Bonding (Intact) Male rabbits

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Cosmo the bunny

Active Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2022
Messages
38
Reaction score
27
Location
New York
Hi guys, this afternoon I plan to introduce two unneutered male rabbits. HEAR ME OUT! One is a super friendly, 2 year old bunny that has never shown dominance or anything. AND he is a three legged bun, missing his front right leg. The other is our newest addition, a tiny 8 week old male baby. I am hoping that because he is so young and combined with the other's sweet personality they will get along. If it doesn't work out they can live separately however.

So I was wondering if anyone had any success stories for bonding male rabbits, or tips on how to bond.

Thanks!
 
I've heard of people being able to make it work but it might be short lived, be prepared to separate.
I would be very careful especially with the age gap between them and with the younger one still needing to go through the "teenager phase". Personally I have never bonded 2 intact males but I have bonded a neutered male and an intact female (a moody one at that) and she had her moments, if the male wasn't so laid back it would not have worked.

I wish you luck on bonding! Be sure to take it slow for this one
 
Neutered male rabbits have the potential to get along. Intact... highly unlikely.

What is likely is that they may seem totally ok together while the little one is little. Once those hormones kick in, well that'll be a whole different story.

The difficulty for you is that it will be easy to be lulled into complacency while they are still getting along... for weeks or perhaps months?? And then the change can come suddenly and unexpectedly. If that happens, will you happen to be there? Could they get into a terrible fight with no one there to stop it? That is the risk you take. I would suggest you consider those possible outcomes and perhaps come up with ways to mitigate those risks, if possible.
 
We inheirited a pair of males as we used to do a lot of rescuing--they were both really super mellow bunnies. Have had a couple of female rabbits that would fight with a rock, they seemed to be the most aggressive, although they were really good as singles.
 
It went well. Only had one growl and pounce from the older one, but the baby mostly just binkied around and then sprawled out 😂 they ended up just eating hay next to each other. They were together for about 30 minutes in a neutral area. We will do the same tomorrow, since it went well. Sunny will get neutered once he is old enough.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9405.jpeg
    5.2 MB
  • IMG_9404.jpeg
    4.9 MB
  • IMG_9410.jpeg
    5.1 MB
I never had issues when I let my buck free roam with bucklings up to12-14 weeks. Then they hit puberty in earnest and started attacking him occasionally, although twice their size. He just dodged it but I kept them apart after that started. He got along fine with any kits he met (unlike my spayed girl Dotty). He was a nice guy, and anything young got treated friendly.

Imo, with intact males, conflict isn't so much about dominance, the agenda is to drive a rival away. That's hormonal, and having seen hormones surge in spring and other times over the year I wouldn't really trust a peace.
There might be ways to influence if it escalates to a fight, like lots of space enough ways to get out of each others eyes, but I'm not sure if with intact males that would not somewhat undermine the bonding, which to me seems to be a rather special, unstable condition with most.
I did sometimes keep bucklings of appr. same age together for about 5 months, in groups of 4-6, escalated only once in 10 years. I think higher numbers make things easier though. But at that age tensions become palpable, so nothing I would recommend.

So, well, I would say it's good to have a Plan B.
 
We inheirited a pair of males as we used to do a lot of rescuing--they were both really super mellow bunnies. Have had a couple of female rabbits that would fight with a rock, they seemed to be the most aggressive, although they were really good as singles.
Yup. But I assume your males were neutered? OP was talking about intact males. ;)
[I'll clarify that in their title]
 
My recommendation would be not to do it. There is extremely high risk involved once the baby bun hits puberty, of a serious fight breaking out. Intact hormonal male rabbits will almost always end up in a fight.

These aren't the gentler hierarchy fights to just establish who's in charge and who's subordinate, where injuries are unlikely to minimal. These are the all out, territorial dominance, 'I'm going to try and kill you' type fights, where they try and latch on with teeth to rip flesh, and get to the belly with claws to eviscerate or neuter their foe. Make no mistake, these cute fluffy animals can cause extremely serious injuries when they want to, even to the point of killing.

So while there may be a very slight chance that two intact hormonal males could possibly get along without wanting to kill one another, it's much more likely that the older male may start trying to excessively hump the baby as they get used to each other, and end up scaring him off. Or if your older bun does stay calm and doesn't harass the baby, then the other likely scenario is in a few weeks time, that baby bun is going to hit puberty, and when that happens and he attempts to hump your older buck, all hell can break loose. And as Blue Eyes mentioned, this can happen when you aren't right there to immediately intervene. Which outcome could at minimum, result in serious injuries and an expensive vet bill. At worst, fatal injuries. To me, in almost all instances, it's just not worth the risk.

(A post from an old thread)
"Just to throw my two cents in, I volunteered (heh, before turning them in to theSPCA due to the conditions there)at a place that - albiet not formally - did "colony breeding" in the sense of having large runs of mixed sex rabbits. While the majority of the rabbits co-existed fairly peacefully, the few that for whatever reason either sought fights more or were picked on more had disastrous outcomes. There were ALWAYS a few bucks and does with terribly shredded ears, noses, etc. and on more than one occasion, the fighting was bad enough that rabbits lost eyes. Does seemed to fight more often, but bucks fought more viciously. I have been lerry of housing unaltered bucks together ever since, having seen the damage they can abruptly inflict on one another after coexisting peacefully for months."

If you decide to continue regardless of the risk, please keep a very close watch on the baby rabbit as he matures. In a few weeks time he's likely to start showing signs of puberty starting, by attempting to hump your older male. If your older male starts getting aggitated or scared of your baby bun pestering him with the humping, this is when the fights could break out, and when separating is likely going to become necessary, before a real fight breaks out and injuries occur.

If you decide to not risk it but would still like them to be able to interact, if they seem to get along fine for now, strictly supervised time together is a possibility. And having adjoining living spaces where they can still be near each other, but in the safety of their own pen (make sure the baby bun can't scale the fencing to your older buns pen), can be a way to help try and maintain a relationship between them without the risk of having them living together in the same space, until baby bun is neutered and you can then officially bond them.

This is what I did for the baby buns I raised from a doe I got that ended up being pregnant. She had 5 babies, and when they hit puberty I had to separate the boys, but each day I would sit with them in a room to let them continue to run around and 'play' together. I would have to intervene if any humping occurred, to make sure nothing escalated. And once they got to the point that the hormones were driving them to only think about humping the whole time, playtimes stopped happening, until I could get them all neutered and properly bonded in their family group.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Spaying_and_neutering_rabbits

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Choosing_a_rabbit_veterinarian
 
UPDATE:

new baby bun is basically Satan’s spawn and attacks anything that moves, including our older bun, the second time we put them together he attacked Cosmo and ripped out a few chunks of fur. Cozzy fled to a corner before jumping out of the pen. (all happened within seconds before we could intervene)

Today, Sunny attacked the broom and a stuffed animal, and then growled and tried to bite cosmo thru the bars of his cage. Who knew babies could be so much trouble!

He’s actually very sweet with us however. Can’t wait to get him neutered and see how he mellows.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top