2 Male neutered rabbits fighting

[kayleyf]

Hi all

Any advice would be appreciated! I bought 2 male rabbits from pets at home and they are now around 20 weeks old. they have both been neutered around a month ago due to mounting each other. They have been together from the start, in the same glass cage at pets at home, and since me purchasing them have always lived in the same hutch and got along great. On Thursday night, they were running round the garden, and started fighting and tossing and turning in the air, there was fur everywhere and one of them had a cut on his ear which was bleeding. One of them was trying to bite the other ones bottom. I separated them immediately and blocked off the hutch so that one of them was upstairs, one downstairs. The day after, I let them both in the run to try and reintroduce them to each other, with me there to supervise, and within a minute they were fighting again. I separated them again and waited 10 mins or so and tried again but they carried on fighting until I separated them. How can I get them to love each other again without fighting, all posts online say to gradually rebond them but even after 1 minute of being together they are fighting again. I don't want to get one, or both of them re-homed, but I'm not sure what to do if they carry on like this, and its traumatic to see them fight when I put them back together for a second - I also worry about the stress it is causing them both. any advice please ? TIA

 

[Preitler]

I would definitly stop any attempts of putting them together for now. Hormones might still need some weeks to dissipate, and even without balls they are adolescents, puberty was in full swing when they got neutered.

Can't tell how to proceed, never tried 2 males. It's not impossible, I've heard, but the more difficult pairing and not always successsful. Imo they need to forget that the other one is a rival to fight, that gets more unlikely with every fight. And will take time.

 

[tulsi]

I had this problem with two brothers some years ago.

I was advised to keep them separate so no sight or smell of each other until the autumn/winter when hormones are calmer and to reintroduce them on neutral territory.

I did this and added in two rescue sisters at the same time. They were a happy quad for many years.

Only one left now. Snowflake, who is 12. He has a neighbour, Moondust to talk to through the bars but they didn't take to each other when I tried to bond them.