My 2 girls turned out to be 2 boys, were fighting, had them neutered 5 wks ago. Reintroduced after 2 wks, fighting again (quite viscious) had to be seperated. Waited til now, reintroduced a couple of days ado. Spent about 30 mins fighting/playing - not nearly as viscious as before (or would have split them up), my partner said this was probably them just getting used to one another again and finding out who was boss. I've let them out together in garden twice since and seem to be pretty much stayin at opposite ends of garden, away from 1 another. Took them into house together tonight. 1 seems scared of other. Tried to keep away, kept running/moving away frm other 1. Seemed to me like other one jst wanted to play, but I wasnt sure, but then they came nose to nose, had a sniff, and the 1 who wasnt scared scraped the ground with his front paws and sprayed some urine backwards. Is this aggresive behaviour? At times the 1 who seemed scared thumped his back feet on the floor quite hard. Does any1 have any idea what all of this means? I am hoping to reintroduce them to share a hutch and run (they did when they were babies, they are brothers) and don't know if this is encouraging behaviour or the best route to take to encourage them to be friends again with an aim to living together? Any advice would be appreciated because I have never kept rabbits before, but I really love them and don't want to be upsetting them or to have to consider giving one away.
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Reintroducing 2 boys after neutering
- Thread starter lucyj
- Start date
I now have 2 bonded foursomes - with 2 boys in each group. (One is a new bonding - so keeping an eye out)
The boys in each group are unrelated, but one is "boss" & one is submissive. All are neutered
I think if they've already had a serious fight, they may never get on. I'd be very wary of trying to keep them together. Also if one is in charge, it may be that the submissive one can never really "develop" his personality. I'm happy with my old-bonded foursome as Joey the submissive one is very-human friendly & I've seen him getting groomed by the Boss-man
. They're in a big enough space to get away from each other if necessary (not in hutches) & there's no dead-ends. The new-bonding, I'm still watching. I've had Flint (the submissive boy) a while, if his behaviour changes, I'll separate the foursome into their pairs again. He's actually ok with the other boy, but is a bit shy around my female rex!!
It's possible that they are still hormonal. My Cracker was humping everything for at least 8 weeks after his neuter.
You might be better getting 2 spayed girlies for them. (This is how I got 12!! :lol: )
The boys in each group are unrelated, but one is "boss" & one is submissive. All are neutered
I think if they've already had a serious fight, they may never get on. I'd be very wary of trying to keep them together. Also if one is in charge, it may be that the submissive one can never really "develop" his personality. I'm happy with my old-bonded foursome as Joey the submissive one is very-human friendly & I've seen him getting groomed by the Boss-man
. They're in a big enough space to get away from each other if necessary (not in hutches) & there's no dead-ends. The new-bonding, I'm still watching. I've had Flint (the submissive boy) a while, if his behaviour changes, I'll separate the foursome into their pairs again. He's actually ok with the other boy, but is a bit shy around my female rex!!It's possible that they are still hormonal. My Cracker was humping everything for at least 8 weeks after his neuter.
You might be better getting 2 spayed girlies for them. (This is how I got 12!! :lol: )
I'd love to but..
We share a communal garden and there I don't think the neighbours'd appreciate us taking up so much space, hence the reason I'm so keen to get them back together,as we don't really have the room for 2 big hutches. Also I think it'll be better for them as they do seem lonely without the other. Harly (the one who is scared) has seemed bored the last couple of weeks, and very quiet compared to usual. They had a serious fight before they were even neutered, took them for their vaccinations, found out they were boys, vet says come back in 2 wks get neutered, after 1 week I came home from shopping and Harly has a huge cut on his head. When they were in getting neutered ended up getting about 10 stitches in it. When they were together a couple of days ago they were huddlin up and there was fur pulled, jumping over one anothers backs etc but this seemed more like play fighting to me. They still seem to be interested in one another, but I don't want to stress Harly out by forcing them together if he is going to be unhappy with this. I kept Harly in the hutch and run that they are hopefully both to live in, as he is the less dominant one, but I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing. Someone has told me I should now swap them over so scents get mingled. I was hoping that if I kept putting them together and letting them spend time together they would get used to one another, but what does the spraying mean?? Please help any advice would be appreciated??If they can't get on I will have to consider rehoming 1 and then the other will be by themselves and I work so will probably get lonely, and I really don't want to have to give 1 away as I love them both.
We share a communal garden and there I don't think the neighbours'd appreciate us taking up so much space, hence the reason I'm so keen to get them back together,as we don't really have the room for 2 big hutches. Also I think it'll be better for them as they do seem lonely without the other. Harly (the one who is scared) has seemed bored the last couple of weeks, and very quiet compared to usual. They had a serious fight before they were even neutered, took them for their vaccinations, found out they were boys, vet says come back in 2 wks get neutered, after 1 week I came home from shopping and Harly has a huge cut on his head. When they were in getting neutered ended up getting about 10 stitches in it. When they were together a couple of days ago they were huddlin up and there was fur pulled, jumping over one anothers backs etc but this seemed more like play fighting to me. They still seem to be interested in one another, but I don't want to stress Harly out by forcing them together if he is going to be unhappy with this. I kept Harly in the hutch and run that they are hopefully both to live in, as he is the less dominant one, but I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing. Someone has told me I should now swap them over so scents get mingled. I was hoping that if I kept putting them together and letting them spend time together they would get used to one another, but what does the spraying mean?? Please help any advice would be appreciated??If they can't get on I will have to consider rehoming 1 and then the other will be by themselves and I work so will probably get lonely, and I really don't want to have to give 1 away as I love them both.
I think the spraying is a showing-who's -masculine thing. unneutered buns do it. If I'm bonding, i do the swappping over homes thing to get them used to each other's scent. I have never tried a bonding where someone has drawn blood though. i should imagine that if one of them is getting hurt/scared, they can't be happy & will just get more & more stressed until someone gets seriously injured/killed
Sometimes you can drive around with them both in a pet carrier. The stress of the journey may make them huddle up - or alternatively the close proximaty to who they hate, may make them fight more?
You could try approaching a Rescue? maybe they could attempt the bonding for you? Or alternatively they could maybe take one of your buns & give you a spayed female in return? Male/female pairings are often the best.
i've only ever seen 1 bunny fight. I've gone out of my way to make sure those two buns never see each other again!
Sometimes you can drive around with them both in a pet carrier. The stress of the journey may make them huddle up - or alternatively the close proximaty to who they hate, may make them fight more?
You could try approaching a Rescue? maybe they could attempt the bonding for you? Or alternatively they could maybe take one of your buns & give you a spayed female in return? Male/female pairings are often the best.
i've only ever seen 1 bunny fight. I've gone out of my way to make sure those two buns never see each other again!
jay
Mama Doe
Whilst this would seem a harsh options and heartbreaking to give away one of your buns if bonding doesn't work and you really can't give them the room they need to live separatly then it would be kinder to your buns to do this. Don't feel like you've failed - in the shorter term rescues will do this - try one bun with your own and if the pairing doesn't work out try a different bun. At the end of the day the bunnies happiness has to come first.
You could always have one bun as a house bun and the other as a hutch bun and get a girlfriend for each - although this is how many people on here have ended up with bunnies taking over their lives completly!! :lol:
Lucy, If you can't find anyone who can help, this might be of use:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=10221&highlight=bonding
The most important point when bonding seems to be neutral territory, perhaps you could try them in a room in your house they both haven't been before? Also do not be afraid of fur pulling and humping etc.
This is a nice story:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=24058&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=10221&highlight=bonding
The most important point when bonding seems to be neutral territory, perhaps you could try them in a room in your house they both haven't been before? Also do not be afraid of fur pulling and humping etc.
This is a nice story:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=24058&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
