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When does a tiff become a fight?

Mrs Carr

Mrs Carr

Warren Scout
Hi guys,

2weeks off work and hoping to put some serious time into bonding my boys but I'm just not sure how long we should let them squabble (if at all?) before separating them again. Both boys are neutered and Bob is just desperate to be friends with buddy but buddy so far has other ideas :cry:

We had them both eating together for a while on Sunday and then the squabbling started, Bob started humping buddy which we allowed but it then turned into a proper tiff with fur flying at which point I split them up. Was I too quick to separate? Too late? And should we leave them a few more days before trying again or just get straight back into it?

Apologies for the million questions but not sure if I'm doing right or making it worse at this point :?
 
Thanks zoobec, that is a big help. I notice that when the buns fight tinkers mum splits them up but then leaves them together? I was calling an end to the session at that point so maybe I'm just too cautious? Also, does having food present make any difference? I had loads of food for them but was told on another site to remove it.
 
Yes, I did the same when I bonded, intervened to split them up to stop anything escalating, but left them together. I left mine together day and night and had the pen in the lounge, slept on the settee! Food (particularly pellets) can cause scuffles even in bonded pairs so I scatter fed pellets. When bonding I always had one big pile of hay in the middle and I fed them loads of herbs and forage. I since found out that Rosemary is very calming, and it was Rosemary I was mainly feeding!
 
Thank you so much zoobec! I have a large plastic tray which was full of hay and veg but I'll skip the veg this time and leave it as just plain hay. Both mine live in the lounge already (taking turns at free roaming) so we're using the kitchen to bond ....... Obviously I can't sleep in there lol but do you think it would be OK to bring them back into the lounge with supervision?

God I am SO sorry for all these questions lol
 
I think you should leave them in the kitchen, often moving them or extending space even if they are in the same pen can cause things to kick off. They're best left in the same place as long as possible, at least 48 hrs after the last scuffle. Is the kitchen near or next to the lounge, maybe you could camp in the lounge and so long as you can hear any scuffles you can get to them easily.
 
Right next to each other so hearing them won't be a problem. Thank you again, have left it a bit late today but will get started again in the morning and hopefully will have better results this time x
 
That sounds good :) hope you get a good nights sleep tonight, to prepare yourself for it :thumb: I found it was essential to have a nice bottle of wine to drink to calm my nerves and enable sleep on a settee :oops::lol: don't worry I only drank half of it!
 
I don't need an excuse but I shall tell my husband that the wine was part of the expert advice anyway lol!
 
Mrs Carr said:
I don't need an excuse but I shall tell my husband that the wine was part of the expert advice anyway lol!
Click to expand...

:lol: I should point out that so far I have only done that one bond, which was 2 pairs into a quad, so I don't really think I qualify as an expert :oops: :lol:
 
When i bonded my two bunnies at first i separated them at every squabble but over time someone told me that in the wild they would sort out their differences so you should just let them 'fight', so i allowed them to chase each other with a bit of fur pulling and all that jazz but not actual harm as in biting/bleeding.

Weirdly enough they ended up being bonded because they were in a double hutch and i had closed off the stairs and overnight one of them had gotten into the other ones are so they were together in one section all night and ever since then they were bonded and never had any fights. I know this was slightly irresponsible that they were in the same hutch and small too but that was the only way back then :roll:

Im not an expert on bonding bunnies but this is what i did.
 
Looks like you have some sound advice. :)
We would let our girls get on with it to a point... we'd stop scuffles but leave them together for at least 10 mins so they ended on a good note. That way they didn't associate each other as something bad.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
This is unbelievably stressful :cry: it started off fine, tiny bit of nipping and fur pulling followed by the boys completely ignoring each other ....... Then we had some circling and Bob was being very submissive. Just when we thought we were making progress Buddy really went in for a full scale fight and had Bob pinned to the floor so we had to go in and completely separate them as it was starting to get really nasty.

Starting to think we may have to find someone to do this for us :cry:
 
Mrs Carr said:
This is unbelievably stressful :cry: it started off fine, tiny bit of nipping and fur pulling followed by the boys completely ignoring each other ....... Then we had some circling and Bob was being very submissive. Just when we thought we were making progress Buddy really went in for a full scale fight and had Bob pinned to the floor so we had to go in and completely separate them as it was starting to get really nasty.

Starting to think we may have to find someone to do this for us :cry:
Click to expand...

Have you watched the video (link in post number 2 in this thread)? It's very helpful.

What is happening with your 2 is very much par for the course and yes, it can be very stressful!
 
I did watch the video and it's fab but the fight this time just went too far, when buddy went for Bob and pinned him to the floor he started squealing and there was no sign of either of them letting up at that point. Checked them both over and they're fine but Bob is very shaken up. Not sure I have the iron will to see this through by myself
 
Yep both boys have been neutered for months. Buddy is just so aggressive! He's an absolute sweetheart to people and can't get enough attention but he's just plain horrible to Bob who is so gentle and is desperate to make friends. I'm going to ask around and find someone who can take them for a week or so for bonding as I'd hate to make the situation worse through ignorance
 
I think, knowing from experience, a lot of fights my rabbits had would have easily escalated had we not intervened. Likewise, the 'spats' on the video, were also going to escalate had someone not intervened. It is knowing when and having courage - not easy, I know.

We used a large enough, thin piece of cardboard to place between them to stop the fighting. I say 'we', meaning my husband and I. He really does the bonding and I support :lol: it is helpful to have someone help take the strain as well.
 
The above is all good advice. It's difficult and not necessarily anything you are doing wrong. Boys are tougher to start with. It might be somewhere completely neutral and with some experienced watching it will work, but even then it's not a guarantee. Sometimes bunnies, particularly boys, just take a dislike and won't compromise.

You are absolutely right to step in if they are biting, so latching on, squealing, pinned down etc. as they can cause injuries. Do check them both over carefully. Try blowing across their fur as that's an easy way to part it to spot a wound.
 
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