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Adult and Baby

Samanthaleef

New Kit
Hi, i have just bought a 2 month old Lionhead girl as a friend for my almost 2 year old girl as she has been alone for some time. I dont expect them to get along right off the bat, so i decided to let Pandora (Adult) run around my room (which she does everyday) with Odessa (baby) in her cage in the same room. Pandora goes straight to the cage and looked like she was banging, biting and clawing at the cage to get in for about 3 seconds before running off. I thought that maybe because Pandora is in my bedroom everyday she may be territorial of my bedroom. So i decided to go in the hall with me holding Pandora and my brother holding Odessa, Pandora grunted and sort of charged at her, looking like she had bit her. She may have been just sticking her face into Odessa's. We were both holding them and nobody got injured. But i have to ask, is this normal? I was expecting hostility but it looks like Pandora wants to attack her. She has never been an aggressive rabbit. Will it get better?
 
First of all that's great that you want some company for your girl, it's lovely when you have bonded rabbits :) My first question would be is Pandora spayed? If not then you'll want to do that asap

Female rabbits can be extremely territorial. Spaying will calm her hormones down and this should reduce the territorial and aggressive behaviour, but even fixed rabbits can be aggressive with others. Think about it like this, after spaying she won't be in hormonal baby making mode anymore, but (assuming here) she's been the only rabbit in your house and been there for a long time, with you putting another rabbit near her she's bound to get defensive, I think I would too if a stranger turned up in my house. This is why bonding should always be done on neutral territory, somewhere neither rabbit has been before. If you look at the sticky posts at the top of the behaviour and bonding section there's some really good info. But I definitely would not try again until Pandora has been spayed and you've given her time for her hormones to settle (I think it's like 2 months ish but I can't remember). With the younger bunny, I'm not sure what to advise there. If you try bond new baby bun to Pandora before baby bun's hormones kick in, you might have some luck, but then as soon as baby bun's hormones kick in you're probably going to have the same issue, baby bun in hormonal baby making mode suddenly doesn't want to share with Pandora anymore and that could lead to a big fight. Hopefully someone else will be along with advice on this! :)
 
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I agree with the OP and it could be that Pandora does not want another rabbit in her territory. You will need to remove the baby's cage, if you haven't already done so, as it will be very stressful for baby. In my experience, adult females will attack babies which are not hers so I am not sure how you are going to proceed now in order to ensure both rabbits are happy.
 
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