Rabbits aggressive towards each other

[StratusFears]

A month ago I adopted a second bunny into the family. He's a year old black male Rex named smokey. His previous owners clearly hadn't taken particularly good care of him as he was atrociously overweight and had massive nails. Well since then he's been neutered, had his nails trimmed, and with a good diet and exercise his weight is steadily returning to normal.

With his recent increase in friendliness (assuming it's from his hormones wearing off from his neutering) I decided to try and carefully introduce the bunnies again today. Sadly the results were worse then when I tried several weeks ago. Before when I tried to put him and Aphrodite (female mini-rex) together, separated by a cage wall, they met with curious sniffs until Aphrodite got spooked and ran away. She was terrified of him but he seemed to always have innocent curiosity towards her.

Today when I tried again they sniffed for just a moment and then smokey tried to attack her. And even more shocking to me is Aphrodite didn't run away, she ran back then lunged back. It was heart breaking.

So I need to know. Is there anything I can do to encourage these two to try and get along? As it stands I have to make time for them both separately which as it stands isn't a big issue but I can't keep doing it forever.

 

[majorv]

I'm certainly not an authority on bonding but when you get a second rabbit you have to accept the fact that if they don't get along, despite your best attempts, they will have to remain separate. I've read posts on here where it took months to years to finally bond their rabbits, and some never could.

 

[Blue eyes]

Since they've just had a major tussle, it might be a good idea to give it a break for a couple weeks and hope they forget about their disagreement.
Did you use neutral territory -- a place where neither rabbit has ever been at all? I have found that that is a very critical component with difficult bonds.
Is she spayed?

 

[StratusFears]

It was in a room both have been carried through but neither have ever occupied it for any length if time. And the female in not spayed. I'm not sure she's even old enough? She's only 5 months

 

[Blue eyes]

If she's not spayed, don't even bother trying to bond. Wait until she's done. (vets will usually spay females at 5 or 6 months --depends on vet) Her hormones right now will be affecting her behavior and his. This is why it is recommended to have both bunnies fixed. It isn't just a matter of preventing pregnancy but eliminating hormones that interfere with bonding.

Once she's done and healed, then you can try the bonding again. In the meantime try to keep each bunny out of new areas so that you'll still have neutral areas for bonding later (bathrooms often work well).

 

[HoneySereanaBunny]

my bunnies were bonded but had a period of fights, they were serious (one got a ripped ear and had to go to vets for infected cut). i heard you had to take them for a car ride together and they would get scared so they would huddle together and after that they were fine, but they were sisters and were bonded before, we also got them both spayed
i would get them fixed unless you want to breed them.
good luck

 

[StratusFears]

Thanks everyone. I decided I'm going to wait until Aphrodite is 6 months old and get her spayed, and after she's feeling better I'll try introducing them to one another in a new room with a wall between them so they can see and sniff one another but not actually do any harm in case it goes bad. Thank you so much for the advice.

 

[Ainsleys_mommy]

Keep in mind that it can take 3-4 weeks for hormones to dissipate after spaying/neutering. Also, if it has been less than that since his neutering, he can still impregnate your female (and 5 mos is plenty old enough for that to happen). I would definitely recommend spaying her and waiting a month before trying to bond them again. In the meantime, place their cages right next to each other. Literally with only inches between them.

What I did to bond mine together, is after they were both fixed and the appropriate amount of time had passed for the crazies to go away (lol), I began feeding them together. They were so intent on the food, they didn't really care to fight it seemed. They did take the veggies and drag them off in the corner to eat them. Also, I put them in a wire carrier (like breeders use), with a wire divider and took them on a car ride every day for a couple of weeks. Not a long car ride... maybe 10-15 minutes. The car is considered "scary" to most rabbits and they had to comfort each other that way. The wire divider ensured they could still see each other but not kill each other.