Need advice for our two male mini lops

Hi all,

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about how we brought home our lovely little Beanie (male) to be a companion for our who we thought was a female mini lop Bunny, however, it turned out Bunny was in fact male. We took on advice from the forum, kept them separate and booked them in to be neutered.

Long story put extremely short, Bunny was successfully neutered but sadly Beanie did not react well to the anaesthetic and had to be put on oxygen and the procedure could not be completed on Beanie. When I went to collect the bunnies, the nurse told me that Bunny is extremely dominant and they would not suggest putting Beanie through that stress again, we could try again in 6 months but if Beanie was hers she would not do that to him as they would not be confident that they'd be able to bring him back like they did that day.

As Beanie and Bunny are both house bunnies, we have had to set Beanie up in the downstairs bathroom (it's a large space and very warm) and he has lots of toys, hideouts, hay etc. However, as Bunny is used to the house, Bunny has free-roam of the downstairs like normal (which makes us feel extremely guilty). Furthermore, we have been showing Bunny to Beanie through the gate and they will eat their food together, Bunny does get a little upset and occasionally stomps and will put his head through the gate as he wants Beanie to groom him, but Beanie is extremely uninterested and just continues doing his own thing which upsets Bunny even more. We will sometimes put Bunny in the kitchen to let Beanie run around in the living room but he will just poo everywhere (which we think may be stress as he can smell Bunny, who I think may have frightened him at the beginning when we first bought him home (see our first post)) we did put them together last week where they had a little scrap and we separated them, but Bunny had some cuts on his ears and now when they are sometimes together (with the gate separating them) Beanie will nip Bunnys face.

After some long discussions, we thought that they must not be the right bunnies for each other and we're concerned that Beanie is scared of Bunny and more-so feel so guillty that Bunny is roaming around whereas Beanie cannot. We have read online that to start the bonding process both males need to be neutered which of course, Beanie cannot at this point or even not at all.

We are at such a loss and want to do the best for both bunnies and thought that maybe we should take Beanie to a rescue so that he will get a better quality of life, until they are able to find the best family for him (which breaks my heart even more as we did all of this with best intentions).

We cannot keep living the way we are as it's unfair for Beanie to hear Bunny being able to run around the whole of the downstairs and he can't - plus may be worth adding when Beanie is in his room he will let us stroke him and he comes to us but when he is in the living room he is quite timid and runs away when we try to show him any affection which suggests to us that he is in fact scared that Bunny may be in the room too?

I'd also like to stress that Bunny is not an aggressive bunny whatsoever, he is extremely affectionate to us and is actually really obedient he has only had these behaviours towards Beanie so far.

Any advice would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you so much.

I'm so sorry to hear that things haven't worked out for you and your little family. I personally would get in touch with some rescues and see what they suggest.

It is sad that Beannie could not be neutered but at least he still has his life and didn't pass away during the GA. I would suggest the best way forward would be to let Beannie go to a Rescue where he would be re-homed as a single boy, then you could find a suitable girlfriend for Bunny. She will need to be spayed. I am afraid it is not always plain sailing with Rabbits. Have you got a good Vet who is knowledgeable in Rabbits. If you are not sure, if you start a thread asking for recommendations in your area we will be happy to supply you with the details.

Thank you both for your responses ~ I just wanted to get some advice, is there no way this could work between them? I don’t want to sound naive as we had the best intentions and obviously this is really hard so wanted to ensure that we are not just missing the opportunity. Thanks

I wouldn't say there is no way but even if they were both neutered they might not get along. Boys do tend to fight and there is always a dominant one which is not very good for the submissive Rabbit. If they were together, Beannie would always be in danger of being attacked and Bunny would try to castrate him which would not be very pleasant for all concerned, especially Beannie.