Grooming question...

When bonded buns groom one another, who is dominant - the groomer, or the groomee?
For example, Gladys and Nigel are newly bonded and he pulled loads of her fur, but now he grooms her head and ears very attentively. So is he dominant or is she?

My other pair, Dougal and Doris- Dougal presents his head on the floor under her chin for her to groom, the same as he does to me when I open the hutch door. Who's in charge there?

I'm so confused! :roll:

I think it's the one being groomed. That's how it seems to be with mine. Though they do groom each other, Splodge does most of the grooming, but that could just because she is hyperactive and cannot sit still!! :lol: :lol: Scrumpie Jack humps her, so I take it he is the dominant one, and he does the least grooming!

So when Dougal presents his head and demands grooming from me, he's in charge? (he thinks?) :shock::roll: but he's such a snuggly sweetie....

my group of 4 are a bit confusing as they all groom each other and there doesn't seem to be a hierarchy there, or maybe I'm just not observant enough - Zinniea has always (for nearly 3yrs) been 'designated groomer' - she absolutely goes at it like a maniac :lol: but she's not the least dominant bunny - that's Victoria from what I can see, and I do see Petunia grooming the others and she seems to be top bunny, so I have no idea what's going on :shock: When Maa was with the group she never groomed any of them, as she was definitely the boss, being their mum - they were her slaves - how I wish my son would wake up to that way of thinking

the one who puts thier head to the floor and gets groomed is dominant... altho a lot of times theres mutual grooming :?

I think they will mutually groom each other if they choose to do the grooming. But the dominant one wont be forced into it.

i.e. In my pair Molly is dominant and he will groom Faline of his own accord, but if she comes up to him and puts her head down to demand grooming he will bite her instead and then put his head down and she has to groom him. :lol:

Apparently it's a great priveledge to be allowed to groom the dominant bun.

I'm always wondering over this... I also wonder where abouts I fit in my bunnies hierarchy. o_o;
The thing is, as people have said, one of my pairs groom one another in an equal sort of way... And that same pair groom me, and let me 'groom' them in turn. Barney has only ever managed to, um, assert his dominance over Amber once. ^^' He chases her and tries to when it comes to making them go in their hutch at night, but only caught up with her once. I s'pose I've always tought of him as the dominant bunny in that pair, as Amber did most of the grooming for the first few months they knew one another...
My other pair are mother and daughter. I've always seen mummy rabbit as the boss-lady, purely because she sits on Bella. :lol: But on the other hand, she does nearly all the grooming...? I think she's just still in mummy mode, even though her 'kit' is now nearly 6 months old.

http://language.rabbitspeak.com/rabbittalk_intro.html

I really love that site for it's rabbit language stuff. There's a good section on hierachy. I know Molly is definately boss in the house as if Faline is going to do something that will get her in trouble, she'll grunt and thump first before Molly even tells her off.

With the group Bilbo is the big boss, they all try and groom him. But he does groom every one else too. And Mina is the boss of the girls.