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Sudden aggressive female bunny towards male

B

BCbunnies

New Kit
Hello,

I have searched and searched through different threads but none are quite the same as what I am currently dealing with.

I have two Netherland Dwarf bunnies, male 3 years (neutered) and female 11 months (spayed). They have always got along perfectly fine but for some reason on Saturday the females behaviour has changed. She is chasing him and nipping him, he warns her off by thumping the ground but she doesn't back off. I wouldn't be as worried but the male is about half the size of her and he seems terrified. They are spending a lot of time in opposite sides of the room, I have separated them during the night. I have taken them to neutral territory, but the male is so nervous now he runs away iif she comes anywhere near him and she's still going for him.

I am incredibly concerned about my male because he is spending a lot more time with me than he normally would, he's house trained but now weeing and pooing outside of the cage which I can only put down to being too scared to go into the cage in case she spots him.

Why has she changed so suddenly?
What can I do to stop her going for him ?

Thanks in advance
 
I would suggest that either something has changed in their environment (a new item, rearranged things, an intruder spooked them...) or there is a health issue with one of them that you are not aware of but is affecting their behaviour / the bond.

Have they been recently neutered? Hormone levels take some weeks to reduce, or a recent operation may have left one rabbit a bit more vulnerable.

I would make sure that both rabbits are temporaily separated so that you can make sure they are both eating / weeing / pooing normally, and to give a bit of breathing space for them both to calm down for at least a few days - maybe weeks. If there is a full-on fight, the bond will be very difficult to re-establish. Stress may also cause one to go into gut stasis if they stop eating.

If you can separate them so they both have space to run around but can still see each other (eg with a mesh divider) and there is no aggression through the bars, that would be my first option. Otherwise, they may need to be eg in separate rooms, out of sight of each other - and then look at rebonding when the issue (when /if you find out what it is) has been resolved.

It may be worth getting them both checked over at the vet, just to rule out a physical cause, if it's not going to stress them ot even more.
 
Shimmer said:
I would suggest that either something has changed in their environment (a new item, rearranged things, an intruder spooked them...) or there is a health issue with one of them that you are not aware of but is affecting their behaviour / the bond.

Have they been recently neutered? Hormone levels take some weeks to reduce, or a recent operation may have left one rabbit a bit more vulnerable.

I would make sure that both rabbits are temporaily separated so that you can make sure they are both eating / weeing / pooing normally, and to give a bit of breathing space for them both to calm down for at least a few days - maybe weeks. If there is a full-on fight, the bond will be very difficult to re-establish. Stress may also cause one to go into gut stasis if they stop eating.

If you can separate them so they both have space to run around but can still see each other (eg with a mesh divider) and there is no aggression through the bars, that would be my first option. Otherwise, they may need to be eg in separate rooms, out of sight of each other - and then look at rebonding when the issue (when /if you find out what it is) has been resolved.

It may be worth getting them both checked over at the vet, just to rule out a physical cause, if it's not going to stress them ot even more.
Click to expand...


He has been neutered for over 2 years - she was spayed about 4-5 months ago- will give your suggestions a try, hopefully be able to fix this soon!
Thanks for your response
 
Also consider introducing a pet remedy diffuser as a temporary measure.

I use it when one or both buns is getting stressed to help reduce any ling term negative effects.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 
Also consider introducing a pet remedy diffuser as a temporary measure.

I use it when one or both buns is getting stressed to help reduce any ling term negative effects.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I've never had used that
what does that thing do?
 
Have had same issue today. Have two indoor neutered buns one female 14months and male 20months neutered more than 6 months ago.
They have been bonded for 2 months and free roaming.
Normally when we clean the living room (their main area) I move them to another room. Mostly so they dont get up to mischief when our cleaner is here.Today I cleaned their area with them in the room and wanted to rearrange their houses and toys.
Suddenly my female started circling the male and then mounted and humped his face. Poor guy is half her size. I picked her up to stop it and distracted them with fresh hay and it stopped. 6 hours passed and it happened again in the same spot in the living room. Again picking her up and distracting her with food stopped it.
Clearly too soon in their friendship to even try and mess with their territory !
May just keep them in a pen overnight to ensure no fighting occurs over what is a very large territory or confine them to the hallway.
Have gone for reducing the area when unsupervised and hope they forget about their disagreement by the morning !
 
BCbunnies said:
Hello,

I have searched and searched through different threads but none are quite the same as what I am currently dealing with.

I have two Netherland Dwarf bunnies, male 3 years (neutered) and female 11 months (spayed). They have always got along perfectly fine but for some reason on Saturday the females behaviour has changed. She is chasing him and nipping him, he warns her off by thumping the ground but she doesn't back off. I wouldn't be as worried but the male is about half the size of her and he seems terrified. They are spending a lot of time in opposite sides of the room, I have separated them during the night. I have taken them to neutral territory, but the male is so nervous now he runs away iif she comes anywhere near him and she's still going for him.

I am incredibly concerned about my male because he is spending a lot more time with me than he normally would, he's house trained but now weeing and pooing outside of the cage which I can only put down to being too scared to go into the cage in case she spots him.

Why has she changed so suddenly?
What can I do to stop her going for him ?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...


UPDATE =
I had them both checked out by the vet as I was worried my male (the small one who kept running away) had some form of tooth problem. He was on pain relief medication as a trial but I think the tooth problem symptoms were more due to stress caused by the female rabbit chasing him.

I have given up on neutral territory introduction and let them roam around as normal in the living room. Slowly but surely they are getting closer and yesterday finally started grooming each other again. However, when it comes to their cage my male is still nervous to enter if she is in there or if she jumps in, he jumps straight back out.
I still separate them at night but have tested them in the cage together, which is still a no go.

It's great to see some improvements, very bizarre what caused it in the first place however we are on the up and up.

Fingers crossed back to normal soon.

Thanks everyone for your replies and input, I really appreciate it.
 
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