sudden relationship change

Hello :wave: im new here and wondering if anyone could offer me some advice.

I have 2 female lop sisters. I got them at 8 weeks and they are now 12 weeks. they got on fine when we got them home, constantly licking each other and lying on top of each other and generally happy. Then on monday night this week we heard a loud noise, went running up to them, and they were rolling around in a ball together fighting. fur everywhere.

i split them up and they were both shaking. i then noticed they both had a bald patch behind their neck area. since then they havent been the same. we've kept them apart when not there, but let them run together when supervised. they now keep sniffing each others tail area, circling round and trying to mount each other. their behaviour literally changed over night!

has anyone experienced this or know what to do? my vet has said she'll spay them at 16 weeks, so should i keep them apart until then, just next to each other? do u think theyll ever go back to how they were after the op - can i rebond them? its so sad to see them in this way

any advice would be grately received! thanks

:wave:
Hormones!. I would keep them apart then try bonding when spayed. There are lots of threads here regarding bonding that should help you. Im not an expert and im sure lots of others would be willing to offer advice and i might be wrong but it does sound like they are hormonal. Good luck

I ahgree - it definitely sounds like hormones. I would keep them apart until you can get them spayed - don't even let them have supervised time in the run - the sniffing, mounting etc is them trying to sort out their hierarchy but it will be hard for them to do while they're still so hormonal.

Once they have healed and you have left it a few wks for the hormones to die down, you can rebond them. This thread is a good place to start as it explains the need to bond on neutral territory in a small area but have a search of the bonding threads over the next few weeks too. http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=55913

thanks for the advice. theyre being spayed the end of august so will keep them apart until couple weeks after the op and then try bonding them in my hallway. fingers crossed theyll still love each other, they were so cute together to start with!

Oh yes definetely hormones!! Try and keep them so they can see eachother and once they are spayed we can help advise you how to bond them if you need it

This is the very same as what happened to me. I got two sisters three weeks ago. For two weeks they lived very happily together. Then last Sunday they started fighting and one ended up with a bloody ear! I took them to the vet and was advised to keep them separate for now and then we can try to rebond when they have been neutered. It was heartbreaking to have to separate them.

We had to go out and buy two new cages and a puppy pen to divide the room - my spare room has had to be completely emptied out and they have half the room each to run around freely in. They can still sniff (and nip it appears!) each other through the bars. I've been finding that they lie quite close together at the bars so I'm hoping that's a good sign...