bond broken????

My male was in the vets for just over 2 days, leaving his bonded girl at home (due to his illness the vets would not let his partner stay with him). He was brought home yesterday and at first my girl was a little off with him and if he went near her she would lunge at him, but wouldn’t touch him. after an hour of supervision they were grooming and lying together.

During the night I heard banging and a scream, I found both rabbits fighting, the males fur was everywhere! And I’ve got a few battle scars from separating them. I separated them for the night as I didn’t want either injured.

This morning hoping they had calmed down I let them have breakfast together and they were getting on just fine. My male then went over to the female to get a fuss, and she started to attack him and it broke out into another fight.

Will I need to start the bond from scratch? And could her aggression be due to the fact that he smells different (from being at the vets)?

It will be exactly that, he smells wrong to her.

I would go for a quick reset of the bond. Get them both in a carrier, quick car journey, then bring them home, put them together in a small, if possible, neutral area and see how it gets on. Effectively, doing the bond from scratch but it may not take so long due to them already 'knowing' each other so to speak.

I would suggest you go about rebonding them in the normal way.

However, I would think about the timing of this. You don't say what your male was at the vets for, and if he is now 'weaker' from his illness she may also be sensing this and it's knocking her off balance. Bunnies can sometimes (not always) pick on the weaker one.

It may also be due to him smelling different, but I have never found this to be a particular problem.

Good luck. I'm sure you can get their relationship back on track ...

Oh no, what a calamity..

With the advice above I hope you get things sorted..

Best of luck

Fee x