting enough and the humping fights…He always honks when he humps too! (I only hear if I’m in there with them which Im usually not).

1. Anything else I should do to hurry it up? Is this length of time for “dominance struggles” normal?

2. Is my girl trying to be dominant by demanding grooms so much?

Suggestions or advice welcome

[Mikey]

Bonding isnt something you want to hurry. Keep moving at their pace. They are making progress as you noticed the bitting has slowed down

Your female bun sounds like the alpha of the two, and your male is trying to prove otherwise but is failing in her eyes. They both want to be dominant, but your girl isnt letting up and your male seems to accept this by grooming her. However, he still wants to see if he can pursued her otherwise, since hes not a submissive rabbit by nature. As in, they both want to be dominant, but your female seems more headstrong about it than your male

[sarahthegemini]

Definitely agree with Mikey about going at the bunny’s pace. It can be frustrating but it’s so worth it, speeding things along before they’re ready can end up in disaster. As for time scale, it totally depends on the pair. I marathon bonded my two and it took about a week and a half to two weeks of them being together non stop before my boy stopped trying to hump my girl. He didn’t do it very often, couple times a day at most but my girl didn’t tolerate it. My pair have been together for about 7 weeks (officially bonded for 5 weeks) and aside from a little scuffle the other day, there’s no issues. My doe is the dominant bun, and my boy has accepted that. But the hierarchy can change over time.

It would appear that your girl is trying to be top bun by demanding grooms – whenever my boy would try and hump Buttercup, she’d jump around and demand grooming and he’d oblige. As I said, after about a week and a half to two weeks, he stopped. They both ask for grooms now and they both oblige when they feel like it lol.

[Kiki]

Thanks for the replys.

They are supposed to be crepuscular (active dawn and dusk) but my bunnies are most active 10pm – 11pm so I always keep bonding till 11pm and get to sleep by midnight but need to get up at 5:30am for work…That’s why Im getting sick of it. Tired

Oh well, will just keep going as I am but maybe finish early a couple times a week to catch up on sleep.

So I am expecting humping to stop, nipping to stop and buns to start sleeping/relaxing close to each other right? and more grooming?

Then my plan is to still keep them separate when I am not home for 2 weeks with no signs of aggression before I leave them together in a bunny proof room when at work. Does this sound right? You just said you had a scuffle after 7 weeks?!? Aggghhh I will be gone for ~11 hrs at a time 5 days a week. SCARY.

Also do I gradually give more space once no aggression rather than increasing their space from cage to whole largish room suddenly?

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Kiki on 3/06/2017 3:49 PM

Thanks for the replys.

They are supposed to be crepuscular active dawn and dusk but my bunnies are most active 10pm – 11pm so I always keep bonding till 11pm and get to sleep by midnight but need to get up at 5:30am for work…That’s why Im getting sick of it. Tired

Oh well, will just keep going as I am.

So I am expecting humping to stop, nipping to stop and buns to start sleeping/relaxing close to each other right? and more grooming?

Then my plan is to still keep them separate when I am not home for 2 weeks with no signs of aggression before I leave them together in a bunny proof room when at work. Does this sound right? You just said you had a scuffle after 7 weeks?!? Aggghhh I will be gone for ~11 hrs at a time 5 days a week. SCARY.

Also do I gradually give more space once no aggression rather than increasing there space from cage to whole largish room suddenly?

Bonding is very tiresome! You mustn’t go straight from separate living enclosures to putting them in bunny room unsupervised. Even when they seem to be getting along fine. When they are put in a new environment  (their permanent home so to speak) they’ll need to be supervised again – for 24 to 48 hours to cement the bond. And it’s vest to start off small and gradually give them more space. My bunnies will eventually have run of the whole house but at the moment they’re just limited to downstairs. 

Scuffle after 7 weeks yeah (last Wednesday), it was quite surprising! My boyfriend woke me up at 7:30am to tell me the bunnies had just been a bit weird lol – apparently Buttercup was jumping all over Peanut so he picked her up to stop them and put them back together and a few minutes later they groomed each other. It wasn’t a fight because there was no nipping, biting, scratching etc. Just her jumping over him  Anyway, things were a bit tense so we did a quick stress bonding session on Thursday evening and they’ve been fine since. 

[Kiki]

ok, thanks. Thought so re: not going to large area straight away.

[Kiki]

So to confirm I am expecting humping to stop, nipping to stop and buns to start sleeping/relaxing close to each other alot right? and more grooming?

[Mikey]

Before you should move on, yep

[erinp]

Please post updates about their progress because I am going through the same thing! My male is constantly trying to hump my girl. They got along so well at first. There was even a little bit of grooming. On the way back from the shelter they snuggled the entire time. Now…not so much…UGH. So frustrating.

I leave them in my small kitchen with space for my girl to run away. I tried a small pen but the humping was getting to aggressive. Sigh….

Maybe Ill try car rides or the dryer method like was discussed. Anything to distract him.

Hope your buns are getting along better.

[Author]

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