Not sure if aggressive

Hi all!

I'm new to the forums so if I'm asking a question someone else has before please direct me there

So in early December my rabbit Bubbles escaped. She was left with a friend who was house sitting while I went away. Needless to say I was devastated Luckily for me I had her desexed and chipped, so when I got the call from the vets I was very surprised and overjoyed (I live in an area where there are a LOT of snakes). A local family had found her roaming around in their backyard, took her in and took her into the vets to clip her nails because she refuses to be flipped on her back. That's when the vets called me. I was so overjoyed to see her, but now I have a problem. Literally the week before I got the call I had just purchased another female bun whom I have named Marshmallow.

Bubbles isn't the most friendly of rabbits but is desexed and 1 year old and Marshmallow is still a baby at 10 weeks old. Now they are housed separately but next to each other as I don't want to put them in the same one until Marshmallow is 7 months old because my vet doesn't desex til 6 months and I want 1 month for the hormones to settle.

They have however been introduced 3 times on neutral territory. This is where my dilemma begins. Everything indicates to me that they like each other. They hop around sniff each other and eat. They will even clean themselves. But for whatever reason Marshmallow randomly dives under Bubbles lies down flat and bubbles appears to groom her. Her tail is down, ears are up and shes seems happy enough. But it's impossible to stop bubbles from grooming her even when she starts nibbling at marshmallows eye or ears which clearly hurts her. Marshmallow flinches and hits bubbles chin which upsets bubbles... And then they start all over again. But if you pull them apart they run straight back to it. I don't understand. Bubbles is a very dominate rabbit who is food aggressive and just generally a grump (except when its treat time) and marshmallow is inquisitive and licks me non stop but is still a baby but has no hormones influencing her yet.

Long story short, what i would really like to know is if bubbles being friendly or aggressive.

Any help is appreciated!

During bonding my bunny skye with my bunny Pepsi she is making this noise we looked it up and it is called wheeking but that's what guinea pigs do but I don't know what it means

Sounds like shes asking to be groomed? and your bun is obliging

TheBinkyBunny said:

During bonding my bunny skye with my bunny Pepsi she is making this noise we looked it up and it is called wheeking but that's what guinea pigs do but I don't know what it means

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If your bunny is making any vocalized noise I would be worried. Is Skye being bitten at all by Pepsi? As far as I know, rabbits only make noises like a guinea pig wheeking if they are very very scared or hurt. That's known as squealing and is very bad. Is Skye injured?

R.P.B.G.G said:

Sounds like shes asking to be groomed? and your bun is obliging

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That's what I originally thought, but Bubbles gets so rough with her nibbling I'm afraid she might hurt her and ruin the good thing they seem to have going I spose it could just me under estimating how much Marshmallow can take I would just hate to have either one of them hurt the other

Our boy Bobo was bonded with our lady Harley in January - she grooms him beautifully but he hasn't got a clue and just nibbles at her...when she has had enough she just moves away. Sounds like Bubbles is just being over-enthusiastic about it but as long as Marshmallow can move away I'd let them get on with it.

Our Harley squeals after she has had a brushing (she is quite hairy:roll - and she hates it! Just loathes and detests being brushed - it's only time I hear her making a noise and it's only because she is so thoroughly fed-up - squeals and has a good thump to show me her dis-pleasure.

pixiepink said:

If your bunny is making any vocalized noise I would be worried. Is Skye being bitten at all by Pepsi? As far as I know, rabbits only make noises like a guinea pig wheeking if they are very very scared or hurt. That's known as squealing and is very bad. Is Skye injured?

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she is not being bitten but when pepsi grooms her he does it quite rough and when she grooms him she does it gentle

Fellie said:

Our boy Bobo was bonded with our lady Harley in January - she grooms him beautifully but he hasn't got a clue and just nibbles at her...when she has had enough she just moves away. Sounds like Bubbles is just being over-enthusiastic about it but as long as Marshmallow can move away I'd let them get on with it.

Our Harley squeals after she has had a brushing (she is quite hairy:roll - and she hates it! Just loathes and detests being brushed - it's only time I hear her making a noise and it's only because she is so thoroughly fed-up - squeals and has a good thump to show me her dis-pleasure.

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Thank you for your help! I let them go today without interfering. Marshmallow seemed to be very happy being groomed.. YAY I am so happy to see them get along, because I had attempted to pair Bubbles with a neutered male before she was MIA.. But she wasn't having any of that

The only thing that I noticed was that Bubbles kept digging at Marshmallows face and would chase Marshmallow around if she ran away. She REALLY wanted to groom Marshmallow. Not sure if she is just clueless because of her lack of exposure to other rabbits or if she is trying to show dominance? Which is weird because the licking order says Bubbles is making Marshmallow dominate?? :\ I left it to them to sort out, but Bubbles claws are getting a bit long again so I better fix that up again if I want them to hang out some more

She absolutely hates having her claws clipped so I will have to take her to the vets again to get it done.
She will outright attack you now if you come near her with the clippers, followed by a few thumps, some growling and lunging and foot flicks but she has never squealed as far as I know! I thought squealing was reserved for life threatening or near death experiences :shock:?? It makes me laugh that rabbits can have no idea how to interact with their own kind sometimes though :lol: