Sibling rivalry

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Bunster

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Hi, this is my first time on your web-site, and Iam writing because I am a rabbit mother in despair.

Two years ago I got my firsty bunny, a greyNetherlanddwarf, whom I named Perriwinkle. He isreally tiny, but full of attitude! When he was six months oldwe got Caramel, a ginger dwarf lop, and they were great friends, exceptthat Perriwinkle fell too much in love with Caramel (also a boy), so wehad Perriwinkle neutered. All went well until Caramel wasabout a year and two months, when he started violenly attackingPerriwinkle, and ended up injuring him quite badly. Wedecided to devide the bunny house (our convertedgarden shed),so as to keep them apart. A month ago I had Caramel neutered,as we were told that it would curb his aggression, but alas, to datethere has been no change. Are we going to have to keep ourbunnies seperate forever, or is there anything else we cando?

Caramel gets on fine with our three cats, and he isallowed playing time in the garden every day. Both bunniesare give plenty of love and attention.

Hope you can help

Bunster
 
Bunster,

Chances are that they need to be separated permanently. I had the sameproblem with my 2 boys. Mocha was about 3.5 months old when I broughtSpice home, who would have been 2.5 months old. They did a bit offighting the first day but from then on they were inseparable. I gotthem fixed back in August to prevent any fighting that could happen (Iwas told the chances of them fighting after being fixed was almostnone) but in January I had to separate them for good. They fought likeno other and can no longer be kept in the same cage, they are fine intheir cages where only wire separates them, but they try to killl whentogether. I now know that neutering them does not always stop thefighting or prevent it. By the sounds of it, your bunnies need to beseperated permanently, sorry. They can be just as happy and and morefriendly with you now that they don't have another rabbit to bond with,they turn to the human instead.

Laura, Moch, & Spice
 
Both of your rabbits are boys and theywould try to do it. Very funny. I thought that I was the only rabbitowner wthat had that problem. But of my rabbits are gay. So I had themboth neutered. After beingneutered you rabbits can still have urges and agrees up to sixweeks, After six weeks and no behaveior changed I would have to saythat your bun is probley going to keep that behavior
 
Laura, just out of curiosity, how do youseparate the buns when they're fighting? I know that thestandard wisdom for fighting dogs is not to get in between them, butwhat do you do for buns?
 
Well, not with bare hands! I did that once and nowI'm scarred. Got between Mocha and Spice. The best way is to probablywear thick gloves and grab the least vicious towards humans rabbitbecause then you are less likely to be hurt by them. Or use your footto push them apart so you can grab one, just don't step on them! It'snot always easy, but you cannot let them fight it out, they will killeach other. It's normally pretty easy to swipe one off the ground andremove it from the area if it's open area. Inside a cage is moredifficult because it's confined, but it's the same idea, get your handbetween them. Basically do anything to prevent further injury to themby one another and separate them however you can.
 
Wow! I still just can't envisionfighting bunnies. That totally goes against the grain of allbunny stereotypes.

When we were at Bunnyfest Sherman was in a separate pen fromthe other bunnies. We stepped away from them for a while andone of the bunny mommies told me that Sherman and one of the femalebuns sniffed each other through the pen wires, but that the femaledidn't like him and they kind of got to fighting (as much as they couldthrough the wire). I didn't have the heart to tell her thatSherman was the one who probably didn't like her!lol!
 
Most successful bonding occurs between buck anddoe, doe and doe, and buck and buck in that descending order.Some say all buns can be bonded if one make the effort, has thepatience, and utilizes proper technigues. Others say thereare individual buns that will simply not bond with other particularindividual buns no matter what one does. Ourexperience tends to support the latter view,however, we would be thefirst to admit that we have spent no more than three weeks ofunsuccessfully attemping to bond some of our buns, when we've given upon them.

Your bucks may be in that category, but you really won't know until youattempt to rebond them in a "professional" manner. It seemsyou were fairly lucky in the beginning in that they apparently bondedintially on their own, or with very little effort on your part.

Circumstances have now altered, and I am afraid it is a new ballgame. Link here for some advice as to how to go about bondingbunnies successfully:

http://www.mybunnies.com/bonding.htm

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/introductions.html

Buck


 
BunnyMommy,

I know you're contemplating a partner for Sherman, so knowing how toseparate fighting bunnies would be wise. When we areattempting to bond, I wear leather gauntlets, like welders wear, incase it become necessary to intervene.

If we are attempting to bond rabbits outside in the yard, for somereason or another, in addition to the gauntlets, we use a cardboard"pig board" to separate fighting buns.

The "pig board" is our name for a 2' x 4' rectangular pieceof cardboard that has handholds cut out along one long side.One of us holds it and inserts it between fighting bunnies when giventhe opportunity. If they don't see each other, it confusesthem long enough to grab one of the aggressors with the gauntlets.

We call it a "pig board" because we saw a similar piece of wood used toseparate fighting pigs within a herd that were being auctioned offwithin a ring at an animal auction yearsago.Much later in time, I figured acardboard duplicate would serve to separate fighting bunnies, as wellas corral them in a corner when we are attempting to round them up andput them back in their hutches after free ranging all day.

Buck
 

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