behaviour problems... advice desperately needed, please!

I have 3 buns just under 10 wks old (2 I think are boys and 1 I think is a girl when I attempted to sex them). They're all from the same litter and have been together all their lives. I adopted them from a co-worker of my OH about 2 wks ago when her bun had a surprise litter.

My buns have been getting along just fine with no fighting or anything until last night. Then one of my boys (Haru) started getting aggressive with the others right before my eyes he went from snuggling with them to chasing, humping and biting them! :? It didn't matter to him which direction he humped them from and when the other 2 (Kuro and Fuji) tried to get away, he'd bite them to make them stay! Thankfully I saw only a little fur pulled out and no bleeding or wounds, but he just kept getting more and more aggressive. I tried breaking them up for a while, but he just kept at it. :evil: I was worried he might really hurt K & F or F might retaliate and bite back especially when humped on the face and since I couldn't watch them all night, I put up a divider in the room they share so that they can still see, hear, smell each other, but they can't get to each other. H was also thumping at me and growling when I was put up the divider. He wasn't lunging at me, or trying to bite me and his ears were up so no true aggression towards me, just expressing his general displeasure. He's also been digging up the corner of the carpet like mad, and while I don't like it, I can deal with that.

During the night when I went to check on them several times, H was huddled as close to the bars as he could from his side and K & F were huddled together just a little bit away from him on their side. And I felt terrible for separating them since they clearly wanted to be together... This morning other than the digging H seems to have settled down quite a bit and I'm wondering if it would be okay to put him back with the others as long as I stay there with them.

Can anyone tell me what happened to him? Is it hormones? Isn't he a little young for that? If it is, will I have to keep him separated from the others until he gets neutered? Is it okay for me to put him back with the others under strict supervision or will that just escalate the problem?

Also how soon would I have to separate F (boy) & K (girl)? I was told that up till they're 6 months they'd be fine together, and at that point they should see a vet for chopping... but from everything I read on the forum that seem a little late for the boys?

Please help! I need advice desperately!

And sorry for the long post.

It sounds very much to me like hormones A little early, but very possible.

I would think about seperating them, until they are neutered and have them rebonded. The doe (female) is too young to spay yet, but the boys can be done from 10 weeks onwards, if their testicles are showing. Are you able to tell if they are, they look like 'furry teabags' and will be obvious if they have descended.

Hope this helps :wave:

I haven't seem any yet... and I'm not even sure he's a boy I tried sexing them myself...

I have an appointment with a vet on Monday to take them all in for check-up, vaccines, properly sexed and talk about neutering. I was just wondering what to do in the meanwhile since it breaks my heart to see them huddled near the bars looking at me with those big eyes asking me to let them be together again!

10 weeks is usually when you need to separate - 6 months is much too late! Boys can be neutered as soon as their testicles drop - if this has happened you should be able to see the testicles each side of the base of the tail if you look underneath. If the boys are ready for neutering then you might be able to get them both done at once and keep all three together. Otherwise you'll need to split of the girl in the next week.

Unneutered boys kept together, particularly with a girl present, wi;; almost always fight. They are establishing who is in charge of the territory. You did the right thing seperating them as rabbit fights can results in nasty injuries. Hopefully after neutering you'll be able ll get them back together but it's not 100% guarantee. Sometimes they still fight.

Thanks for the advice. You have set my mind at ease quite a bit. :wave:

I have an appointment to take them all to the vets Monday morning and will get them properly sexed then. And then if I was right on my sexing of them I'll need to figure out the proper living arrangements since I still want them to share the same room and be able to see/hear/smell each other.

It's only 1 of my boys doing the humping and getting aggressive, and he does try to hump both of them. So would I need to separate all 3 of them? Would separating my girl away from the 2 boys calm him down enough that I wouldn't have to worry about him hurting my other boy? Or does that depend on the bun?

Once the hormones have kicked in then even removing the girl will probably not stop the behaviour without also neutering. The trouble is if you put them in together and they have a big fight, the odds of getting them back together after neutering also decreases.

Took them all to the vets yesterday and got their myxi vacs too. Apparently I have all boys

Vets suggested I wait another 6 wks or so to get H neutered unless his behavior gets worse and we'll see when K and F drop and then get them neutered too. So for now, only H needs to be separated. At least that's one less concern.

Thanks for all the helpful advice. :wave: I'll likely repost here a few months down the road when I'll be rebonding them.