bunnies fighting

[Mika77]

I have three bunnies (yesterday was exactly a year since I got the third bunny) and things were good with them for a long time but now they are starting to fight with each other.
There is a male (neutered, about 6 years old), female (spayed, about 4 years old) and another female (spayed, about 2 years old). They live in a cage that is 3 1/2 feet by 4 1/2 feet, the cage is open most of the day.
Previously the older female was always the dominant and the younger was the most submissive. I was even worried about her because sometimes the male and the older female would pluck her hair a bit.
Well in the past month or so things started changing and the young female is trying to dominate both the other bunns. I am mostly worried about the male (Clover) because the young female (Bindi) is attacking him, also now the other female (Lilly) is upset by all this and I guess she is trying to show her dominance by humping the male like crazy. Today I became especially concerned because Bindi went after Clover in a particularly aggressive way. I know she bites hard because she bit me on the leg a few days ago and I still have a bruise.
They do not fight all the time but its becoming more frequent and it also seems that they are less affectionate with each other. I do not have too much rabbit experience but i have been told that rabbits can cause serious injuries to each other. Since the agresive behaviour is escolating over the last few weeks I am worried that eventualy there will be a big fight and someone will be injured. I am thinking of separating them but then I see them being nice with each other and i feel bad about separating them. At what point should I separate them? Is this just a phase they are going through? If I do separate them, should i keep the cages next to each other or should i put them in separate rooms? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Nancy McClelland]

You have to judge your situation for yourself. We had a bonded pair of females we had to finally separate as they started drawing blood and biting for real, not "nipping". We put them in hutches next to each other, but we couldn't even let them out together, and, that was after they'd been together for six years.

 

[Mika77]

I am happy to say that over the last few days my trio has been very good with each other and no fighting. I am hoping they can work things out with each other and live in peace.

I wanted to hear from those of you who have several bonded bunnies, is some fighting and aggression normal? I would assume it would be since in every species that seems to be the case (I have a pair of cockatiels (male and female) and they have arguments at lest a few times a day but still love each other). Also to avoid big fights, is it better to keep just two together of do larger numbers of bonded bunns usually do well together? Does anyone have good luck keeping a trio or more long term in a peaceful relationship?

 

[Amy27]

I don't have any experience with trios but I had two bonded females. The one got really sick and had to have 2 surgeries. During that time they became unbonded. I have tried really hard to put them back together and it never works. They don't draw blood when fighting, but the one rabbit will be very afraid and not leave a corner to eat or go to the bathroom. That let me know I had to separate them. Even after moving to a new place I thought I could stress bond them. Didn't happen. The one rabbit still sat in a corner and didn't eat or go to the litter box. I finally gave up.

There are people that have bonded trios. I am not sure how they did it, I can't even rebond two. But I just knew when enough was enough and that they would live separate. They still visit each other and groom through the cage. I just believe they don't want to live together.

I hope your trio keeps up with the no fighting and you can keep them all together. I do think it is good for bunnies to be with other bunnies, but sometimes, it just doesn't work out.

Keep us updated!

 

[Mika77]

Amy27, that is too bad about your bunnies. My bunnies are still doing good and i hope they will stay that way.
I had guinea pigs a few years ago and when I had three of them (all female), there was one who bossed the other two around. I always thought that she was kind of mean and I felt bad for the other two. But then the bossy pig died. I was expecting that the remaining two now could live in peace, well I was wrong. Once the bossy one was gone the other two started fighting like crazy, it got so bad that I could no longer keep them together. So this is a little story of how you just never know what animals will do.
As far as my bunnies i know that Lilly and Clover could live together okay because I do not usually see any aggression between them, Lilly will hump Clover but he does not seem to mind. Clover and Bindi do fight but now seem to be okay and are more affectionate with each other once again. Lilly and Bindi seem okay together for now but I do not know how they would be if Clover was gone(Clover is the oldest so that is a possibility), also if it was just Clover and Bindi I am not sure if that would work (Lilly seems to be the most bossy most of the time). I have read in a couple of books that if you have a couple or more females you should add a neutered male to keep the peace, not sure if that would help in your situation. Well as you know my bunnies do have issues and I do worry about it a bit, probably over react most of the time, but mostly they are friendly with each other and even if they do have some aggression it's mostly limited to some chasing and nipping but nothing serious (except once or twice).
I think it would be good if everyone who has any number of bonded bunnies would write their secrets and tips for keeping peace between the bunns.

 

[AmberNBuns]

I have never had more than 2 rabbits at a time.

I will confirm for you that rabbits can seriously injure each other though.

I had a rabbit and had just gotten another one, when I had to go away for a few days. My sister was stopping in to feed them daily, and one day I got a call from her.

The rabbits were kept separate, but I hadn't neutered either of them yet. The older rabbit was spraying all around the younger rabbit's cage. The younger rabbit had apparently had enough and nearly bit the older rabbit's nose off! The poor guy was disfigured even though there were bars between them.

I am not telling you this to suggest you should just move them away from each other. But my advice is to supervise them when they are able to be in contact with each other, even in adjacent cages. Just until you are convinced that they have worked out their pecking order and are not fighting over dominance any more.

Rabbits are social and are generally better off if not isolated from each other. I would guess that the 2 year old is just old enough to feel the urge to challenge for dominance. If these were my rabbits, I would put them together regularly, but supervise them closely.

Watch them work it out. Usually, they will sort things out without it escalating to injury. If one gets aggressive and the other submits, you don't really have a problem. The problems start when the one being dominated won't tolerate it and the aggression is reciprocated on an escalating scale.

The other thing to watch out for is if one is being bullied to the point of not being allowed to meet their basic needs. If a rabbit is submitting to a dominant one and the dominant one is relentless, then they shouldn't live together until that behavior diminishes.

I bet it is an age and hormone thing, and things will mellow out as your youngest bunny gets past this stage in life. Just supervise them until they have been peaceful with each other for some time. Then try them living in the same cage if you want. In the mean time, I suggest putting them near each other, but with enough space between the cages that they can't reach each other. Then socialize them 2 at a time in a neutral place on a regular basis so they can have some grooming and bonding contact.

HTH

 

[Mika77]

AmberNBuns, Thank you for all the advice

 

[AmberNBuns]

You are welcome! I hope it helps