rebonding sisters

Hi! We have Oreo and Effie, sisters from the same litter. We got them at 8 weeks old and they used to groom each other and get along well. Pretty soon Oreo started humping Effie and we quickly checked that they were in fact both girls. Luckily they were!

The humping got more aggressive though and Effie would fight back and try to hump Oreo. In fact, eventually Effie was the one getting her way and Oreo seemed nervous to approach the food bowl when she was eating there. We put it down to hormones and got them both spayed as soon as they turned 6 months old. We kept them separate for a week or two after the operation to make sure they healed OK but since then they still can't get on.

They are house bunnies and we'd like them to have constant run of the house together, but we've been having to keep one in the office and swap them every half day so it's fair. Whenever they saw each other they would immediately fight, it was a scary thing to see. They would both be scratching at each other and taking tufts of fur out, and both end up with scabs on their backs. It is still the case that Oreo gets easily spooked by Effie and all Effie has to do is come up to her and Oreo will make a little 'growl' (?) sound, run away and stamp her foot.

The last two days we've been trying something my partner found on the internet. We've brought the run indoors and put towels down under it. The girls are in there together and every time we see Effie attack Oreo we squirt her with a water pistol. It's a weak little toy, and we squirt just enough to startle her, not trying to get them wet as i know that's not healthy. They fought viciously when they were first put in and the squirting didn't seem to be noticed. After a while (maybe because our aim got better?) Effie did stop when the water hit her head. They were there overnight with a barrier between so they couldn't fight.

Today I've barely used the pistol at all as it seems Effie isn't really doing much for Oreo to get upset and run away, and it isn't fair to punish her for that. They are mostly keeping to their own sides of the run now. I did see Effie licking Oreo's head a bit but after a pause Oreo ran away again.

Any advice? Am I on the road to recovery or am I reading it wrong? If this doesn't work I don't know what to do. Thank you!

Bonding should take place in a small neutral area, where neither rabbit has been before. If the area is not neutral this will decrease the chance of success. The area should be small to avoid chasing happening, and this can be extended gradually after each at least 48hr period of no chasing/fur pulling etc. I wouldn't recommend the use of punishment such as water pistols personally.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems with your girls. Hormones do take a while to come out of their system after a spay, so it could be that they are both still a little hormonal. Your girls are still young, so you have a good chance of getting them back together and it does sound as though you are making some progress with them, but I think you do need to go back to basics with bonding and start with a small pen/enclosure in a completely neutral area, as Zoobec has already said.

I would never use punishment, it isn’t appropriate and could cause resentment, fear and aggression.

There are different ways of bonding and how you go about it depends on the time you have available and whether you can constantly supervise until a point where you feel they are settling down. Some people do a series of bunny ‘dates’ where they are put together for supervised periods of time and then separated again, but I usually put the bunnies together in a neutral pen and then supervise constantly until such a time that I feel confident to leave them. It means supervising throughout the night, sleeping on the floor etc, but usually things start to settle after about 24-48 hours. There will be some chasing, humping, fur pulling and to some extent you have to let them get on with it as this is how they establish their hierarchy. I only intervene if the chasing gets nasty and they start circling and fighting. There is a lot of good information on the Fat Fluffs website, the link is here, just click on the 'Bonding' tab. http://www.fatfluffs.com/info/

If you are really struggling to get your girls back together, then some rescues will do bonding for a donation to the rescue, so that would be an option if you feel out of your depth. Bonding can be scarey, I have done it a number of times but I still don’t like doing it and I always get very nervous.

I feel you. My girls are littermates as well, and inevitably their aggressive bunny-hormones kicked in. Mine never fought quite as bad as yours though, rebonding them after their spay was relatively painless. Start by letting the girls meet in neutral territory. Rabbits will hump and chase to establish dominance, you do have to let them go ahead and do their thing to an extent, but I had a towel that I used to gently break them up with if the fighting got too nasty. Supervise them together, if they seem to be ignoring eachother then this is a positive sign! As I said, rebonding my girls was fairly easy so you might be better off checking with someone who is experienced bonding rabbits, like a rabbit rescue. Good luck, I hope they get along soon!

Hi all! Thank you for the advice you've given me. After we saw Effie grooming Oreo a few more times we took down the run and let them have the house together under supervision. They didn't fight, but Oreo was still spooked by Effie coming up too close. Since then though they've improved so much! Effie grooms Oreo and according to my partner Oreo groomed Effie back a bit too! They've been eating out of the same food bowl (unheard of a few weeks ago!) and hanging out together. Effie can still make Oreo scamper away but Oreo seems a lot braver about it (a few weeks ago she'd not enter a room if Effie was in there; rather stamp her foot and dart off!) so I'm really pleased. Long may the peace continue!

The girls are still being friends. They groom each other and eat together like they used to. I see them competing a bit for who will get groomed by trying to be the one o put her head lower so the other will lick the top of it.