Bunnies fighting.

We have 2 mini lops aged 6months, Winston was neutered at 13 weeks and Lily, his sister, was spayed 2 weeks ago. Since Lilys op we have kept them separate but with hutches touching and the same for their gardens runs. All was going well until tonight when we put them in their garden run together, after 10 mins the fur was flying literally. I managed to separate them and was advised to try them in a neutral place which I did, cuddle them both together which I did for 20 mins and all seemed to be well however within 15 minutes of putting them back in together they were fighting again! Should I keep them apart and try and reintroduce gradually or just keep them apart. They were cleaning and cuddling fine before the fighting starting and were always great together.

As they've been separate, you need to treat it like two completely unrelated rabbits that have never met. I'd wait a bit longer as it can take awhile for the hormones to go down. Then introduce them gradually somewhere completely neutral.

If your little girly was only spayed 2 weeks ago she will still have all of her hormones in her body as I believe it takes up to 8 weeks for them to fade fully.

If I were you I would keep them separate but able to see/smell each other for a few more weeks as you have been doing already, then start the bonding process.

Everything has to be neutral.

Things can be neutralised with white wine vinegar if need be and don't try putting them back in either of their territories for a few days if possible and neutralise the area first. There is loads of info in the bonding sticky which really explains how to go about it.


Edit. Tamsin beat me to it!!! But I've just noticed that you are new. Hello and welcome :wave:

Thanks for all your comments. I've tried them today in their garden run, with a mesh divide to start with. after 30 apart I've put them in together, all appears well for 10 mins with lily sniffing and nuzzling up to Winston then he appears to be trying to mount her and then she turns on him. I've been doing this on and off throughout the day always with the same result. Sorry if I'm so uninformed but we've never had pets before.

I personally would wait as others have said. She will still smell like an unspayed doe and even though your buck is castrated he will still want to mount her. She will still be raging with hormones and so will be grumpy and moody. When they have calmed down you need to bond them on completely neutral territory (a place no bunny as ever been before) either that or in a space that has been neutralised using disinfectant, or even better, vinegar.
You also need to do the bond in a small space so that they have less territory to fight over and so they can't ignore each other.
You need to do this either as "dating", so they meet each other everyday for longer and longer periods or they go together for a few weeks completely supervised all the time. I bonded my bunnies in a small pen in a neutral space (my conservatory) and took a week off work to supervise. I kept them together all day and made sure there was no fighting and separated on a night to give them both a break.
If your bunnies continue to fight (drawing blood and hurting one another) they may not be able to be bonded back together. Remember bunnies will pull fur, chase and hump each other when bonding. You will know when it's a proper fight as it's noisy and very scary (I haven't witnessed one but I've been told).

I'm no expert but I hope this helps a little. x