Challenging Dates

[Alex]

Hello everyone. I’m new to the forum, but have used it as an important resource for information for about two years now. I’m turning to it now hoping to get some advice that I haven’t been able to find elsewhere, because my situation is a little specific. 

I have two rabbits, Phillip (7 year old Dutch) and Tucker (7 Month old Mini Lop). I’ve had Phil for quite some time, and got Tucker with the intent of bonding them together. Both of my boys are now fixed, and have been for more than a month. I’ve seen almost all of the territorial behaviors disappear. 

I’m in the process of bonding them, and the dates seem to go well. I’ve using different spaces each time, and for the most part it isn’t too bad. I’ve had no fighting, minimal mounting, and overall pretty tame sessions. 

Here’s my problem- Tucker, who is obviously more energetic (and slightly bigger), seems to be taking on the Alpha bun role. For most of the session, he will completely ignore Phillip. If there is food present, they two will eat together a foot apart without a problem. After some time, Tucker will flop over and relax, and doesn’t seem to have a problem with Phillip being there. 

The behavior I haven’t figured out is that when Phillip starts to move, Tucker will jump up and lunge, giving him a little nip. Haven’t had any skin breakage at all, and they don’t seem to be terribly aggressive, but it does seem to be making Phillip upset. Immediately after lunging, Phillip will sit entirely still, head down, and Tucker will begin to groom him- a lot. Tucker will groom his face, his back, for usually a good 5 minutes before moving on. 

Then, as soon as Phillip begins to move, the cycle starts all over . It’s as if Tucker doesn’t want Phillip to move, but is still his friend. I don’t understand, and I can’t seem to figure out how to prevent the lunging and nipping and get Tucker to allow Phillip to run around with him. 

Am I being too cautious? Should I let nipping take place, as long as there is no injury? Phillip doesn’t fight back, but sometimes runs which leads tucker to chase him and continue to nip at him. What do I do? Help! 

I’m hoping someone has some insight here, thank you!

[BanditCamp]

Nips can me a couple of things

Bonds between bunnies can sometimes break, especially if they were bonded before reaching sexual maturity. Once they reach sexual maturity, territorial feelings and aggression may arise. Your rabbits may be trying to re-establish dominance by nipping or by mounting one another.

To some extent, you do have to let your bunnies decide dominance before they will ever get along. However, you need to ensure that they’re not causing serious injury to one another.

Monitoring them is essential, and if the violent behavior escalates, you will have to separate them.

[Sammy&Delilah]

A few things I think I can help you with,
To begin, this is to be expected because you bonded two males. Bonding two different genders is usually the best route to take, not to say male-male or female-female won’t work.

The first main step of bonding is to start with patience. One rabbit will have dominance. It looks like the process is going a lot better than some. The fact that they ignore one another, way with each other and flop are terrific signs of a strong bond. What I would try to do is even out the dominance to eliminate the biteong. Because of the age jump, it sounds like Tucker has full dominance.

As said above, you need to monitor. I’d suggest doing the steps of bonding. Stress driving, closed area cuddling. Bonding rabbits can take a while. I wish you the best of luck!

[Author]

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