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fighting

L

lottielou

New Kit
Hope I am sending this to the right place. I have recently purchased two dwarf lop ear female rabbits, they are both about 12 weeks, they came from the same shop and lived together there.
Ive had them home for about three weeks and they have been perfectly happy together but this morning I found the slightly larger one trying to mount the smaller one and chasing it around the hutch, when I checked on them there was fur in the hutch, I cant see any bite marks.
Is this normal behaviour? the man at the shop said I didn't need to get them neutered but would this help?
Does this behaviour mean there could be a possibility I have a male and female?
 
Girls will fight and mount just as two males and a male and a female would, the mounting is a dominance thing.

At 12 weeks its possible that your two girls are now fully 'hormonal' and its wise to get them spayed asap before a proper fight breaks out and one gets injured.

You may need to keep them apart and then try and re-bond them after their spay. If you can get them in the vets asap then take them together and hopefully that should keep their bond.
 
Thanks for your response, I just spoke to my local vets (receptionist) who said they will not spay until they are 6 months, is this normal, should I call a different vet?
 
That is the normal age most vets spay - But bear in mind that pet shops often sex baby rabbits wrong too (why should they care really?) - it's quite possible you have a boy/girl, in which case I would take them to a good rabbit vet (lots of vets do rabbit medicine as an afterthought and don't know much - ask how many rabbits they spay a week to get some idea) this week, to be correctly sexed - if they are boy/girl hopefully she's too young to get pregnant at 12wks.
 
lottielou said:
Thanks for your response, I just spoke to my local vets (receptionist) who said they will not spay until they are 6 months, is this normal, should I call a different vet?
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My bun was spayed at 12 weeks - my vets go by weight rather than age, and they do say that youonger buns recover better.

Can you try another vet?

Otherwise, i think you'll have to split the two girls (or boy/girl up!)
 
If I seperate them for the next 12 weeks, am I ever going to be able to put them back together, I'm going to call the vet to sex them but I'm worried if I split them for to long they will never get back together. They were fine up until yesterday, for now I've got one in the hutch and one in the run.
 
If they're 2 girls it might not be necessary to split them - my group of 4 unspayed girls mount, chase and fur pull occasionally - less now they are nearly 3 - but they've never actually hurt each other and they are very cuddled up most of the time, so I've never split them, just kept an eye on things. It does help having a biggish area for them (5x8 shed), several litter trays with hay in, various cardboard boxes for them to rip up, and feeding by pouring the pellets onto the floor in a long line - so they're not all fighting for a nose in one dish :)

Main thing I would check is that they are both girls :?
 
My two boys started fighting at 12 weeks, they to were living quite happily together when we first got them. They now live separated as they kept going to fight. My boys arent neutered, people have said they can sometimes go back together once they have been neutered as this calms there hormones. Im not sure mine would go back together as the fighting looked pretty nasty. I was howling when it happened!
 
I've just got back from the vet and it turns out that Maisy and Violet are in fact Macey and Vincent! Still at least they are the both boys.
 
Wow, at least their both boys and not one of each sex!! :lol: :lol:

You can get boys neutered as soon as their testicles descend. Did you discuss neutering with the vet?
 
Oh that's good - if a suprise :shock: You can get boys neutered at 12wks if their testicles have appeared, but you need to take both boys together and recover them together - or split them if they are fighting too bad by the time they can have the op - they can seriously injure each other otherwise :(
 
Some vets will neuter boys from 12 weeks but the majority wait until 16 weeks when the testicals are fully developed (bearing in mind smaller breeds mature faster).

Keep a very close eye on them and dont split them unless the fighting gets nasty as unfortunately with bucks,once they start to fight and are split up they will often never adapt to living together again without serious injury.

Its for this reason that on the odd occasion a pair of un-neutered bucks has come into rescue together that are not fighting, I will split them anyway as sooner or later the majority seem to fall out :?
 
My first adopted bunnies were Benny and Pepsi though - 18mnth old neutered brothers, so it's not impossible :)
 
elve said:
My first adopted bunnies were Benny and Pepsi though - 18mnth old neutered brothers, so it's not impossible :)
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I agree its not impossible but when trying to get them settled into a permenant home the last thing you want is a phone call months or years down the line that they are trying to kill each other and they want to give one (or both) back again. Girls are a mush safer bet :rolleyes:
 
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