HELP - my two boy rabbits have fallen out? U/D fallen out again

I have four rabbits in two pairs, 2 males and one female and male. The are all neutered have been for about a year, they are now 1 year 4 months old.

The problem is with my two males. They have been together since 8 weeks old (not related) and have been the best of friends ever since. 2 weeks ago I moved back to my parents house and they have been in a hutch and run (they previously free ranged and got locked in an outhouse at night).

Yesterday I went to get them out their run and bring them into the garage for the night and there was fur all in the run....I though it was strange but thought there was just a squabble. When I put them in the garage I later heard scrabbling and again there was fur everywhere. They were doing the tail up running and kicking at each other and when I felt one of them he had a proper bite as in skin as well as fur came out.

I seperated them over night and tried again this morning but still fighting.

Now I am at a loss what to do....I can either try and make a trio and bond one of my males with the female and male and leave the male that seems to fight alot on his own. Or I can try and swap my pairs and put the male that fights alot with the female and put the other two males together.

Also does anyone think my two males will bond again or once the fighting starts is that it? One of my males is a bit of a fighter and he has had a couple of bad fights with one of my other males so do you think he will be best with my female?

personally I think they should bond again - try leaving just a few days (not long enough to totally forget each other), take for a drive if you can, then onto neutral territory as is startng from afresh -

I have had this same thing happen and then come together again fine.

Thanks for the reply...Phew there is hope then. Do you think its because they have moved house? One of my rabbits Rambo is really bad with biting...he bites people, cats etc and if he has a fight he bites really hard and takes flesh out as well as fur whereas the others seem to just bite fur. Thats why i worry about putting them back together in case he does any serious damage to Nom Nom. I will try and rebond tonight by taking them out in the car and rebonding in the bathroom. I really hope it works I dont have space for 3 seperate rabbits at my mums.

Rabbits can so easily be upset by changes but I don't think it is a good idea to separate your m/f pair. I hope you get them back together again but it might take time for them to settle in their new home.

Thanks I hope I can get them back together as well. My m/f pair get on well but the male tries to hump the female quite a lot and she gets quite upset and horrified by this! She will never allow him to hump her she wants to be the humper i think they both want to be dominant. So if I did a rejiggle on the pairs then I dont think it would be the end of the world as long as it works. Also if my naughty rabbit Rambo (he certainly lives up to his name!) keeps on attacking then my other three may go together as they all seem better behaved and dont fight quite like rambo. I will try my best at getting the boys back together though as I don't want to keep Rambo on his own unless its really necessary.

Rabbit relationships are mroe complicated than human ones I swear!

when i got home last night i put them back together in a room they havent been in. All went fine the usually humping and grooming. All seemed fine so I put them in the conservatory together where they have both previously been and they had tea together. All fine. I then moved them at bed time into their playpen and they started fighting again. I decided to put two litter trays in there to see if that was the problem but they were still fighting....

...is it a space issue? Is it because they are used to free ranging at home and are now confined?

Any other ideas on hpw to stop them fighting when in certain areas?

I would say that there was too much movement last night and you need to take things more slowly. Treat it as a new bond. They need to have limited space as neutral as you can get it for at least 24 hours. Did you try cleaning the area their playpen was in so it didn't really smell of either bun? My advice would be try it again when you have plenty of time and slow it down a bit. Good luck

thanks, yes I did clean the litter trays and disinfect and it seems to be when they are confined in an area they have already been in they fight but not if they are in neutral territory. I will try again tonight and let them in the lounge for a while again and try and take it slower this time and not try and rush things!

Good luck xx

Lady Logamorph said:

when i got home last night i put them back together in a room they havent been in. All went fine the usually humping and grooming. All seemed fine so I put them in the conservatory together where they have both previously been and they had tea together. All fine. I then moved them at bed time into their playpen and they started fighting again. I decided to put two litter trays in there to see if that was the problem but they were still fighting....

...is it a space issue? Is it because they are used to free ranging at home and are now confined?

Any other ideas on hpw to stop them fighting when in certain areas?

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Take them for a drive together, then put them in a completely different area where they have never been before and leave them there for a week or more before moving.

I have been trying to rebond my boys but one of them just feels threatened by the other one and keeps attacking him. I sat with them in the playpen in the garden with neutrel territory and he still went for him..tail was up straight away and when I tried to get hold of him I got bitten and he bit Nom Nom and I really struggled splitting them up...we both ended up bleeding. Rambo really does bite hard and do alot of damage when he's angry.

I have no idea what to do from here. Because I am living with my parents I don't have space for all of them seperated. I know by experience in the past that Rambo can do alot of damage to another rabbit as two of my males got out together and again I really struggled to split them. The other male was bitten all over and Rambo didnt have a mark on him.

I'm thinking of seeing if I can try and swap him or Nom Nom for a female at the local bunny sanctuary and when I get back into my own home (when I can get my ex out) if Rambo hasn't been rehomed I can bring him back with me then. Of course I am really reluctant to do this I love him to bits but I just cannot seem to fix the bond that the two boys had and from past experience with him if he has fought with someone he remembers it and will not bond with them.

Has anyone got any advice on this or what to do now?

Bump

Firstly get yourself a good thick pair of oven gloves - they are essential in bunny bonding, I'm sure you've learnt now but its not a good idea to try and seperate them with bare hand - it hurts.

How much space do they have? When I've bonded male/male I've normally found I've had to stay in a small bonding space for quite a while and space has had to be increased extreamly gradually to avoid anything kicking off.

Are the buns actively seeking each other out and locking on (biting) or is there just a lot of nipping going on?

thanks Amy but I have realised they are not going to bond again. They lock on and pull skin and fur out. One of them still has a bite from when they first fell out luckily its healing ok. I think its just to dangerous to try anymore with them both being males. I am going to attempt to bond my white male with my pair and keep Rambo on his own for a while. In time when I have the space I will try him with a girlfriend. I do feel sorry for my two boys on their own at the moment though they look so sad and lonely on their own

Sorry I can't offer any advice, just wanted to say I hope things settle down soon and you find a solution that suits everybody. It sounds so stressful, I really hope things work out well for you xx

If I was in your situation I would try placing them in pens right next to each other where they can see one another. This way they can't get to each other and have a fight but they can still communicate. See how they go for a few days, if they seem very stressed try covering up the partition so they can't see each other and they can calm down. I wouldn't give up completely, it just sounds like you have been doing things to quickly before their bond has settled down. They ideally need to be in neutral space together for a week or so and you only had them in your bedroom for a short time before moving them to another space and then to a hutch that wasn't neutral, this is where they started fighting again.
Obviously you know your bunnies more than anyone and if you really do feel that they will never bond again then do what you think is best. I would also advise not to try a trio with 2 males as that can spark fighting and it may jeopardise the bond between your doe and buck.

Hope you manage to get things settled down. x

thanks maybe in a few weeks I will try again I have been very stressed and im sure they have picked up on this because my other pair have been bickering quite a bit as well, i keep hearing bluebell grunting and growling at her husband alot! I am just worried that even if they get bonded again they may still fall out one day when I am not there and Rambo may kill Nom Nom. He is quite a viscous fighter and bites hard!

At last after nearly two months they are back together permanently!

I had to give them supervised time upstairs in the house and increased this each day, if they got aggressive at all...ie tails up I literally just put them back in their own houses. Eventually they were spending about 3 hours upstairs time a day. I then started letting them in the garden together and every time they got aggressive I locked them away. Eventually they realised that if they started to fight they got locked away so stopped doing it. They spent all saturday out in the garden together and no fights so on sat night I let them spend the night together and sunday morning I came out to two happy boy waiting for breakfast. So this is the first day they are out together in the garden while I'm at work.

So pleased they are back together again its been very stressful but time and patience (and lots of it) has paid off.

Great news are you back home now then?

Yes I am back in my own house now my dad helping me finish it then going to sell it. To many bad memories in that house Think I need a fresh start in the new year.