Bonded sisters now fighting!

I have 2 female buns (Dot and Spot)they are sisters and we bought them at the same time (4 years ago)They were spayed at the same time and have only ever really been on their own for a max of a couple of hours at a time I.e 1 is ill and we need to monitor them.

Dot was poorly the other day and we had to take her to the vet, after a few hours we bought Spot in to keep her company. We let them out together in 1 of our bedrooms upstairs (they normally live outside but spend the winter indoors) after about 10 mins they started fighting, like massively fighting, rolling around on the floor, fur going everywhere! They have never fought before, ever!

Not sure who started it but now the more submissive one (Spot)wont go near Dot, in fact she lunges at her, jumps over her and just wont entertain her. Dot isn't being aggressive, in fact she looks really sad that she wont be her friend.

I have separated them in our bathroom (completely neutral room) so they are still near each other, I have tried swapping their toilets round, swapping them over into the others little area, we even took them for a little drive, which seemed to work for a little bit and they got back and washed each ther and sat together........15 mins later Dot started to move around, not aggressive at all, then Spot kicked off again.

I don't know what to do, I'm heartbroken as they use to be inseparable

Any advice?

Will they be friends again?

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I would allow them to calm down now. Is the poorly one ok as maybe this is what caused the fight. Maybe she smelled different from being at the Vets. You will need to re-bond them in a neutral space but I would wait a day or two to just let them settle. I do hope they will be happy together again. I think you need to cut down a bit on their pellets if you don't mind me saying. They should only be getting about 1 tbsp. per rabbit per day with plenty of hay. Sorry if you already know but it seems like there is a lot of pellets there and they should eat them straight up.

They normally share a bowl which has less in, to be honest I'm just trying to get them to eat something at the moment. Although last night all the hay I put in and greens had gone. So that's a good thing!
Thanks, I hope they do too. Normally they live in a huge hutch in the garden and have free run of the garden so i hate seeing them penned in like this [emoji22]
Dot (the poorly one) has got alot better since her visit to the vet which is great, but she just looks sad that spot wont be her friend!

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Hi sonia82, welcome to the forum
fingers crossed that they get back to normal loving behaviour!

Thank you.

Me too!

Going to take them both to the vet tomorrow just to have a proper check up, make sure they are both ok! Then I'm going to scrub clean the bathroom and start the bonding process again

Fingers crossed [emoji1696]

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Do you think they might be happier if they were back in their own area?

I was thinking that but what do I do if they fight?? Plus I work all day so wouldn't be able to monitor them and would stress out all day not knowing if they were fighting or not!

I'm at home all day tomorrow so going to put them back in the garden so they can have a run around, hopefully that might help [emoji2368]

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Hope so. Let us know.

So got back this evening and let them have a little run around, got the hoover out to hoover up the carpet and they ran into their temporary set up and started eating next to each other, then sat next to each other for a bit.

We have some progress!!

Slowly but surely but all positive!


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Great news! I hope they settle back down now.

So update on Dot and Spot.....

Last night and this morning they ate together and were quite chilled with each other....

Put them back in the garden this morning, so they had a good run around for about 4 hours and now they are back in their house, looking quite happy. Lots of grooming been going on from both sides.

Such a happy bunny mumma [emoji3059][emoji195][emoji195]

Will keep an eye on them but fingers crossed they have sorted their squabble out now

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I’m so glad they are friends again

[emoji173][emoji173][emoji195][emoji195]

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brilliant news. well done bunnies

It must have been the trip to the Vets. Some people take both rabbits, I don't as I wouldn't be able to carry 2. Glad they are happy again.

sonia82 said:

So update on Dot and Spot.....

Last night and this morning they ate together and were quite chilled with each other....

Put them back in the garden this morning, so they had a good run around for about 4 hours and now they are back in their house, looking quite happy. Lots of grooming been going on from both sides.

Such a happy bunny mumma [emoji3059][emoji195][emoji195]

Will keep an eye on them but fingers crossed they have sorted their squabble out now [/IMG]

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Click to expand...

Yay!
Well done sonia82. Such a relief!