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My two unbondable bunnies

Snowy

Snowy

Wise Old Thumper
This is Andy and Enzo, Mother and Son, Andy was born in the rescue 2 years ago and they both have severe health problems

AndyandEnzo014x2.jpg


You might think that they love each other and are a bonded pair, well you would be wrong :shock: , they spend all day together, grooming each other, they snuggle up together, eat and drink out the same dishes at the same time and spend hours together, try putting them in a hutch or a dog crate together and they fight like heck, they really mean it too!!, it's been like this for 2 years now

I have never had this with any other bunnies, if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them
 
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it may be a space issue? some rabbits need mroe space or it could be they prefer to sleep seperatly and only play together!!! :) (one assumes the hutches are made neutral before trying?!) x
 
When I clean my two out I used to put them in a hutch for ten mins.. they go balmy and try and hump and bite each other:shock: Normally they are loves young dream
 
bunlover said:
it may be a space issue? some rabbits need mroe space or it could be they prefer to sleep seperatly and only play together!!! :) (one assumes the hutches are made neutral before trying?!) x
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this.

Maybe a run joined to the hutch would work? or even a run joined to two hutches so they can get away from each other?
 
Sounds perfect to me - friend to play with during the day and then time to yourself with no one snoring in your ear in the evening! ;)
 
See I find this interesting in terms of the bonding theory that the minimum amount of space should be given and as soon as it is increased with a lot of rabbits they kick off, I am going to be bonding soon and have no intention of confining mine to a dog crate because I know it will cause stress, tension and fear which will lead to aggression. This is the reverse scenario and I think the only solution would be to increase the size of their accomodation to allow both of them sufficient space to feel relaxed.
 
VickiP said:
See I find this interesting in terms of the bonding theory that the minimum amount of space should be given and as soon as it is increased with a lot of rabbits they kick off, I am going to be bonding soon and have no intention of confining mine to a dog crate because I know it will cause stress, tension and fear which will lead to aggression. This is the reverse scenario and I think the only solution would be to increase the size of their accomodation to allow both of them sufficient space to feel relaxed.
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I think it depends on the rabbits. I know if I had given my four a lot of room to begin with Nutmeg would never have interacted with the others. I needed to force her to see that nothing scary would happen if she did.
 
We have exactly the same problem with 2 of our boarders, been coming a while now and they arrive in the same carrier, they happily share a run, they free range all quite happily together, but when the owner tried them in a hutch together at her home all hell broke loose that led to an expensive emergency vet visit.
 
Schuette said:
I think it depends on the rabbits. I know if I had given my four a lot of room to begin with Nutmeg would never have interacted with the others. I needed to force her to see that nothing scary would happen if she did.
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Yes don't get me wrong I am not letting them free range round the garden but I plan to give them more space than a dog crate, they are 3 singles who I have spent the last few weeks rotating round so they all see each other and have playpens outside next to each other, they are flopping next to each other and chinning etc so I am hoping they are already used to each other, I have been swapping toys round and they definately all know one another so fingers crossed.
 
no experience what so ever. But could it be that they need a 3rd bun to be in charge-i.ve seen this with dogs. Maybe a strong dominate character!
 
hmmm...

so they need SPACE! I love my sister. We are close. But if we are together in the same kitchen for long... nah! Sounds like they are bonded, but need to know that they can back away for a time if they need to! Why not?
 
Are they just being territorial over the hutch. What if it were made totally neutral with cleaning? Its odd.

Or is the hutch near other bunnies and its referred fighting?
 
VickiP said:
Yes don't get me wrong I am not letting them free range round the garden but I plan to give them more space than a dog crate, they are 3 singles who I have spent the last few weeks rotating round so they all see each other and have playpens outside next to each other, they are flopping next to each other and chinning etc so I am hoping they are already used to each other, I have been swapping toys round and they definately all know one another so fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, mine were in a space probably equivalent to a dog crate for a day. The day before we had this setup...

_IGP7859-vi.jpg


But we were getting three buns together and Nutmeg on her own so I felt we needed to go smaller for a while so went to this for about 24 hours.

_IGP7893-vi.jpg
 
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