Is this normal?

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

Ok, so I'm in the very (might I add, very) early stages of bonding my two oldest buns. Hunter, the 10 week oldmale and Bella the12 week old female. Now, really it's not full out bonding as they are not yet fixed and I wont allow them out of sight together until then; but when I bought them both I thought they were both females, so I let them have play time together, and for the moment I do still allow them together for playtime (soI don't have to have 5 different play times per bun :biggrin but I'm always near them so there isn't any romance dancing going on .

But my question is, it's normal for a female to be the dominant one correct? Granted a good deal of it is most likely since she is not fixed yet; but she is very bossy about everything.

They've never fought or even given each other a bad look; but she gets right into his face and demands to be groomed, plus if he approaches me, she seems to get quite jealous and will jump into my lap within seconds.

Now, he grooms her and really does like spending time with her (he's very laid back) and they both snuggle up and lay down nicely with each other and they eat and chew on toys together; it just seems like she's overly dominant when it comes to certain things.

Is it normal?

 

[Inle_Rabbitry]

Yes, it can be normal.

Reason number one, she's showing her territorial dominance, plus she's not spayed, so that only adds to this reason.

Reason number two, it can just be a part of her personality. From my personal experience and opinions, rabbits do get jealous.

They are both young and still learning how to act like rabbits and interact with each other, so there's going to be all kinds of behaviors.

 

[kirbyultra]

It is a toss up between pairs who'll be dominant but females do tend to be territorial and boss the other bunny around. This is one reason why many times a pair of girls won't bond.

I really think that if you bond them now, while it might be sweet and cute and it might be successful, you really do run the chance of them reaching maturity before you know it and they will go at it so quick that you can't break it up in time. Not only that but once a pair reaches maturity their personalities may change and they might end up fighting. After getting them fixed you might have to bond em all over from scratch again.

 

[Runestonez]

We had a pair of girls...approx. 1 year old or there abouts...
They came from a petstore and had been together since about 5 weeks of age...
They were great together...
We sent them in for their spays...they were together the whole time at the vet as well...and they were back together when we brought them home...about 4 weeks after the spay they started to box and fight like mad!:shock::shock:

Nothing had changed..in fact we went out of our way to make sure things were exactly the same for them...we had to start our bonding all over again!

There are never any guarantees with bunns! That is why they are so interesting as pets...they keep us guessing constantly!:biggrin2:

We have a lionhead girl who acts so laid back you almost feel the need to check for a pulse sometimes!:biggrin2: Her man Tucker is so possessive and annoying...he is constantly humping and grooming...obsessive might be a better word...but believe you me...PORTIA is the dominant bunn...she will tolerate no nonsense! Not from anyone! She gave our vacuum a good thrashing the other day! LOL

Danielle

 

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

Thanks that answers my question, yeah I'm wanting to bond the pair later on after they're both fixed but for the past few times they've been together it has just been for play which is starting to come to an end until they're fixed and older.

Yeah her personality is definitely bossy :biggrin:it might change as she grows and when she's fixed but I think most of it will stay with her lol



Thanks all!