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Female rabbit humping male rabbit

Lucydeprez

New Kit
Hi,
I have bonded my rabbit myself and have a 5month old neutered male and a 3month old unneutered female rabbit. My female rabbit keeps humping my male rabbit and although there is not fighting he does run away from her and I'm scared it will turn into a fight. I can't get her spayed until she's atleast 6months old. How do I stop the humping?
 
It’s a dominance/hormonal thing, it’s likely to continue until she is spayed I’m afraid. Some vets will spay earlier than 6months depending on their development and size. You can try giving lots of things to keep them occupied, plenty of hay, forage, apple or pear tree twigs to gnaw on, scatter feed pellets, chill and chew mats or similar.
 
Well, that's not exactly what bonding is, thats bringing adult rabits together. Your girl just hits puberty, and that humping ist just how they establish their pecking order. Some does do it a lot now and then, when hormones kick in. Normal rabbit behaviour, haven't seen it escalate past some tufts of fur flying in my young girl groups. That's different to all male groups, where it can go from cuddling to deadly berserk mode in seconds.

If your male is just annoyed and hops away imho it's not a big deal, be sure he has someplace to go where she can't see him like divider walls, and a hidy house or something like a low table where he just fits under. I also would give her things to distract and occupy her, like willow branches to gnaw, cardboard boxes to destroy, something where she can dig in.
I would keep an eye on them but not seperate now, I would only do that if the male gets depressed and spends most of his time hunched up in a corner (had that happen with a doe in a trio) or if he starts to fight back (imho quite unlikely, my males just don't take that cat fights to heart like some girls do).
 
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I am afraid you can't stop her humping him. It's quite early in my experience for a 3 month old to act this way. Are you sure it is a girl. Have you checked recently? You could take her out for an hour or so to give the male a break if you think he is getting fed up with it.
 
She's definitely female as I've had her checked by 2 different vets, it always seems to be in the mornings and late afternoons she starts humping him other than that they are both very chilled snuggling together, I'll try get her a digging box, is it better to have sand to dig in or mud? I'll always get some boxes got her too.
 
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