mismatchbunnies
Warren Scout
Bella and Fluffy are our 2 year old rabbits who have been bonded since November 2019. They are not related and both are fixed. Bella was with us first and around 6 months later we ended up getting Fluffy unexpectedly and took him on as a rescue. We started the bonding process and it took us around 3-4 months to bond them and up until a few of months ago they had been completely fine. Bella was dominant (and frequently displays this) and Fluffy was seemingly happy being the submissive one in the pair. That was until Fluffy started to show traits like making a noise (a low grunt) which he makes repeatedly when he is excited but also runs over to Bella doing this. Sometimes this noise is followed by mounting her (front on), which obviously scares her and causes her to make a sound almost like a low pitched squeak (not a squeal, but I think it is out of fear). When he mounts her I remove him because of how stressed Bella gets but often she starts squeaking in fear even before I get there and this often persists after it has happened when he approaches or, or even when we approach her if it was really bad. I know it might seem strange that I haven’t separated them yet, but the thing is this only tends to occur early morning and late evening (when they are most active) and they will lie next to eachother and flop near one another during the day. I have tried putting them in a small area to work out whatever is going on and usually Bella will mount Fluffy (since she is dominant) but once they are let out Fluffy will often return to making the grunt and following her even after this (not immediately but a few hours later or the next morning). I’ve tried moving Fluffy away from her when he mounts her and saying ‘no’ and comforting Bella but it doesn’t seem to help. As Bella is already a very anxious rabbit, when Fluffy mounts her she just cowers and fails to react (not mounting him to put him in his place as she usually does). I have to separate them at hours at a time for this reason because Bella gets easily stressed as I mentioned and as they both have other health conditions (both snuffles bunnies) and Bella is stasis-prone anyways I can’t afford them to get too stressed. In the time they are separated, I have to keep Bella with me and she seems unaffected that he is gone and will binky, eat etc. but when he returns she does greet him and usually ends up laying next to and grooming him. Bella has also had experienced stasis recently (in January) and seemed to show signs of gut slowdown even more recently which our vet knows about and we are dealing with but I am unsure if the cause was related to being stressed with Fluffy or her other medical conditions were responsible. I am so confused because one minute they’re fine and the next they’re not. I don’t know the cause and so I really don’t know where to go from here: if separating them temporarily and attempting to rebond is the only option or if there is something else I can try. I also don’t know if this would resolve the problem either or just cause even more stress. Any advice is greatly appreciated