Well bonded bunnies suddenly… not?

[Lyss]

Hi all. I have two rabbits, male and female (spayed and neutered), who have been bonded for several months. Recently the male got sick (a bout of GI stasis), so we were showering him with attention while he recovered. We did set aside time to pay attention just to the femaleas well since she was clearly getting jealous. It’s now about two weeks later and he’s all better, but she’s been awful to him ever since he was sick. They still sleep together, groom each other, etc, but then suddenly she’ll start chasing him and has pulled fur from him. We tried making their cage smaller (an idea which we read about on this forum), but that didn’t seem to help. We’re considering separating them today and re-bonding them in an area of the house they’ve never been in. Any other ideas???

[Vienna Blue in France]

Hi Lyss, is it possible that you went to the vets with just boy bun and not female when he was sick? The different smells a bun comes back with makes the other bun very wary.
Always best to take a bonded pair to the vets together, even if only for one bun. But maybe you did that

Have you tried rubbing a soft toy or bit of fleece on both rabbits and then swapping them over (to mix the smells), or yes, a rebond may be necessary but it should go much quicker than the first time and they’ve obviously just got a little crack in their relationship.

Is their habitat set up the same as when he will ill? Is it possible to move a few things around (or block the view with cardboard or boxes…?) so the female doesn’t think it’s HER place?
You may have some luck with that so they discover a slightly new set up ‘together’…

[Lyss]

Thanks for the reply. It definitely wasn’t the vet because was treated here at home. However we take them to the vet regularly and when we do, they go together in the same carrier, and our vet even makes sure to handle both of them just to make sure they have the same smells . 

The habitat is basically the same. We tried adjusting it but that didn’t improve anything, but then maybe our “adjustments” just weren’t drastic enough. I will definitely try a more rigorous habitat re-design and move and see if that improves anything. Thanks for the tip!

[Mikey]

If its jealousy based, you will have to start spoiling your female with more attention to make her feel like the top bun again

[Author]

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