fighting rabbits

Hi,

We bought two female Netherland Dwarf rabbits 4 weeks ago, and they are now nearly 12 weeks old. They are from the same litter, and have been living together happily - they're always grooming each other and sitting together all the time. They have an approx. 4 x 2 foot cage, and are let out every evening for about 5 hours on average, and an hour in the mornings, so I don't think they are short of space.

Just before we got up this morning we heard banging and crashing from the cage, ran down to have a look and they were fighting all over the cage - we got them out and separated them. There's fur all over the cage and they both seem subdued, but we can't see anything wrong with them.

We don't know what to do now - we're going to be at work all day, and don't want to leave them shut up together if there's a risk they will injure each other - is it better to separate them, or should they be ok now? They have been left in the run for the last half hour or so and seem to be grooming etc all as normal again. Do we need to separate them long-term? obviously they can't get spayed for anotehr couple of months, and we don't want them to kill each other in the meantime!

thanks!

esupi.

update:
We decided to test putting them in together again before we went to work. So - we shut them back in the cage, and they were fighting within 5 minutes. when we opened the door to split them up, the smaller one couldn't get out fast enough, and ran as far from the other as she could.
Before they started fighting, the larger one had been biting at the bars of the cage (something she does every time we put her away), and the little one was following her around everywhere and kept trying to sniff underneath her. I;m not sure which one of them started the fight, but it was definitely the large one chasing the small one ultimately.

We have fabricated a second cage from their playpen and some wood, so they are apart for the day, but don't want to keep them separated for the next couple of months. Any advice would be welcome!

Thanks.

esupi.

If you have separated already, I wouldn't try to rebond until they are spayed - & then do it on completely neutral territory. The more they have fights, the harder a re-bond is.

They will definatly need spaying. This happened to my two contis - they are sisters. I kept them together got them spayed, and life is just rosey again! Im sure they have a stronger bond now!

Thank you! did you rabbits fight for the two months they were too young to be spayed? it's weird that they seemed to still be friends out of the cage - think i need to spend this weekend with them and see if i can get them to get along again.

Angie65,
Sorry - I didn't notice your earlier post (have been trying to sneak onto here at work). Does separating them for just 9 hours mean that they won't go back together now until they're spayed? We didn't feel that we could leave them together this morning having seen them fight and knowing we wouldn't be around to split them up. Having had a bit of time to look through the forum now though it seems that might have been best?

I've just got back to them, and let them both out in the area they're allowed to play, and left both their cage doors open. The little one ventures into the original shared cage, but bolts as soon as the other one goes near. However, the big one wanders happily into the temporary cage, and thay have both been sitting eating in there together.

I was hoping to put them back together this evening and monitor them, but I will be at work again for the next two days so don't want her to be attacked again and have nowhere to go. Does anybody have any advice, other than keeping them apart for 2 months? I'm afraid they'll be lonely on their own as they've been such good buddies until now.

Thanks.

esupi.

hmm - they are now sitting togehter again and have been grooming each other as usual.
Do you think it would be safe to put them back together tomorrow while we're at work, or too risky? what's the worst that might happen if they scrap while we're not here?
Thanks.
esupi

personally I'd leave it until post spay,Bunnies can do some serious damage to each other when fighting.

Part of the reason they could be fighting may be because of the hutch size. Rabbits like humans appreciate space where they can move about freely and also have a bit of time to themselves. You mention that your hutch is approximately 4 x 2 foot which unfortunately is a little on the small size for a single rabbit.

If these are indoor rabbits can you permanently attatch the run so that they have a larger space. If they are outdoor rabbits a secure run would give them greater space.

There are lots of other ideas on the forum for increasing the space of a n indoor and outdoor cage.

Thanks - we plan to attach a permanent run once they are house-trained (something else that probably won't happen until they are spayed). We had a go at this already, but because we're out all day, we obviously can't do anything to train them in that time and all the good work we do in the evenings and weekends gets undone!

4 x 2 was the biggest cage we could find - it seems to be the biggest standard one available? Is it too small even for dwarf rabbits? I'm all for giving them a much bigger space, but the other half won't risk it until they're trained and spayed - they are house rabbits and he's afraid for the house!

This is going to be a steep learning curve!

Just a quick thank you - we have added a permanent run now, which pretty much triples the space they have (takes up half our house too lol). They seem very happy - no more fighting!

esupi.

I have been reading this thread and thought id add my wee bit.

My two female rabbits wen we first got them wer getting on fine until one morning i was woken up by them fighting in their cage. I separted them bt wen back together they just "bum-circled" as i call it and did the humping kind of thing. They wer friends in no time and i couldnt believe how the fight could have broke out.

We put this down to dominance and it was how they worked out who was dominant. For some reaon the smaller one was but they always got on, groomed each other, slept beside each other, everything except for the odd chase from the dominant 1.

They wer nearly a year when the dominant 1 started chasing the other 1 a bit more often, nothing serious, jst a short sprint forward then back to being friends.

To be fair to the other 1 though, we decided it may be best to spay them and reduce the chasing hopefully.

After the spay they werent eating so were forced fed and sent home for observation. They were fine together bt they had no energy to move so I cant tell looking back if they were still friends then or if they just had no energy to fight. We sent them back to the vets for more feeding and got one home in the morning and the other at lunchtime. As soon as they were put in the same room together they went for each other stright away.

I cannot remember what their fighting as babies was like but i don't think it was like this! Fur everywhere, and we were advised to try them in the garden but have bottles of water ready to scoosh them with. That didnt work either, neither did a small bucket of water.

I've wrote this so that you know all the possibilities, as I had no idea they could de-bond if separated (which they were in the vets
I'd researched every aspct of spaying and never found any mention of this type of thing happening. But, hey, my rabbits are weird anyway

I know this situation is rare but I think all aspects should be considered. Spaying them was the worst thing i ever did and I blamed myself for a long time. I'm only 16 so found it difficult to deal with when i can remember how they were friends before i decided to get them spayed.

Now because they are separate they take up a huge part of my life and its just a hassle my family could have done without.

So my advise would be to get them spayed bt maybe ask if them can be kept together if they are friendly with each other.

Good luck

Hi, saw house-training was mentioned. My rabbits were house-trained long before we spayed them. I know every rabbit is different but we just got a litter tray and every time they pooed or peed in their cage (at the time coz they were still babies) we put the poos an the wet woodshavings in the litter tray. They began to twig that thats where we wanted them to do the toilet. It took a month or so and when they were bigger and they ran around the house (they are outdoor rabbits though) we just picked up all their poos they left, put them in the litter tray and cleaned up the pee with kitchen roll and baby wipes (which were reali effective and my mum made sure of that as it was a new carpet ). Now they live outside in a shed and hutches and have access to runs etc. but they still use their litter trays in there which is handy to clean and when they do come into they house they leave no mess.

I'd start house-training now as it can be done.

Hope this helps too