Advice Needed - Trouble in Bunny Paradise

[BunyBun]

We have had our adopted male - female (neutered& spayed) pair for a full month. They came to us withword from the shelter (where they had been for almost a year)that they were two peas in a pod - a great match.

The first few weeks they were shy and hesitant with us, but with lotsof time and patience they have slowly been showing us more and more oftheir fun, playful sides.

The problem is the happier and more comfortable they become, the morethat the female of the pair seems to want to dominate themale. It started with her always making it clear which areain the cage was hers (shooing him out if he came by) and that shealways got first dibs on any food. Now she has taken tofrequent mounting and fighting with him in again what appears to be away to show dominance. Problem is our poor boy is gettingreally beat up and we are worried about his well being.

Any advice? I read that maybe putting them together in acarrier and riding in the car might help (bondingopportunity).I'm just concerned that with the levelofnon-stop aggression we are seeing that this sort ofsolution won't offer anything long term.

Anyone else had this happen with their pair and then had it all settle down again?

Thanks,

BunyBun

 

[Runestonez]

We had the same sort of thing happen with our 2girls. They were together at the petstore for the better partof 6 months with no problems...and they seemed fine the first week orso at home. We sent them to get spayed and about a week laterall hell broke lose! They were kick boxing, nipping, fightingand generally scaring the crap out of us. They took about aweek more to settle their pecking order...hubby and I just made sure tokeep an eye on them and kept a water bottle handy(not that it had anyeffect except to create wet bunnies!!) just in case. Oncethey settled all was fine...they still have moments on and off whenthey nip etc...but nothing like before. Maybe with the moveto a new home your bunns just have to re-establish their pecking ordertoo??