Fighting or play?

Please can someone help me distinguish between flighting and play?

We are rebonding two neutered brothers 7 weeks post op and despite mutual grooming, eating together happily and many many snuggles we’ve had a few scuffs and don’t know what to do now

Fluffy Snow said:

Please can someone help me distinguish between flighting and play?

We are rebonding two neutered brothers 7 weeks post op and despite mutual grooming, eating together happily and many many snuggles we’ve had a few scuffs and don’t know what to do now

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When do the scuffles occur ? When you feed them ? What type of accommodation do they live in ?

Thanks Inspector Morse,

It happens when they are active after a snooze together and both hopping around. We have them in a 7ft x 5ft indoor run with a covered sleeping area, two litter trays, two water bowls and a hay station. They happily eat together so I don’t thinks it’s food related

Fluffy Snow said:

Thanks Inspector Morse,

It happens when they are active after a snooze together and both hopping around. We have them in a 7ft x 5ft indoor run with a covered sleeping area, two litter trays, two water bowls and a hay station. They happily eat together so I don’t thinks it’s food related

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Before neutering they were living in a converted shed with an attached outdoor run

If most of the time they are getting along I’d just continue to monitor things. Have they established who is Boss ?

I’m not sure they have. We always thought snowball was dominant but fluffy has been putting his head down under snowball’s to be groomed which I read is a sign of dominance?

Thanks for the advice. I should add we are splitting the run overnight with a wire divider that they can sniff through as don’t trust them together out of our sight yet

Having continued to monitor the bunnies together for another 9 days with zero drama (quite the opposite, they have been inseparable and doing EVERYTHING together), we left them together overnight for the first time (while sleeping on the sofa to keep an ear out) on friday night. All was well and so we havent separated them since and all has been calm. We've even managed to leave the house together for a long walk as a family without separating them which felt like such a result!

Then this morning (Monday) we came downstairs to a huge mess of fur everywhere, two very spooked and subdued bunnies (usually when we enter the room in the morning they go crazy excited for their pellets). Fluffy moved towards the Snowball and they scrapped a little again, so we put a divider up again. I've checked both for injuries and given them both a good stroke, but they are both now hiding out in their clean litter trays and Fluffy definately appears to be unusually timid when he sees Snowball.

I feel devastated as we really felt we'd completed the rebonding process. Please can anyone help with what we should do now?

What a shame! It sounded like they had settled down nicely together but then a fall-out. Sadly they will possibly fight again and if it were me I would now keep them separate

Do you have a camera? It is so much easier if you video their body language. But one thing is for sure. Give them time off. And re-introduce in neutrall ground. And wait long before you put them together unsupervised through the night. Months probably. It is a possibility that they will never be friends again.

AnjaSanja said:

Do you have a camera? It is so much easier if you video their body language. But one thing is for sure. Give them time off. And re-introduce in neutrall ground. And wait long before you put them together unsupervised through the night. Months probably. It is a possibility that they will never be friends again.

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Thank you for commenting. Do you mean video them now or when reintroduced?

tonibun said:

What a shame! It sounded like they had settled down nicely together but then a fall-out. Sadly they will possibly fight again and if it were me I would now keep them separate

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Thanks Tonibun, this makes me want to cry as they have been so attached this past week to the point we felt awful splitting them up each night. Won't they get lonely on their own? From a practical point also we are only set up for one shed and enclosure outside. Having them inside in adjacent runs was only ever a temporary arrangement until they could go back outside. I really dont want to give up on them, you really dont think its worth us trying again?

I wouldn't say it isn't worth trying again but if it were me I wouldn't. I would have 2 pairs, male and female. If you are on FB there is a good group called UK Rabbits and there are some successful bonds between 2 boys on there, so maybe they could advise you and give you hope. Rabbits don't always do what we want them to do. I have only ever had 2 brothers together, neutered, and they never fell out, but I was sure that one of them thought he was a female. He took the role of female and nested a little bit now and then. This is my only experience of keeping boys together. I suppose it comes down to the individual personality of each of the boys.

tonibun said:

I wouldn't say it isn't worth trying again but if it were me I wouldn't. I would have 2 pairs, male and female. If you are on FB there is a good group called UK Rabbits and there are some successful bonds between 2 boys on there, so maybe they could advise you and give you hope. Rabbits don't always do what we want them to do. I have only ever had 2 brothers together, neutered, and they never fell out, but I was sure that one of them thought he was a female. He took the role of female and nested a little bit now and then. This is my only experience of keeping boys together. I suppose it comes down to the individual personality of each of the boys.

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Thanks Tonibun I really appreciate your advice. We are going to give it another try as they both appear to be displaying normal behaviour again today with lots of amicable interaction either side of their run divider. We currently have them together in a neutral small back hall with nothing but pile of hay and two clean litter trays from when they were little. We’ll give them an hour or so together before returning them to their respective runs. Currently both flopped out side by side in their litter trays after eating well together. I appreciate it’s early days but no sign of any nervousness or aggression which is good. Will take it very slow day by day and certainly won’t leave them out of sight together for a good while. Will try to add a photo if I can!

Well, good luck with this. There is a tutorial on how to put photos on here under "How to use the Forum".

I'm so sorry that you have had difficulties. If they are seemingly ok when you are around, could you separate their shed with wire for sleeping? That way, they will still be close, but unable to fight?

Personally, I wouldn't give up hope yet. It sounds as though there is an underlying bond there and they need to settle down and trust each other again after the earlier scuffles.

I have a male and female pair. After they had been bonded for about three months they inexplicably started fighting. These were full on, locked on tornado fights. They couldn't even look at each other without it all kicking off.

I separated them for a few days and then rebonded them from scratch. It was a difficult rebond but they got there after a few days. After about a week without incident, things got spikey again and they had another scuffle, although nowhere near as bad as it had been.

I left together (I.e I didn't separate them) and kept them free range in the flat as normal, while monitoring them closely. They settled down again and five years later they are still happily bonded.

I just wanted to share that story to give you a bit of hope that a bond can be repaired and it sounds as though your boys weren't as bad my two were!