Female Rabbit gone nuts at new rabbit HELP

[RaybundReddington]

My partner and I have had our rabbit for a few months now, she fits in very well and has free roam of the house during the day and sleeps in our room at night. She has been desexed for over a month now. We recently bought in a new baby rabbit as he desperately needed a home and we thought we might be able to get him to bond with our female. He is 8 weeks old and not neutered. We have set up an x pen in our bedroom as we have been told that its best to set up rabbits pens next to each other when trying to get them to bond. (we couldn’t put the female in a pen as she just absolutely hates it and it would feel cruel as she has gotten used to having so much space) 

Anyway, the female has gone nuts, every time she hears the baby make a noise she’ll run to the pen and just stare him down. They have touched noses through the bars and the little one has hopped away but sometimes if the baby rests against the bars she will go up to him and give him a bite through the bars. Maybe it wasn’t the right idea to put him in her space like this? But i’ve seen so many videos where people have lots of different rabbits in a room separated by bars and none of the rabbits have any issue with each other and just ignore one another. The baby rabbit is pretty indifferent to her, and doesn’t seem to be scared of her either but he has come from a place with lots of other rabbits around him. I’m too scared to start doing bonding sessions between them yet because of her aggressive behaviour towards him. 

I should also mention that often when the baby rabbit starts to eat hay, she’ll jump up to the pen and try to eat some of his hay through the bars and they’ll both sit there eating hay at the same time which i guess is good? When she hears him bouncing around and jumps up to stare at him after awhile she moves away and flops on the floor (something she only does when she’s very very happy) So as you can imagine i’m a little bit confused about what to think of her behaviour. She also lunges at me and my boyfriend all of a sudden which is something she’s never done before. So what do you guys think of all this? Is it normal? Should I move the baby’s pen to a different area? In hindsight the bedroom was her safe space and where her litter box is and where she sleeps and things. Was it mean to move him into here too? She also digs at the floor and tries to get in to his pen which makes me worried that if she did she would attack him. I can’t tell if its just her showing interest and really wanting to get to him or if she just really wants to hurt the poor thing. This is such a scary process D: And do i need to wait till she’s kind of lost interest or is ignoring him before i do any bonding sessions? The little rabbit ignores her a lot of the time but sometimes when she sticks her nose through the bars he’ll hop up and give her sniff, but the last time this happened she tried to bite his nose and he ran away. 

[Wick & Fable]

As much as you’ve seen people have rabbits in pens sharing walls, there are a good number who have a barrier between the rabbits so biting between bars cannot happen. You should not bond the two yet, but not because of this aggressive behavior, but because your baby rabbit is not neutered yet (that’s my assumption, based on your description). A hormonal rabbit can bring up hormonal behaviors in a fixed rabbit, and a hormonal rabbit is difficult to bond with another rabbit because they will be driven by hormonal instincts to mate and defend territory. Having a new rabbit in her territory can definitely be causing her to act differently towards everyone. Due to these factors, the best scenario is bar access between the two (no contact) and wait until your new boy is neutered, recovers from the neuter, and then you can begin bonding via pre-bonding (swapping scented items, like litter boxes).

While there can be instances of positive interactions, a healthy bond should not lead to rabbit injuries (bites, attacking), so do not take her flops as a sign that it’s safe to move forward. Neutering him first would be the most safe, preliminary step. He may be ignoring her now since he isn’t hormonal yet, but if he does become hormonal, the two may not have very friendly interaction through the cage wall.

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.

[Nutmeg]

100% what Wick said. If your baby is just 8 weeks old you will have to wait until he is about 4 or 5 months – so another two to three months to go – to have him neutered.
Do not allow them to be able to touch through the bars. Lots of bunny’s have been in fights through cage bars / have received nasty bites on the nose and face through them as well.

I have a male and female that I got when she was 12 weeks and he was 8 weeks… And this is what I did….

So their cages were far enough a part that they couldn’t actually touch through the bars, but they could still see / hear / smell each other.
They would then have individual out side run around time. This was the same area for both of them – as my house wouldn’t allow me to give them each their own free-run area – but they would take turns using it. This really helped them get used to the other bunny’s scent in an area that they were – including a shared litter box that I had out in that area.

After they had both gotten settled and more calm around the other one, about a month in (there was still territory marking though, as they hadn’t been fixed yet) I started Pre-PRE-bonding where I was swapping their items / toys / litter boxes between their cages.

Then they were spayed and neutered and each given a month to heal and start to get their hormone surges from that under control.
Two weeks after the spay / neuter I started full Pre-Bonding, where I would do the above but then also swapped their whole cages every day.

After that month I started the formal bonding process – this set me up for HUGE success as they were so used to the others smell and had no hormones getting in the way. I had almost no fighting between them – just the odd chase that resulted from a hump.
*My problem with my guys is that they both want to be the dominant one – this is their personalities though and this could have gone so much worse then it has been if I hadn’t done the pre-bonding.

[Author]

Messages