Help! bonded pair started fighting last night. UPDATE

Hi, Sorry this may be long!

I have a bonded pair, male neutered, female intact. Our female is nearly 8 months old and we had booked her in for neutering at 6 months, but unfortunately our vet was taken ill that day so he could not do the operation. Since then we have moved house so were unable to take her in and were planning to book her in ASAP.
They have been bonded since babies and have always got on very well, however last night they started fighting. Our female Sophie was chasing the male George round the cage and trying to hump him. He was having none of it so they started fighting. We whisked George straight out of the cage, and luckily we have a spare outdoor hutch, so he is in that (indoors) now. Luckily there were no serious injuries.
I dont really know what to do now. Obviously we will book sophie in to be neutred ASAP as planned, but what will happen to their bond. Should we keep them in separate hutches in the same room or different rooms?when is appropriate to try and re-bod them, and how succesful do people think this will be?I just dont know what to do, im so upset that this has happened, and dont know what to do for the best.
Any help/advice much appreciated.

Hello
I was in the same position as you last week,i have a 13 month old neutered male and he had been with his wife for 6 months,she was 8 months last week and started chasing Norman and made a nest and started pulling his fur out to line the nest,he got cross with her and there was a lot of chasing.I rang the vet and explained what was happening.They said to bring my female in to be neutered,which they were able to do two days later.She had her op on Wednesday.I kept an eye on them both indoors and she was fine,and the op went well and they are cuddling and washing each other as i have brought them inside.I had a female rabbit years ago that would get grumpy and it was because she was at the age that she needed to be done.Was it chasing or fighting?I am sure someone on here will be able to advise you,good luck

Jackie

Definetely think the seperation is a good idea however they need to still see eachother otherwise they will completely lose the bond and it will be harder to reintroduce them. I had a very aggressive female rabbit, some are really hormonal she went through a stage of humpiing everything. Id have her done asap and let her settle down before trying to reintroduce them in a neutral space. It takes weeks/months for the hormones to calm down post op too. I find when joey trys to hump saffron i say 'no' and bang the floor, he knows that means he's in trouble. Usually it works!! I had did have a neutered male with joey but he became very aggressive and i had to rehome him with my sister. I hope they sort themselves out

sometimes humping is a sign of dominance so shouldnt always be stopped. Zola humps Wispa a lot (both are done) and she lets him or runs away. if it causes a fight then fair enough it should be stopped. Definately get your girlie done, Wispa calmed down almost immediately after getting spayed

It had definately turned into a fight, George has a cut on his ear poor guy!
So the general consensus is to keep them separate but in the same room? and to rebond them about 2 weeks after her spay?is that right. Will i need to monitor them over a long period when first rebonding?
Thanks!

Id echo what the others say. Keep them together but seperate ie if they sleep in cages then cages next to each other swap their trays over etc so they can see and smell each other until your girly has had and recovered from her op. Then reintroduce in a neutral space and see how it goes. You might get a bit of chasing whilst they sort the order out so you could always give them a bit of time out by putting one in a cage for a bit or overnight and leaving the other etc and swap but post op after a day or 2 I bet you have no problems then whatsoever!

Reading this has been really useful for me too I have just posted a question under New Rexes with a similar issue post birth. I really did not want to get Sniff spayed, but it sounds like it could be a good solution once she has weaned her kittens - good luck with the rebonding.

Elena

Well shes all booked in for tomorrow to be spayed.
Any more tips on re bonding afterwards?
Thanks for all your help so far!

Stella was the same - Bud was neutered, I bonded them, then she bacme a naughty little madam and was pouncing, growling etc. I had booked her in to be done but she made a nest the night before and the vet didnt want to risk it (silly me bonded them 2 weeks after his op, not knowing that they can still be fertile ). Anyway, it was a phantom pregnancy :roll: and she was done a month later. I kept them apart to stop the fighting but they could always see each other, and at night I put their hutches close together, facing each other, they would sniff at each other through the wire!!! Swapping hutches is also a good idea, so they can smell each other properly and don't get moody about parts of the hutch belonging to them (its good to share!!!). Also, if you stroke one, wear a soft glove, then let the other sniff at it for a while. Bud used to lie on it when I had touched Stella!!!

I put them back together and everything was fine - they love each other now - do still occasionally have a disagreement, but then don't all couples!!!!! And its never fighting, more like, 'get off that carrot - it's mine' and maybe a little nudge!!!

Hi All,

Thanks for the previous advice!

Sophie was spayed just over a week ago. I let her settle for the first few days, then started letting her and my male george back out together. She is fine at first but then starts to become very aggressive with him. At first i thought it was territorial as it was in 'her' hutch, so i started swapping them every few days, they were fine for short periods then she started chasing him so we put them back (taking small steps!:roll. However last night she was aggresive with him from the start and george has now started to chase her back, through frustration i think. As she still has her spay wound i stop every chase/fight immediately so she doesnt hurt herself.

Im so upset about all this as they were so well bonded before. Do you think im just trying to rush it as she was only spayed just over a week ago?or is there something else i should be doing? This is such a horrible situation that is keeping me up at night! Unfortunately we simply do not have the room to keep 2 separate rabbits, so we may have to consider rehoming one . Plus i would not want them to be single forever if there is the chance of finding them each another friend and i dont have the time to properly care for 4 rabbits.

Any help on this is much appreciated. Thanks

I would have kept them apart for at least 2 weeks post spay to give her wound time to heal, but that's just my preference and I'm aware that others may have had a different experience. She'll also still be territorial about her hutch. When you put them together again is there anywhere neutral that you can put them? The bathroom is a good place(easy to clean!!)

Ok so i will keep them apart until its been 2 weeks and shes calmed down. Any advice on rebonding after a fight?