how likely is a bond to break?

[Oscarandlola]

Hey guys,

For those who read my previous post on bonding you will be happy to know that oscar and lola appear to be getting on much better....snuggling and sharing and no nipping on oscars bum. For those off you who dont here is a quick re-cap. I bought my first rabbit on sataday, a 9 week old female rabbit called oscar ( yes i know she has a boys name). After much consideration and reading up alot i thought i should get her a friend and rang pets at home to see if they had any of Oscars sisters left and they had one. I got oscars sister 'Lola' . but loal became very dominating and chased oscar and nipped her bum abit. I rang pets at home yesterday and they told me it was normal and to give it more time, glad i did as at the moment it seems to be going great between them.

My question is.....Is it actually likely for a bond to break? After reading through this forum it seems almost like its 90% chance which worries me. I know people will only post when something is wrong and will not be likely to post to just say ' My rabbits are still bonded'. But is it likely that lola and oscar will start fighting? or is it actually quite uncommon for sisters who have been together from a young age too? i will get them spayed when they are old enough. Just seems weird that everybody recommends they have a friend and pets at home really push to sell them in pairs and then they seem not get on and people have to get seperate cages etc etc .

Any info would be much appreciated

 

[Sky-O]

It is highly likely a bond formed of unspayed or unneutered rabbits will fail. For stable spayed and neutered adults this risk decreases greatly and any bond will break due to a much less common reason. The reason that bonds with unspayed or unneutered rabbits normally break is to do with hormones and the unnatural way humans keep rabbits. Remove those hormones and the reasons are normally ill health or a change in circumstances in some way

 

[Oscarandlola]

If this is the case though, why do pet shops want to sell them as pairs soo badly? and on top of that they dont even mention about gattin them spayed. if you went in wanting a rabbit for your child they would promote you get two.....and you would be left not knowing that by the time the rbbits are probably 16+weeks they will start fighting etc etc.

 

[GrahamL]

If this is the case though, why do pet shops want to sell them as pairs soo badly? and on top of that they dont even mention about gattin them spayed. if you went in wanting a rabbit for your child they would promote you get two.....and you would be left not knowing that by the time the rbbits are probably 16+weeks they will start fighting etc etc.

Because as a rule, pet shops couldn't give two hoots about the actual welfare of the rabbit. They are in this as a business. They are in this to make money. Once the rabbit has been purchased, money has changed hands, they have no involvement. They do not care.

Rabbits are social, so its right that they say to have two, but again, to them, that's because they get 2x £rabbit cost or perhaps 1.5x £rabbit cost if they have a 'deal on more than 1 cute fluffy bunny!'.

They are under no obligation to inform you of the fact that if they are male/female, they could breed from 16+ weeks. They could fight if 2x males/2x females 1xmale/1x female from 12-16+ weeks when the hormones kick in. Unfortunately, tehre are no laws in the UK regarding rabbit welfare, except blatent cruelty. That's something many animal charities are trying to change right now.

Rabbits should be neutered/spayed to allow them to be themselves, rather than be controlled by their hormones, which causes mating behaviour and extreme territorialism. No more babies would be brought into the world to add to the already 35,000 in rescues across the UK.

The bolded part in my quote is bolded, as my post, is EXACTLY why rabbits shuold not be bought 'for children' they should be for children to learn about, respect and understand. The parents are required to be the responsible ones.

 

[Sky-O]

What Gray said. The majority of people working in pet shops do not have the knowledge of the folk here, do not have to pick up the pieces like the folk here, wouldn't be there to help for the rest of an animals life like folk here, or are really putting the needs of the animals first like folk here. They might care but primarily it's about their customers and customer service, not rabbit welfare. If it was about rabbit welfare they would do home checks and stuff.