Fighting rabbits - what to do?

[Faye HP]

Hi all,

So I wanted your opinions on what we should do about our rabbit situation.

We have two male rabbits, both neutered, each about 15 months old. We were originally told that they were brothers but it’s not clear whether this is true.

The bunnies were previously bonded until we went on holiday and left the bunnies in a ‘bunny hotel’. Prior to this they had the run of two largish rooms downstairs and were very happy together, never had any problems.

Whilst in the bunny hotel over Christmas the bunnies got in a fight and some injuries occurred. Since then we’ve kept them in separate, close pens which we moved upstairs (easier to keep an eye on). There’s a small run outside the pens that they get turns coming ‘out’ into but the bunnies each spent about half their time in a hutch/pen. They are much less happy than they were.

We’ve tried rebonding over the past few months (even car ride bonding when we were desperate because it wasn’t working). They’re interested in each other, groom each other and can eat food together quite happily and then all of a sudden with little warning they fight (and on a few occasions someone gets hurt).

I don’t know what to do. Because they’re so great together and then suddenly fight I don’t know if we’ll ever feel comfortable that they’ll be safe together without our immediate supervision. I don’t know whether it would be better for them to try and find them other homes with bunnies they could bond with. Please help.

 

[Faye HP]

To clarify, the bunny hotel didn’t do anything wrong imo - they were in a shared pen which replicates the situation at home, however I think that proximity to so many other rabbits may have caused the fight. The bunny hotel owner separated them immediately, swapped water bowls and cared for their wounds.

 

[Faye HP]

Bump

 

[Kale Passfield]

You could try in a bathtub together because they are lesser likely to fight because they are to worried about slippery surface. Could help bond. Slowly upgrade to smaller neutral territory. The shared pen isnt helping because its marked by both.

 

[Kale Passfield]

The key is take it slow.

 

[Faye HP]

On your comment about the run - we are only able to have one shared run. This is because of the amount of space, also we’d either have to keep them in separate rooms altogether to give them each their own run which isn’t really practical for us or they’d be able to get to each other with enough trying because the run isn’t enclosed at the top.

Is there anything we can do to improve this?

We’ve tried bonding them in the bath several times and it always goes well - grooming/laying down etc but then when they’re together somewhere else they’ll be fine for a while and then fight.

I guess the main issue is we keep getting to the same point where they seem like they might be bonded but end up scrapping again, so it’s hard to know/trust what will be different when they’re actually bonded. I’ve read loads of guides on bonding and if we went by those there’s been several times at which they would be considered to have rebonded?