Advice re: Aunty's rabbits

Hi,

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread.
Right I just want to make sure I give her the right advice regarding her rabbits.

She's just spoken to me tonight on FB, and has suggested of re-homing one of her rabbits

This is her first and oldest rabbit, Hazel who is an un-neutered male and is about 2 and a half years old if not slightly older. Anyway she bought 2 new rabbits back in April, and they are brothers and live together. Ever since she’s had them, Hazel has become really aggressive and starts attacking these two rabbits and her cats. She said he still does this when he has the whole garden to himself; she lets him roam free in the garden most of the times.

She is gutted about this as she was hoping they'll all get on. S
he loves him to bits but is struggling to cope with his behavior anyway the first thing I said to her was to get him done asap.
She said it costs her £70 and is too expensive so she has applied for vouchers from the RSPCA so then I said good, that’s the first thing you need to do, don’t just opt for the easiest option of re-homing him. Do you have any other suggestions/advice that I can give to her or have any ideas why he is being like this?

Thank-you
Lessie

Its aggression with the other bunnies.Are they neutered?, cos in time she will have trouble with them too.Hormones will be rife and somebun will get hurt.
Just pocket pick all 3....but bonding may cause problems.
Its all complicated.:roll:

She's not letting them all out to free range at the same time is she? I'm guessing Hazel is attacking them through the cage wire?

Firstly - neutering is essential to help stop this behaviour. Especially if she wants the two newer rabbits to stay together. They will almost certainly begin to fight and then she'll have three seperate angry bunnies to deal with. In fact, I'd actually be inclined to suggest she gets the two that are together done first if she's having to take time to save up. I'd also suggest she tries ringing a few different vets - my usual vet charges £86 for a rabbit castration but it's only £42 at the vet just down the road.

In the meantime, I suspect Hazel is getting upset because there are new male buns in his territory. I would advise your aunt to move Hazel and the two new buns out of each others sight, feed and clean him out him first so she doesn't have the other buns scent on her and when she lets Hazel out, block off the other rabbits hutch (a foldable dog pen is perfect for this!) so he cannot get close to them, or even let him get his exercise inside the house where there is no threatening scent for him.

I suspect Hazel would be much happier neutered and paired with a spayed female. My Barley is very territorial and quite aggresive. He got really bad after his first wifey bun died and was on his own. He's still pretty grumpy at times now but he's not nearly so bad since I got him another friend. I think a lot of Barley's aggression to other rabbits, came from the frustration of not being able to get near enough to interact with them.

Re-homing really does need to be the final option, and then my personal opinion is that the new-comers should go as Hazel was there first. If it does come to that, then she should be very careful who she re-homes to as well.

Thanks for your replies.

Right this is what I know; the brothers are very young and not neutered. They live together in their hutch and Hazel lives on his own in another hutch. They don't roam freely together at all. Hazel only goes out in the garden when the brothers are in the run. This is when Hazel attacks them and wont stop bothering them.

I’m pretty sure Hazel lives at the top of the garden and the brothers on the patio near the house so they are out of sight. I have suggested to my aunty to let Hazel become a house rabbit or let him roam free in the house but she said no because of the cats.

I totally agree with what you have said, I knew this was going to happen and have warned my aunty. I was slightly peed off when she said she would re-home Hazel and not the brothers but I am suspecting it’s because Hazel doesn’t get on with her Kids, he’s too rough for them. So he is my aunty’s rabbit. Again this is something I have told her several times, that they are not children’s pet. She just doesn’t listen to me simple as that. :evil:

She definitely couldn’t bond them herself as that would be disastrous – I definitely would forbid her doing that.:shock:

Anyway thanks for your help and I will try my best to help her out as usual.:roll:
Lessie

Oh dear! :? I'm sure your aunt wants what's best for the buns but it seems like she's a little uneducated in bunny behaviour.

I think for now, the best advice you can give her will be to cover the two buns and their hutch/run with a tarpualin/plastic groundsheet or block access to the patio when Hazel is in the garden. Hopefully, if he can't see them, he should be a little happier. She also needs to be aware that two unneutered males cannot be kept together without a very high risk of them falling out and hurting each other. Male buns can even castrate each other if they get wound up enough. :shock: Even if they are fine and seem happy now, they could well turn when they hit maturity.

I guess if she does want to rehome in the end, it might actually be better to let Hazel go as he's only going to take up one space in a rescue, rather than two. It's just my personal opinion that he should stay - From my point of view the last ones in should be the ones to go but that's not always the best solution.

I hope she'll be willing to take your advice