I bought a 10 week old male mini lion head lop (Giuseppe). I have a 16 month old spayed lion head female (Geneviere). They met at the pet store and rode home in the carrier together. I let them out once we arrived home. There were no signs of aggression. Then the little fella sat in my lap for over an hour before deciding to get down and explore. Out of no where Geneviere tears out and runs back and forth across the back of lil Giuseppe. I was able to run her off and get her caged. Today, I put the cages side by side. When he gets close, she becomes aggressive and it appears that she tries to bite him through the bars whenever he gets close. I gave them separate play times. She never behaved like this with other rabbits before. What can I do to resolve this???
Gene is not receptive to little Giu
- Thread starter msprz75
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hamsterdance
Well-Known Member
Is Gene spayed? It may be territorial behavior.
Do you like every single person you meet? Well neither do rabbits. Maybe she just doesn't like him, simple as that. Also, if she is spayed shouldn't you wait til he is neutered before trying to bond them? He will become a hormone crazy humping machine before too long, and she will not go for that.
hamsterdance
Well-Known Member
^I hadn't even thought of the little one haha. Very true!
She doesn't have to like him. I just don't want her to hurt him. I will deal with humping when we get to that. When my friends rabbit humps, she will just run off when she gets tired of tolerating it. I need suggested solutions. If they don't work, then I will go from there.
Fair enough. My only suggestion is to keep them separated if she is showing aggression, rabbit fights/bites can do significant damage which may result in a hefty vet bill. Then when he gets neutered and his hormones die down you can try bonding them, if that works out you will have a much happier family.
Waiting til he is neutered to bond is a valid suggestion and isn't something you should just discount. There is a reason that it is being suggested, because hormones will cause issues with bonding, and if he is getting his hormones in any time soon and attempts to hump her when she thinks she is the boss, then that can lead to a fight. So waiting til he is neutered will mean there are no hormones complicating the issue, which they very much can do. A hormonal male is driven to mate and so will usually constantly want to hump other rabbits, but humping is also a dominance behavior in rabbits and excessive humping can irritate another rabbit, especially a neutered/spayed one that thinks they are the boss and doesn't appreciate a randy buck constantly chasing them around. This can then lead to a fight and resentment, in what might have actually been a bond that may have worked out if the other rabbit had been neutered first. Unless you can manage to get him neutered just when his testicles drop but before he gets too hormonal, then you may not have issues with the humping.
If bonding now is something you are still going to attempt, then I would suggest reading up on rabbit behavior and bonding, if you haven't already. It's important to have an understanding of what to do and watch out for. Such as, did you have them in a neutral area, one that your female hasn't been in before, one that doesn't have her scent so she doesn't claim it as 'her' territory? Did your female actually attack, bite him, pull fur, latch on, or was she just hopping over the top of him and maybe giving a little nip? If this is all she was doing and it wasn't escalating into circling and attacking, this can actually be normal bonding behavior. It is something rabbits will do to establish dominance, just as long as it doesn't escalate into fighting. To me it sounds like an older rabbit showing a baby rabbit she's in charge, but then I'm not there seeing the behavior personally. I had the same thing occur when I was bonding a new male into a group. The dominant rabbit in the group would hop over to the back of this new male to show he was in charge, but never attacked him. So though this can be normal dominance behavior, it is something that has to be closely monitored as well, as things can escalate into a fight very quickly, and fights can sometimes result in very serious injuries, especially for a little baby bun.
If bonding now is something you are still going to attempt, then I would suggest reading up on rabbit behavior and bonding, if you haven't already. It's important to have an understanding of what to do and watch out for. Such as, did you have them in a neutral area, one that your female hasn't been in before, one that doesn't have her scent so she doesn't claim it as 'her' territory? Did your female actually attack, bite him, pull fur, latch on, or was she just hopping over the top of him and maybe giving a little nip? If this is all she was doing and it wasn't escalating into circling and attacking, this can actually be normal bonding behavior. It is something rabbits will do to establish dominance, just as long as it doesn't escalate into fighting. To me it sounds like an older rabbit showing a baby rabbit she's in charge, but then I'm not there seeing the behavior personally. I had the same thing occur when I was bonding a new male into a group. The dominant rabbit in the group would hop over to the back of this new male to show he was in charge, but never attacked him. So though this can be normal dominance behavior, it is something that has to be closely monitored as well, as things can escalate into a fight very quickly, and fights can sometimes result in very serious injuries, especially for a little baby bun.
