Two sisters fighting - advice please?

[bickers]

Hi, I am currently fostering two beautiful sister bunnies, around 5 months old now.

Both unneutered, charity has not yet had them done. One had to go to the vets on Friday for a procedure which involved staying overnight. She came back yesterday, I put her back in the hutch with her sister but found her cowering downstairs when I went to check on them about 7.30pm. Her sister had been pulling chunks of her hair out, and I later saw her sister chasing her around the run.

I separated them, as I didn't want the one who'd been to the vets being put under any more worry as she'd had quite an invasive procedure and is on meds for 5 days and I didn't want to risk her being harmed too.

Can I/should I put them back together? What is going on - has the other one taken on some kind of dominance with the sister being away for the night? Is it being unneutered that has triggered this? Would it calm down if charity neutered them both?

Any advice much appreciated, they did have a nice bond, cosied up together.

Many thanks.

 

[Shimmer]

I would keep them separate now, until they are neutered. They are getting to be adolescents, so hormonal behaviour will just increase.

The one who went to the vet has come back smelling different, so isn't recognised by her sister - hence the fighting. Her sister will also recognise some change / weakness in her, and is also reacting to that. I wouldn't risk them together again until they are neutered, although they may be Ok with a mesh divider (as long as they can't access each other any other way). The one on meds needs time to recover and doesn't need the additional stress of being beaten up.

You may be able to rebond them when they are both neutered and have recovered from the operation. They also need a few weeks after for their hormones to settle down before they are re-introduced. Any fighting in the meantime is a bad sign for a future stable bond, so keep them separate for the best chance of rebonding later. I do find that girls are harder to bond than boys in general, and a male / female bond is usually recommended, again after neutering and hormones have settled.

 

[Preitler]

Imho it helps when intact does (I have 2 pairs of that) have a structured space, with ways to get away from each other, out of sight, and with no dead ends.

It depends on their characters if they get along long term, siblings or not, puberty can be a difficult time. But even a less then perfect match can work if the circumstances are right. Unlike bucks does have several escalation steps when sorting out their hierachy, evil eye, humping, short bursts of chasing (more shooing the other away), pulling fluffs of fur, chasing in earnest and full out fight. Bucks tend to go to fight mode pretty spontaniuously.

Your situation doesn't sound optimal, a hutch needs to big. My pairs have two hutches each (each 2-3m wide), connected by a tunnel. There are several shelfs, levels, and hidey houses (2 openings min!) and hay racks. They spend half of the day outside too.
If the doe can't get out of sight the dominant one can see this as an affront and things can escalate to injuries or to the point where future bonding or at least settling the dispute might be impossible. That can happen too if the characters are not compatible.

 

[bickers]

Thank you so much for the advice, it is much appreciated.