Fighting or loving

[BunnymomRere]

These two buns...working on bonding. They will groo. Eachother for a short period of time and than they growl and fight, the Dutch rabbit (Cornelius/Corny) is 5, a male and fixed. The harlequin (Wilma) is 8 months, female and not fixed. She is 2 times his size now. He's very particular, sweet and quiet also little grumpy, he is also free roam. She is a wild child always in to something and zooming around, she is not free roam as she gets into everything, very curious. I am trying to bond them and they do good for about 10 mins they Groom eacother and sit nose to nose or ones head under the other after 10 mins they fight/growl/chase. They have seperate cages and Will lick through the bars and groom eachother. How do I know if it's just bunny asserting dominance or fighting. No blood has been drawn. Just growling/chase,/boxing

 

[allenstacy74]

I’m not saying that it is impossible but it is very very difficult to “completely” bond unfixed bunnies, you should definitely consider spaying her as it would most likely be her hormones that are causing them to fight, unfixed females are territorial. It is also not good for the well-being for you female, as she will experience “false pregnancies” this can cause a lot of stress for her and can potentially be detrimental and may even cause death. I strongly advise for you to get her spayed or keep them separate! Hope this helps

 

[allenstacy74]

I’d also like to add my bunnies bonding experience to help with your bonding (although not every bond is the same, the time and difficulty varies and sometimes just doesn’t work). I’ve got a neutered male and spayed female, they had what I call “love at first sight” once I had her spayed to slowly introduced them in a neutral space and they did chase each other a little bit but that stopped within a day, if you see fighting, circling, chasing, or mounting (if one is mounted the others face.. it happens) you should break it up immediately and move them away from each other ( I don’t mean separate them completely, I mean just a bit of distance between them). My female is the dominant bunny in the pair and like people bunnies can annoy or irritate each other but this should not break out into a vicious fight. You will know when they are bonded when they can go over 24hrs together without any sign of aggression and are grooming and doing their normal activities peacefully and in each others company