Bonging two young male buns

I have had one male for about 1 week he is 9 weeks old, i have just bought back another bun a week younger also a male. We tried to bond them and they seemed fine smelling each other, circling, going face to face, then the bun that we have had for a week keeps trying to mate with the new bun - over and over again! The new one seems to not like this. They are both young so we didn't think you would try and mate!

Ive tried seperating them and then bringing them back together and they seem to ignore each other

What should i do?

Hello, welcome to RU. You need to keep them seperate until they're neutered, and wait another 4-6 weeks until their hormones have settled before attempting to rebond. There are loads of threads about bonding, so do a search for them for more info - I'm not an expert with bonding I'm afraid!

Are you sure both are male? We thought we had two girls - went to the vet to be speyed and turned out both were male. It's hard to tell when they are young. If they are male-male they will be aggressive, if they are male-female they will breed pretty soon.

It is difficult to bond unneutered rabbits, but especially uneutered males. Their hormones mean they will naturally be aggressive and competitive towards another male. I'm not saying it can't be done, but as your rabbits get a bit older they will be more aggressive, plus spray urine all over to mark territory, poop all over etc. It's natural behaviour for a maturing rabbit. The same with the humping - it's establishing dominance.

Unforunately two uneutered male rabbits can seriously injure each other. If the one being mounted gets really fed up, it is not unknown for them to attack the other's genitals. There has been a recent thread on here about a rabbit having it's penis bitten off by another rabbit.

Neutering willl sort out all these problems. It cost us £38 per rabbit - which is not cheap, but it's a lot cheaper than the vet bills would have been if we had left them together.

Are you sure they are only 9 weeks? Ours didn't start the aggressive behaviour until about 3 months. They were then neutered asap - which is about 4 months.

The best course is to keep them separated, have them neutered, then bond them properly a few weeks later. Neutering is generally thought to make rabbits calmer too, so they will hopefully be more friendly afterwards.

Yes they are both 7 weeks and the other is 9-10 weeks probably no older and he is the one doing all the humping. There is no agressive behaviour and they seem to be fine after a while and hump less frequent but they still hump! I was told by a few breeders you can bond them when they are both young but you iwll need to have them then neutered.

I have now put them together in a neutral space - they seemed fine so i put them in the run, i saw one of the buns grooming the other they have been lying down next to each other - and seem more relaxed in each others company - i also since haven't seen the one bun hump the other again - does this sound like they are bonded?

As they are only young ive heard they bond easier - when would it be ok to put them in the same hutch together? They have been left together in the run now for a couple of hours

Thanks

as other people have said, rabbits this young are often sexed wrong, i thought i had a boy and a girl but actually had two boys. maybe you should only have them together when you can supervise until they are old enough to be sure. i know its frustrating, im desperate to have mine together! but if they are unneutered you could end up with babies, or when the hormones kick in a massive fight!!

It does sound like they are starting to bond. Ours were bonded as two young males (thought they were girls ..), but fell out as they reached the hormonal stage. If you are absolutely sure they are both males you could keep them together until the neuter, but having seen how viciously ours fought, I would say it would be risky. Ours were very happy until the hormones fully kicked in and then all hell broke lose.

Hi Stacey, I'm not sure if my situation was the same as yours but i had two male littermates from 8 weeks old and i kept them together in a hutch. They lived harmoniously but would occasionally have the odd fight, probably over dominance in the hutch. My vet advised me to spread their food all over the hutch and never put it in the the same bowl as this can be a flashpoint for aggression. Also have lots of hidey holes so that one can retreat too. This seemed to lessen any fighting. My personal experience is that it was fine to keep them together when they are young. Problems can arise when hormones kick in as mine would fight more around 4 months then I had them neutered and then there was no aggression. I am no expert in rabbit behaviour and have only my personal experience but I am under the impression that if you separate rabbits and try to bond after they are 12 weeks old, it can be sometimes difficult to bond them. I have bonded adult rabbits and it was very difficult- It took me two months of sheer determination and tears to do this. i would be confident and would not hesitate in keeping two young males together. Mine lived together for 4 years very happily until one passed on. Good luck

Thanks for all fo your help guys! They are now living together and have really taken to each other they groom, follow each other around, sleep snuggled up and seem really happy, have been absolutley no sign of any agression - i will keep my eye on them and luckily my hutch is a large 2 tier hutch, so when they get hormonal i can always just but the latch down to keep them apart untill they are old enough to be neutured - good tip about food i will bare that in mind.

Thanks again

We have a two-tier hutch and ended up with one up, one down when the hormones kicked in and the scrapping started. It does sound like they have taken to each other really well so far, so I hope it works out.