My rabbits are driving me mad! Please help!

[Solivagant]

For reference Kush is my first rabbit , and Mush is my second!
So , i first got Kush in august of last year. She is the sweetest little bunny ever. Very chill , and extremely friendly , playful when she wanted to be - just a lovely addition to my family! We had her for about a month , when my sister insisted that we get another one because Kush seemed "Lonely". I don't think that was the case. My family consists of my two younger siblings , and my mother. My brother is disabled and was fascinated with Kush , so she most definitely got more than enough attention , and she just seemed happy all round! Regardless we bought rabbit number 2 , Mush.
The bonding process was rough. They were together in a large cage , Kush was friendly straight away , licking and laying near mush - but mush was always skittish , and violent towards her. Biting her or fighting with her. After 8 days they finally reached a point where they could exist in the same space without tearing each other up. My rabbits are free roaming , and are only in their cages for a few hours a day. I usually sleep around 2- 4am , and my sister will let them out around 8 am. At first they were okay , then mush started terrorising Kush in their cage , biting her and bullying her out of the spaces she chose to lie in. Literally the fist thing Kush would do in the morning once she was out was run away and hide. She wouldn't even eat straight away , or want to play like she used to. So I separated them at night to prevent this. Then every morning , mush would run to my room , and jump straight into Kush's cage to antagonise her. every. single. morning. biting her , not letting her eat - just being all round what I would consider a bully. I left it alone because i assumed maybe this was something rabbits did. Then came the problem of mush pooping and peeing everywhere. Kush was potty trained and would RARELY have accidents - but once mush came that all went out the window. It has now been 7 months. Now mush continuously humps kush , kush will only hump back when she is in heat - whereas mush has been humping her , chasing her aggressively , biting her and bullying her every single day since she has arrived. I love them both to death. Mush is so energetic (definitely a scaredy cat) , loves binkying down the hallway and digging in sawdust. Her favourite treats are apple slices - I really don't want to let her go. But Kush hasn't really seemed happy since she has been living with her , and this behaviour is showing no signs of letting up.
Please correct me if I am interpreting this behaviour wrong , and please please please help me out
Extra info: Kush is 11 months , Mush is 10 months - neither are spayed

 

[Preitler]

Hm, I have two pairs of intact does, well, actually one of my senior does got spayed at 7yo because of an accident, but that didn't change much. Mine are mother/daughter pairs though which made it rather easy to pick a doeling that got along with mom.
The thing is, it's a character issue. Some rabbits are very bossy, and their partner needs to be able to cope with that. My now 11yo Fury is such an alpha, and Red (9) is patient and stolid enough to just don't care much about being humped, keeps on munching whild my athritic fury does her daily exercise on her. This was the same all their lifes, not much changed.
Tried another doe too, but she couldn't handle it and got depressed, had to sell her (a shame, the gray-white one really was sweet).

Have to keep the two pairs seperated, or they fight instantly. Also have to keep any rabbit except my buck from my my spayed house bunny, she attacks everything that gets into the front yard.

There are more and less active times over the year due to hormonal swings, but spring is always their heyday. I can't tell if spaying would solve your issue completly, none of my 2 spayed does humped before they got fixed so I can't tell if it ends the humping, but I can well imagine that it would help since the hormonal influence would go away, although their characters don't really change.

There's also their setup - I never seperate my bonded does. I would worry that one would claim something as her territory and let that go to her head. My does have 2-3 hutches each, connected via tunnels, so they always can get out of each others sight if they feel like it. They also spend the days out in the garden. I think seperating and uniting them can mess up their settling of a hierachy, if they don't get along no matter what and one suffers I would seperate permanently.

Long story short, characters need to match for harmony, hormones make pretty much everything more difficult (got an intact buck and spayed girl as free roam house bunnies...), and haveing a structured environment where they can get away from each other (no dead ends, like a cage or hutch with just one door) can help to keep things smooth.

To tell if spaying actually would help in such a situation others need to chime in, I don't know.

 

[JBun]

I think part of their problem might have been the way the bonding process was approached, as well as not being spayed. But they also don't seem to have very compatible personalities.

Your rabbit is trying to chase Kush from what she sees as her territory, which is also why she's attacking her. This isn't a good match in my opinion. And at this stage, it's doubtful it will improve at all, even if you were to get them spayed. My recommendation would be to keep them completely separated in separate areas of your home, or to rehome Mush to a good home. Continuing to subject your first bun to this negative situation, isn't fair to her.

If you were wanting to still see if it could work, I would recommend completely separating them for a minimum of a month, so they basically have time to forget about the negative interactions with each other. This should be having them in separate areas of the house with zero visual contact, and far enough away that they can't hear each other either, if possible. Then preferably get both spayed during this waiting period.

Spaying and neutering rabbits

https://web.as.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html
https://rabbit.org/veterinarians/
After this, I would start with a very gradual introduction. Short 'dates' in a neutral location. The other alternative is first starting them in separated areas next to each other for several weeks, while you swap items, to help them get used to each others scent. No guarantees either will work, but it's the only possibility that I can see , if you still want to try.

https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html
https://cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information/bonding-bunnies/
https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bonding_rabbits_together

 

[Solivagant]

Hm, I have two pairs of intact does, well, actually one of my senior does got spayed at 7yo because of an accident, but that didn't change much. Mine are mother/daughter pairs though which made it rather easy to pick a doeling that got along with mom.
The thing is, it's a character issue. Some rabbits are very bossy, and their partner needs to be able to cope with that. My now 11yo Fury is such an alpha, and Red (9) is patient and stolid enough to just don't care much about being humped, keeps on munching whild my athritic fury does her daily exercise on her. This was the same all their lifes, not much changed.
Tried another doe too, but she couldn't handle it and got depressed, had to sell her (a shame, the gray-white one really was sweet).

Have to keep the two pairs seperated, or they fight instantly. Also have to keep any rabbit except my buck from my my spayed house bunny, she attacks everything that gets into the front yard.

There are more and less active times over the year due to hormonal swings, but spring is always their heyday. I can't tell if spaying would solve your issue completly, none of my 2 spayed does humped before they got fixed so I can't tell if it ends the humping, but I can well imagine that it would help since the hormonal influence would go away, although their characters don't really change.

There's also their setup - I never seperate my bonded does. I would worry that one would claim something as her territory and let that go to her head. My does have 2-3 hutches each, connected via tunnels, so they always can get out of each others sight if they feel like it. They also spend the days out in the garden. I think seperating and uniting them can mess up their settling of a hierachy, if they don't get along no matter what and one suffers I would seperate permanently.

Long story short, characters need to match for harmony, hormones make pretty much everything more difficult (got an intact buck and spayed girl as free roam house bunnies...), and haveing a structured environment where they can get away from each other (no dead ends, like a cage or hutch with just one door) can help to keep things smooth.

To tell if spaying actually would help in such a situation others need to chime in, I don't know.

Right! Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Solivagant]

I think part of their problem might have been the way the bonding process was approached, as well as not being spayed. But they also don't seem to have very compatible personalities.

Your rabbit is trying to chase Kush from what she sees as her territory, which is also why she's attacking her. This isn't a good match in my opinion. And at this stage, it's doubtful it will improve at all, even if you were to get them spayed. My recommendation would be to keep them completely separated in separate areas of your home, or to rehome Mush to a good home. Continuing to subject your first bun to this negative situation, isn't fair to her.

If you were wanting to still see if it could work, I would recommend completely separating them for a minimum of a month, so they basically have time to forget about the negative interactions with each other. This should be having them in separate areas of the house with zero visual contact, and far enough away that they can't hear each other either, if possible. Then preferably get both spayed during this waiting period.

Spaying and neutering rabbits

https://web.as.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html
https://rabbit.org/veterinarians/
After this, I would start with a very gradual introduction. Short 'dates' in a neutral location. The other alternative is first starting them in separated areas next to each other for several weeks, while you swap items, to help them get used to each others scent. No guarantees either will work, but it's the only possibility that I can see , if you still want to try.

https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html
https://cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information/bonding-bunnies/
https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bonding_rabbits_together

Yeah.. i think me and my mum have agreed to rehome her , as much as its breaking my heart. Thank you so much for responding!