Bonding rabbits, need help. They are suddenly fighting.

[yuumibunny]

Hello,

i have two rabbits, zuko (male, about 6 months) and Yuumi (female, about 1 year). They are both spayed/neutered. I’ve been bonding them since end of January.

last week, I tried having them live together in a small area in my room. I was home for my 2 day weekend so I was able to keep a close eye on them. There was no fighting or aggressive behaviour during that 48 hour period and there was a lot of grooming, cuddles and binkies. My husband was home with them all day for another extra day and we decided they were okay to be left alone after that (we do have a camera over their enclosure)

after 1 week in the small area in my room, I really wanted to move them to the original area I wanted them to stay at. It is a different area in my room but more spacious (ideally I want them to free roam once they get to that point). Day 1 of being in a new area there was no problem, evening of day 2 my husband had to break up a fight. No one was injured just a little bit of fur pulling. After the fight they went back to grooming each other and laying beside each other. I kept an eye on them until I went to bed, in the morning they got into another fighT. I had to break it up and they were fine again afterwards. I have to go to work but husband is home today.
Should I leave them together today? I will for sure put a barrier between them when husband and I are both at work because I don’t trust them right now.
Also any ideas on what to do? Is it the new space that’s causing them to fight?

 

[Dusty07]

My guess would be it’s the new space sometimes when bonding rabbits get more space they tend to become more territorial usually the next step after that would be to again reduce the space for about a day or maybe even a couple of hours and if they’re getting along without any fights at that point you can try to expand the space again.

 

[John Wick]

Considering the sporadic fights that are indeed escalating to actual fights (as opposed to a short chase or nip exchange), I would not leave them alone unsupervised.

It sounds like the new space was introduced and brought up some territorialness. This may have come from introducing a larger space too suddenly and/or the space was not neutral enough to maintain the bond they had built so far.

In not being able to know what occurred during the bonding between them and what their dynamic actually looks like, my cautious recommendation is to return to neutral and ensure they can be together 24+hrs without issue. Once cemented there, then you can retry the intended space, but start small in that space and slowly expand out to the entire space. While you're cementing things in neutral, I would work to neutralize the intended space as much as possible.

 

[yuumibunny]

A quick update, so we kept them together in that space when someone was home to watch over them. Also kept them together at night since it’s close enough to my bed that I can easily hear them.

we put a barrier between them when we were at work, they would run to each other and hide together when it was time to be separated so I was a little sad about it.

my roommate has been home the past few days so we didn’t separate them. They are doing okay so far, they are back to cuddles and grooming each other. No fight since the day I made the original post. I think the new space might’ve been too much for them as I noticed they had small poops during the initial move. They are back to regular poop and staying together. Lots of binkies and zoomies as well.

im thinking of keeping them in this area for about 2 weeks before introducing them to free roaming half the room..

 

[Blue eyes]

If the room is very large, you may want to go less than half the space. Increase space in small increments and expand gradually over time. It's better to take things slowly than to have them get nippy from getting too much space too quickly.

 

[DeeNtheBuns]

They are adorable! I don't have anything new to add, just wanted to comment on their photo. They look very relaxed together although rabbits are so strange- they can turn on a dime.