Rabbits Barbering - 6 Living Together

Hi Guys, I need some feedback on how to proceed with the following:

We have 6 rabbits (we had 2 - a boy and girl and they mated before we got the boy desexed and they had 4 babies). So mum and dad and 4 offspring living together in a big hutch with multiple compartments i made for them. Mum and dad are about 3 years old and the offspring probably about 2 years old now.

Dad was desexed, and of the babies only 1 was a boy so we had him desexed too. The 4 girls are not desexed.

One of the girl offspring has always been a bit nutty/dominant/psycho always hassling the other bunnies. Recently we noticed Mum and one of the other females had large patches of fur missing (half their backside) and i think it may have been the crazy rabbit - i did see her pulling along the edges of mums fur where the bald patch was.

The female that was barbered is also limping now, she walks around on her back feet instead of doing the little hops, i dont know if her hips are sore or its because of the barbering on her back. I made an appointment with the Vet to take her in tomorrow.

But im wondering what might be going on, why all of the sudden, how we should address the problem.

It is very rare for so many intact rabbits to get along. Females are notoriously territorial. I'm surprised they lasted this long together. The aggressive rabbit should absolutely be separated from the others -- no interaction with the others whatsoever. (after she's settled down, she might be able to be bonded with one of the males)

The others will need to be closely watched to see what other aggression may be going on. It may be more than just the one. Rabbit fights can become extremely vicious - even deadly.

Normally rabbits all need to be fixed in order to bond well. It isn't a matter of just preventing pregnancy, but ridding them of hormones that can prevent them from getting along.

I hope the other two will recuperate well.

She may have a spinal injury due to the other rabbit hassling her. The vet may need to take xrays to rule out an injury, and if there is an injury you may need to isolate this rabbit from the other rabbits so she has time to heal.

I would suggest getting all of your female rabbits spayed, not only to help calm down these hormonal issues that are causing problems in the group, but also to eliminate the risk of uterine cancer which is high in older female rabbits. Or if you can't get them all spayed at this time, in the least get the dominant rabbit spayed that is causing the issues.

:Yeahthat:
Your bunny is not a psycho, she's hormonal. With putting 4 intact does together and with males (even desexed) to boot, you're lucky your rabbits didn't kill each other. Besides, for health issues, it's a lot more important to spay girls than to neuter boys. Your females are at the age when they enter really dangerous territory concerning cancers (80% of risk in one year or so). I'd say separate and spay before attempting to bond again. A group that large can sometimes work, but if it doesn't you might want to make to group or to keep one or two bunnies separated if they are extra territorial (some rabbits just have a nasty personnality but you really can't tell before eliminating the hormone factor).

Communal living can work but it takes a large area, much larger than a hutch, for it to work. The risk of cancer doesn't really go up significantly until they're about 5 years old, but since you have at least one hormonal female I'd get her spayed first.