Dominant female spraying solution

[Clem&M]

Maggie seems to be the top girl in the cage, she’s chinning everything and their litterbox has spray all over the walls, I’m confident Clem isn’t because she’s more concerned about me and food

Their cage has become small for them and I’ve noticed their carefresh for water bottle spills is soaked in spray and pee. Since I’m going to make them a new storage grid cage I was wondering if I should separate them since Maggie has become so hormonal.
They are bonded but would it be better for them to have their own territories or would it encourage Clem to also become territorial?

[sarahthegemini]

Are they spayed?

[Mikey]

Separate, separate, separate!! Hormones starting means you immediately need to separate them.

[Clem&M]

No, they are not spayed, Maggie is not mine for that decision, she belongs to my room mate, I would spay mine but no vets near us will do it and the only recommended savvy vet is at least 3-4 hours away driving. :/

[Mikey]

Only spayed and neutered rabbits can bond. Only adult rabbits can bond. You cant bond two unspayed females. You cant bond one who is spayed and one who is not. The spayed one will feed off of the hormones of the unspayed one and act hormonally too. If the girl are not going to be spayed (which they both should be for health reasons; up to 80 percent of females get uterine cancer by age 3), you cannot ever put them together. Separate now before one severely injures (or kills) the other. Starts with spraying, but gets much, much worse…

Edit to add, only adult rabbits can bond. What you have are two used to be friendly rabbits, not bonded rabbits. The friendliness will quickly die since hormones have arrived. Added, female rabbits are heavily territorial and it doesnt stop with spraying, as mentioned. 

[Clem&M]

Ok thanks, I’ll get to getting them separated, I’m having some difficulty finding some storage grid panels to make their cage, could I get some suggestions? I’ve checked on amazon and it either gives me an option that gives too many of them or a set that gives too little for too much.

[Clem&M]

I forgot to mention the rabbits were in the same cage when we found them and have been together since then, would they still start fighting despite that? We got them when they were around 6 weeks old.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Clem&M on 5/06/2017 7:12 PM

I forgot to mention the rabbits were in the same cage when we found them and have been together since then, would they still start fighting despite that? We got them when they were around 6 weeks old.

Unfortunately when hormones come into play, anything prior doesn’t seem to matter. It’s best to separate them whilst they’re still on relatively good terms, bonding should be easier as there will be no grudges held

Also I laugh every time I read the title because I keep imagining a liquid solution that you spray to stop her being dominant 

[Clem&M]

I need to pick better titles haha, well I got them separated now, I hope Clem doesn’t get sad, they were inseparable before and would do a doggy pile for naps. Thanks for the advice everyone.

[Hazel]

Glad you got them separated. It doesn’t matter if they are siblings, they will still fight once they hit puberty unfortunately. Keep in mind that they can fight through the cage bars, so make sure their cages are far enough apart so they can’t reach each other. You said that one belongs to your roommate, what are your plans for the rabbits when one of you moves out? If you both want to keep your respective bunny, you shouldn’t bond them at all, it would be cruel to bond them and then separate them later.

[Clem&M]

I’ll not bond them in that case in the future, and they’re on opposite sides of the room so should be good.

*I checked on them this morning and Maggie has been producing a lot of cecals, I haven’t fed her anything different, she had some mint leaves, oxbow young rabbit pellets and oxbow Timothy hay along with half a treat of oxbow banana and apple baked treat. Is this due to the stress of a new cage? Clem with the same diet is still having normal droppings.

[Author]

Messages