Hi! We have Oreo and Effie, sisters from the same litter. We got them at 8 weeks old and they used to groom each other and get along well. Pretty soon Oreo started humping Effie and we quickly checked that they were in fact both girls. Luckily they were!
The humping got more aggressive though and Effie would fight back and try to hump Oreo. In fact, eventually Effie was the one getting her way and Oreo seemed nervous to approach the food bowl when she was eating there. We put it down to hormones and got them both spayed as soon as they turned 6 months old. We kept them separate for a week or two after the operation to make sure they healed OK but since then they still can't get on.
They are house bunnies and we'd like them to have constant run of the house together, but we've been having to keep one in the office and swap them every half day so it's fair. Whenever they saw each other they would immediately fight, it was a scary thing to see. They would both be scratching at each other and taking tufts of fur out, and both end up with scabs on their backs. It is still the case that Oreo gets easily spooked by Effie and all Effie has to do is come up to her and Oreo will make a little 'growl' (?) sound, run away and stamp her foot.
The last two days we've been trying something my partner found on the internet. We've brought the run indoors and put towels down under it. The girls are in there together and every time we see Effie attack Oreo we squirt her with a water pistol. It's a weak little toy, and we squirt just enough to startle her, not trying to get them wet as i know that's not healthy. They fought viciously when they were first put in and the squirting didn't seem to be noticed. After a while (maybe because our aim got better?) Effie did stop when the water hit her head. They were there overnight with a barrier between so they couldn't fight.
Today I've barely used the pistol at all as it seems Effie isn't really doing much for Oreo to get upset and run away, and it isn't fair to punish her for that. They are mostly keeping to their own sides of the run now. I did see Effie licking Oreo's head a bit but after a pause Oreo ran away again.
Any advice? Am I on the road to recovery or am I reading it wrong? If this doesn't work I don't know what to do. Thank you!
The humping got more aggressive though and Effie would fight back and try to hump Oreo. In fact, eventually Effie was the one getting her way and Oreo seemed nervous to approach the food bowl when she was eating there. We put it down to hormones and got them both spayed as soon as they turned 6 months old. We kept them separate for a week or two after the operation to make sure they healed OK but since then they still can't get on.
They are house bunnies and we'd like them to have constant run of the house together, but we've been having to keep one in the office and swap them every half day so it's fair. Whenever they saw each other they would immediately fight, it was a scary thing to see. They would both be scratching at each other and taking tufts of fur out, and both end up with scabs on their backs. It is still the case that Oreo gets easily spooked by Effie and all Effie has to do is come up to her and Oreo will make a little 'growl' (?) sound, run away and stamp her foot.
The last two days we've been trying something my partner found on the internet. We've brought the run indoors and put towels down under it. The girls are in there together and every time we see Effie attack Oreo we squirt her with a water pistol. It's a weak little toy, and we squirt just enough to startle her, not trying to get them wet as i know that's not healthy. They fought viciously when they were first put in and the squirting didn't seem to be noticed. After a while (maybe because our aim got better?) Effie did stop when the water hit her head. They were there overnight with a barrier between so they couldn't fight.
Today I've barely used the pistol at all as it seems Effie isn't really doing much for Oreo to get upset and run away, and it isn't fair to punish her for that. They are mostly keeping to their own sides of the run now. I did see Effie licking Oreo's head a bit but after a pause Oreo ran away again.
Any advice? Am I on the road to recovery or am I reading it wrong? If this doesn't work I don't know what to do. Thank you!