shazlew said:
you can replace a rabbits company as in the wild yes they live together but they will fight and they dont live all the time in each others space they dont pair for life which is what we as humans tend to force them into and cos they get along they must love each other right? i
It's often good to read up on the way wild rabbits interact.
They are very much like human beings, in that they like to be
around other rabbits, but that doesn't mean they choose to share their homes with all of them! :lol:
A rabbit warren is rather like an office block, with a lot of individuals living closely together in their own defined spaces, coming together socially in certain areas in their own way. This explains why many rabbits become territorial in their own hutches - it's not normal for any other rabbit to invade that space unless invited.
Like people, it is lovely to have bonded pairs, but for many of them, just being around other rabbits is enough. I think we would all like to be in close relationships with another person but also accept that it's not always possible for all of us to do that.
Wild rabbits too spend a great deal of time apart. Bucks and does come together for mating, and may stay together during the pregnancy and early nursing stages. But then the doe spends more and more time with her babies and usually ends up living with them, not the buck, who if he is a dominant male, may have more than one wife! It is also not every rabbit which gets to breed, and for many rabbits - bucks and does alike - they may spend their whole lives alone without a partner or ever having a litter, depending on their status within the colony.
A rabbit in the house with no other rabbits around accepts us as a surrogate burrow-partner, which may be more than it would have in a wild warren. So they can be perfectly happy with our company, if no other rabbits are around.
On the other hand, rabbits in hutches around other hutched rabbits also feel secure, as they have their own burrow in a large "warren" among others. Breeding rabbits are rarely in bonded pairs, but they can still be as content as those that aren't - they are in fact closer to the wild setup - and until neutered would not be able to form a close social partnership with another rabbit anyway (Those dratted hormones!). One only has to see a mother with her older babies to know she loves having them around, as they are her family, but you can be assured she would fight any other rabbit to the death if necessary who dared to come into her burrow, babies or no babies.
So as with many things in life, it's all a compromise, and the fact that our bunnies seem to do well in a variety of situations means that they are very compromising creatures once their very basic needs are met!