Continuous Mounting

[DC_Critters]

We got our female rabbit when she was 9 weeks old at the start of August 2015, and our male rabbit when he was about 13 weeks old at the beginning of October 2015.  Once we had both, we allowed them to see/smell each other but kept them separated by a grate.  They were fine with this, very curious, and got used to each other’s scent.  Our buck was neutered a month after we got him, and after waiting an appropriate amount of time, we started to bond them.

Long story short, they bonded quickly and without much difficulty.  They have been living peacefully and happily together for 6 months now.  Every once and a while our doe mounts our buck to maintain her dominance, and he submits without an issue, and she is satisfied with that.

But for the past two weeks, she has been mounting him constantly.  He will accept it for a while in the morning, then he gets annoyed and runs away, which gets her going more.  Even when he accepts it and she finishes and leaves him, she will go right back and do it again in five minutes.  We now separate them at night because she is constantly tormenting him with it.  During the day they are together and they will eat together fine for the most part, and will nap together, but once both are wandering around, she goes at it again.

We aren’t sure why she would start this all of a sudden, six months after they were successfully bonded.  She gets a little aggressive when he doesn’t submit every minute of the day, even cornering him.  At other times he still loves her and will run up to her to cuddle, and will do everything with her, until she starts her mounting fits again.

We are not sure what we should try to make this stressful behaviour stop.

[jerseygirl]

Welcome DC_Critters

It sounds like her behaviour is more hormonally driven. Rabbits can have seasonal surges in hormones (even desexed rabbits have a slight elevation).

This might resolve on it’s own.  You might even see her go through a false pregnancy.

Have you thought about getting her desexed also? There are health benefits getting a female rabbit spayed. Intact, they are high risk of developing uterine cancer or infections as they get older. 

[Author]

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