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HELP! sterilised & bonded buns fighting and weeing

huppie

Mama Doe
Hi all

My buns have been bonded for 6 weeks. From the beginning the neutered male was boss in a friendly way (my speyed female submitted before any trouble started!). They have also been house trained successfully.

BUT and what a big but!!!

Rambaldi seems to be ok with the pooing and peeing in the toilet but Huppie is now pooing and peeing all through their hutch after she has completely rearranged it. The run seems to be ok except for the rare stray pee (they have 24 hour access to both).

More scary is, suddenly Huppie has become the boss but through a regime of violence and fear! She nips him out of the way and chases him nipping him all over even after he has submitted! This slowly started a few days ago but yesterday evening it was awful and now they aren't sitting together at all because he seems to be terrified of her. If he goes anywhere near her she nips him! This is extremely upsetting and I don't know what to do.

I was going to post about the toilet training anyway because I can't clean the whole hutch everyday, it would be a nightmare - I need them to go back to their toilet areas! Now though that seems a tiny problem compared to the fighting, they used to spend all day snuggling!

What can I do to help?

Emma
 
I would suggest confining them to a smaller area again for a while, it sounds as if their bond hasn't fully established so they are still fighting for dominance and territory (hence the toileting everywhere). Giving them lots of space too soon after a bond can cause this, so I would suggest restricting it again and then gradually increasing back to full space. Do you have anywhere completely neutral you can put them again for a few days?
 
I would move them to a new place and start all over again. Put them somewhere completely alien to both of them (e.g. bathroom) and start off in a small area so less chance of escaping each other. I'd clean out the hutch thoroughly to get rid of any smells, or if you have another home for them this would be great once they seem better. As above reply sounds like she's trying to take back "her" space, but you now need to make it "theirs"
 
Thanks for the advice - they have stopped fighting and are happily snuggling up again. Hoorah!

They have also (for the time being anyway) stopped peeing elsewhere.

Toodles

Emma
 
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