Please can anyone help and advise? (male rabbits fighting)

My eight year old has two six month old, medium sized, neutered male rex rabbits. She looks after them beautifully and loves them very much.

They are in a small hutch together and they are put in their run every day without fail. We have a walled garden and they are allowed a big run at least three or four times a week.

They have started to become aggressive towards her and one of them bit her very badly through her coat. They have started mounting each other again. This stopped for a while after they were neutered.

Please can anyone help. It is very upsetting for her as she cannot handle them.

Thank you

I expect someone with more experience will come along soon . . . but I would suggest a couple of things:

1. Its spring and the males will be getting frisky and hump despite being neutered (neutered females will as well) . . after all spring affects us all!!!

2. If their hutch is 'small' (less than say 6ft by 3ft by 3ft MINIMUM) they will be getting very fed up with each other in the periods between being taken to their runs, they will then have a build up of frustration when the time comes to being taken to the runs (they will also possibly start taking this out on each other); This frustration will be worse if they do not have enough to occupy them - hay, food that takes a while to digest. even toys;

3. They are at the equivalent of the 'terrible teen' period when rabbits often seem to change personalities - and it may be that one is more dominant than the other.

All of this will mean that they are feeling crabby. It is also possible that they are 'nipping' rather than actually biting - this can be either a dominance thing OR an affection thing (they do nip the female rabbits at humping and will nip humans they are 'fond' of! However I suspect this is more frustration and aggression nipping.

However fond of them your daughter is she may also be finding it difficult to carry them securely now they are getting bigger and more frisky and they may be feeling insecure when she carries them, which will also add to this.

Solutions would include LARGE hutch (secure with lots of good mesh, and secure bolts), more time in the run, if necessary to carry backwards and forwards to run/garden than try putting them in a secure basket to do this. We had to do this latter with a young bun who has never got over once being dropped by a shop assitant (in the shop whilst we watched!!!!!), lots of hay to occupy them and a good diet of pellets which is not overly sweet and will take longer to digest.

All this may help head off any aggression towards each other or your daughter although brothers can be a bit difficult anyway . . . but many do stay together happily (I have some)

hope this helps

bumping this up to see if anyone else has any ideas?

Thank you Parsnip Bun

Still very new to RU so sorry if this isnt etiquette but just wanted to thank you very much for your advice. It seems very sound to me. New hutch on order. Mother and daughter carrying rabbits much more securely and already have happier buns. Thanks. Master Bobby.

Thats great!

If they do start serious fighting (ie actually tearing hair out of each other and drawing blood) then you will have to separate - and quickly - but just a bit of chasing and mounting now and again is 'normal'. Unless they are exposed to a female they should get along fine!!
Rabbits are always best kept together at all times - so with a slightly dodgy bond you should make sure that even on trips to the vet for injections (myxi and VHD jabs) they should stay together.

Welcome to the forum:wave:. We look forward to news of progress and we LOVE piccies of other people's buns!!!