My bunny is sad/depressed

[Theo N Cleo]

We have a 7mth old minilop male who we got at 7wks old, he is neutered. We also brought another Baby minilop female a few weeks ago who is now 10wks old. Over the past week I have noticed our boy Theo becoming withdrawn as we have been spending a lot of time with Cleo as he is very aggressive with her and she is still a baby. They are seperated but can see each other through the fence. Theo now doesn’t want me touching him, he hides when I walk out to his area or just lies around all day.

I deal wth Cleo more than anyone else and Theo can see me through the fence, is he feeling sad/depressed cos of all of the attention I give her? Does anyone know what might be wrong? What can I do to get him back to his michievous massage loving self? It’s hard when they’re separated trying to spend time with them both of them equally. If only he wasn’t so aggressive towards her they could hang out together all the time.

[joea64]

I do think you should make the effort to spend more time with Theo, I am pretty sure that he’s sad because he thinks he’s being ignored in favor of the new bunny. While my own two are well-bonded, it does take work for me too to make sure that neither of them feels slighted in favor of the other (which isn’t easy because Fernando is more affectionate by nature than his mother Panda who is still kind of standoffish at the 2-week mark since they moved in.)

[Deleted User]

Even if he wasn’t being aggressive towards her they still couldn’t spend anytime together until after your new bunny is spayed and the hormones have dissipated. The reason your bunny is probably acting aggressively is because this new bunny is in his territory. Maybe you could move them into different rooms until your new bunny is old enough to be spayed. Then you can start pre bonding, which will be swapping toys and litter boxes etc which will allow both of the bunnies to get used to each other’s scent. This will hopefully mean your first bunny will be a little bit more accommodating to having a new bunny in the house rather than just having it thrust on him

[Wick & Fable]

Sometimes symptoms of health issues coincide with changes in the rabbit’s life, but the symptoms have nothing to do with the changes, so I’ll offer an alternative response.

Let’s say you never got the baby mini-lop female and her presence is not a part of the equation. Aside from withdrawing from you and being lethargic, are there changes in his eating behavior, pooping, peeing, or anything else of the like?

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

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