Buns fighting

[layla20]

Hi,

I have two mini lop bunnies.
1 female who is 6 months old and a boy who is 4.5 months.

The female (Layla) was spayed 2 weeks ago. The boy hamish will be done in December.

Since July they have lived together and get on really well. They have full run of the living room and are never in there cage.

Tonight Layla and hamish were fighting when I came in. Lucky non are injured or hurt. I have separated them. I tired to see if they would be ok a little later but the female went straight over to attack.

I know it could be her hormones but what should I do?

 

[agnesthelion]

I think you should seperate them. Neuter the male and keep them separated for a couple weeks after (to allow his hormones to dissipate) and start from square one in bonding after that.

I'm from the mindset that buns cannot be considered bonded unless both are fixed. Hormones play too big a factor in how bunnies act......especially towards other buns.

You having a female and male, both unaltered (up until 2 weeks ago) is a recipe for a fight. Not only does the female come back smelling different from the vet (which is a huge factor for even the best bonds to fracture) you have an unaltered male reaching sexual maturity so he will only act out to mate with her which is probably what actually upset her.

So again, you need to seperate them. If you don't seperate them, too many more fights could taint their trust for one another so much that bonding could be impossible. Seperate, neuter the male, and start from square one after.

Good luck!

 

[layla20]

Ok thanks I will keep them separated untill he is done and recovered.

 

[Imbrium]

it can take as much as 4 weeks for a female's hormones to be totally gone after a spay... and your male is almost certainly sexually mature at 4.5 mos, meaning they could BOTH be hormonal.

by the way, it can take up to 6-8 weeks for a male's hormones to be totally gone after a neuter, so I wouldn't even try to bond them again until 6 weeks after you get him fixed.

here are some good sites on bonding:
http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/matchups.asp
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

 

[layla20]

Again thank you, we are new To bunnies and learning as we go. I'm a little up set because they were best of friends and got on so well.

 

[Imbrium]

iirc, it takes 3 weeks or so for them to forget about fights... since they'll be separated for longer than that until both are fixed and non-hormonal, that'll give you a fresh start on re-bonding. hopefully they'll remember the good times they had together as babies and it'll be a little easier to bond them as adults.

I totally understand how you feel - my girls' bond hit a rough patch right after they were spayed and it was heartbreaking to see two former best friends getting into fights! their bond is mended now, though, and they're getting along great again.

 

[layla20]

3 weeks? That's a long time.

As we only have 1 cage we are rotating who goes in it. So from 9-4 it's the female then from 4-10 ish it's the male. Then during the night they are put into deprecate rooms so they can be out the cage and play etc....

Is that ok? At the moment I don't have £50 to spend on a new cage.