Bonded Rabbits fighting

Hi,
I'm new to this site, but desperately need advice on my bunnies. I apologies now for my long winded question.
We have three bunnies that are not yet 6 months old, we've had them since early March. They are all bucks and two are brothers.
We have bonded the three together - not without the odd teething problem, but all was going well. They have a very large hutch which they share with no problems & enjoy grooming, snuggling with each other.
During the day they have the full use of the garden & are only put back in at night time.
The other morning while letting them out i noticed the smaller of the three & the no related one, hiding in the back of the hutch, when he eventually hopped past me i was horrified to see his ear all bloodied and torn. I tried hard to catch him with no success and watched while the other two tried to chased him down. I had to leave the three of them out all day together while i was at work, i seriously thought i'd come home to a dead rabbit.
After 10 mins of looking i finally found him hiding under a bush in the garden, he allowed me to pick him up with very little fuss and i was able to have a proper look at his ear. We have separated them in the hutch, however i attempted to let them all out this morning, same thing happened the other two chased him down, this time i was able to get the injured bunny back in the hutch.
Will we have to keep them separated from now on? Or could we try re-bonding once the other rabbit has recovered? They are not neutered as i'm told this cant be done until they are 6 months.
Any advice welcome

Hi Sammielou

From what I understand, bucks can be neutered before 6 months of age and I think now is the time to call the vet...

They'll need to be kept separately until the hormones have died down after neutering (this can take up to a month or so), as it's not safe for your little bun to be with the other two. Only after this time should you attempt re-bonding (if that is indeed what you want to do).

Best wishes

I'm afraid whoever told you they cannot be neutered before 6 months isn't a very good rabbit vet, if it were me I would consider finding another more rabbit savvy vet.

Bucks can be neutered once their testicles drop at around 12 weeks old. My two were done a little after that but its still around 3 months or shortly after.

I can only echo what Beau said above, they need to be neutered and allowed to calm down hormone wise for around six weeks. During this time they should not be together.

Some of the aggression may be linked to frustration at being locked in a hutch, rabbits should never be locked in a hutch even overnight, the early hours of the morning and late evening are when rabbits have the most energy and want to be running around! They actually tend to sleep during the day!

Sadly now that they have fought there is a chance they will remember they fought before and they may never rebond, but that does not stop you from trying. I hope it all works out, your first step is obviously to get any injuries looked at and speak to a vet about getting them neutered.

Good luck x

Beau Belle said:

Hi Sammielou

From what I understand, bucks can be neutered before 6 months of age and I think now is the time to call the vet...

They'll need to be kept separately until the hormones have died down after neutering (this can take up to a month or so), as it's not safe for your little bun to be with the other two. Only after this time should you attempt re-bonding (if that is indeed what you want to do).

Best wishes

Click to expand...

Beau Belle

Thank you for your advice, spoken to the vet and they are all booked in for two weeks time. They have advised to keep them separated but have also said there is no guarantee that this will stop them from picking on the smaller bunny.
Can't say I'm looking forward to attempting to re-bond them after such a length of time apart, if i need to keep them separated up to a month afterwards.
It will be a sad day in my house if this doesn't work and we have to re-home one of them.
Thanks

Hi Sarah,
To be fair the advice was given to me by the rabbit breeder i got the rabbits from, not the vets. & it appears there is only one vet in my area that even does rabbit neutering!
I'm kicking myself, wishing i'd had them done sooner, all of this could have been avoided.
We were waiting until they were a bit older to let out all night, as i was afraid of predators trying to get them & they seemed to small.
They definitely are aware that they have fought, I'm hoping this memory may fade and allow for re-bonding.
Thanks for your advice

I am sorry your little buck was attacked but this is what male rabbits do, especially when unneutered. They will try to castrate one another and sometimes it is fatal. Having had them all neutered 3 months ago would not have guaranteed a happy trio but the 2 brothers may have remained friends.

If there are predators around and you would be lucky not to have any, then you can't leave your rabbits out at night, or even during the day if foxes are likely to enter your garden. They need to be enclosed in a safe predator-proof enclosure, or locked away otherwise foxes (if you are in UK) will almost certainly have them.

sammielou said:

Hi Sarah,
To be fair the advice was given to me by the rabbit breeder i got the rabbits from, not the vets. & it appears there is only one vet in my area that even does rabbit neutering!
I'm kicking myself, wishing i'd had them done sooner, all of this could have been avoided.
We were waiting until they were a bit older to let out all night, as i was afraid of predators trying to get them & they seemed to small.
They definitely are aware that they have fought, I'm hoping this memory may fade and allow for re-bonding.
Thanks for your advice

Click to expand...

Hope it works out once they have been neutered.

Reading your first post again, I am rather concerned that you leave your rabbits free in the garden all day and are considering doing so at night. Foxes are around both day and night ... and rabbits make easy pickings.

They would be much safer in a large hutch, with very large attached run, set on slabs (to prevent them digging out and predators from getting in) and then some free range time when you are able to be in the garden with them.

I would be very careful as our experience with bonding males even after they are neutered they will sometimes fight , we have tried 2 bonding's of males in the past both were Brothers and we had to split both pairs up as the fighting was getting serious and one of the neutered males I had to rush to the vet's . I find some even after being together for month's will eventually fight to the point of nearly killing each other. It can work and I'm sure there are members on her with bonded males and they do fine. This is only our opinion as we will not bond males together. Ideal is a spayed female and neutered male.

Neutering bucks can be done as soon as the testicles drop which is usually about 10-12 weeks but most vet's will wait till they are 4-5 months old. We usually get males neutered at 4 months old.

I would be also careful leaving the rabbit's out all day if you are at work as anything could happen.

I've put this on for you and hope it helps and there is a good article on this website about bonding.

http://cottontails-rescue.org.uk/health/neutering/

My two brothers, Frosty and Snowflake fought badly just after being neutered. I was advised to keep them separate (no sight, smell or sound of each other) for a few weeks until they forgot about the fight.

I re-introduced them in October 2013 and added two sisters (from a rescue up in Yorkshire, BARC). They are still all happily together. Frosty does chase everyone around at food time, especially his brother but they soon calm down and are often cuddled up together.

Hi hun all my rabbits are free ranging and have been their entire lives and they are fine, this caused some issues when I joined but if that's what you want to do fair play I think the rabbits lead a much more natural life rather than being cooped up in a run, I have three bucks who live together with three does, 2 of my bucks are father and son and the other is unrelated, they are all neutered and I have no issues with them living together, I also have 3 unrelated does who all live with the bucks and the 6 of them are really happy

Hi, Thanks for your kind words. Was starting to wonder if i was doing anything right, criticised for shutting them up at night, criticised for leaving them out all day!!! It had always been our intention to leave them free ranging, i wouldn't have got them if they had to be shut up all day.
As i said before they are all due to be "done" next week. The two brothers at the moment still seem to like each other & enjoy playing together. My smaller un-related bunny, has to spend his day shut up until i get home and than i switch them over for his time in the garden. Not ideal, but we want to try everything possible before to resolve the situation before we discuss re-homing. Im trying to remain optimistic!!!

hi and welcome, i also use to have free ranging rabbits and guinea pigs, this was about 20 years ago, we didn't have rabbits spayed or neutered in those days. glad we have that option now tho. i kept my bunnies and guinea pigs for many years with no problem. they all had access to houses spread around the garden. we were lucky that no fox ever got in. i do like to see them running around the garden and interacting with one and other. but i wouldn't do that now. i will let them out but only when i am there to watch over them. good luck, i hope you will be able to re-bond them. you could always send them to someone who will do the re-bonding for you.

:wave: Hi Sammielou,

I think its a parenting style thing Some parents are very protective, some parents want their kids to climb trees. The joys of free ranging bunnies is amazing I can't imagine the look of disgust if I tried putting Joey in an enclosure no matter how big & enriched it was, it would just feel mean because of what he is used to. So I take a few risks (no approach is risk free) - so they can have more fun & exercise. I don't think that makes us bad or irresponsible bunny mums.

I look at peoples set ups with kennels, runs & run around systems & I'm really impressed though. Its just not right for our bunny family - as mainly house buns we get the fun of interacting with them & in nice weather they are outside. Whereas they are supervised (I'm committed to staying in the house until they decide to come in), I am not watching them continually - a girls gotta use the loo & eat .

I can't advise on bonding but I really hope your bunnies work it out (nicely). Best of luck

where were you lovely people when I joined???!!! I had sooo much criticism for having free ranging rabbits when I joined but to me its what they deserve, I think I said the same thing I would rather not keep them if I had to shut them up or pen them in, I have had free ranging rabbits for years and not had any issues and I think its the right way to keep them, when you reintroduce them there will be some issues but they will be ok like I said I keep unrelated does and bucks together , in the beginning there are some scraps but they soon work it out, there is a member on here who put up a bonding video with bonding her doe and buck to another doe, its really good to watch ill find the link for you

here you go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7QOKF5lDXU

Rebonding is possible. It worked out for my two who are brothers. I kept a really close eye on them for fighting at the start. There was a bit of fur pulling and nipping at first but no major scraps, and they soon settled down and realized they actually liked each other.

But as others have said, sometimes it doesn't work out. You'll only know for sure though, by trying.