Food Agression causing problems with bonded pair

[kirst3buns]

I have a bonded pair that has been living together for several months now. Things seem fine with them unless it's feeding time. Basil (neutered male) has always been aggressive at feeding time but now he's taking it out on Penny. When he sees me open the bag of pellets he starts chasing her and has pulled out tufts of hair. He runs at her and me grunting so I try to hurry and get pellets in both bowls. He acts the same when I feed them their veggies too. I separate them while they are eating to make sure they both get all their veggies. I don't usually separate them when they eat their pellets because once they have both settled at their bowl, they seem to finish at about the same time and there aren't sharing issues.

I'm worried about Basil hurting Penny over his food issues. I've been wondering if there is any "cure" for a food aggressive rabbit. They have hay all the time and there are no issues in sharing the hay. Anyone ever dealt with this and figured out a solution?

 

[Maureen Las]

why don't you separate them prior to bringing out the bag of pellets...possibly change their feeding time to a little earlier so he won't exactly know what you are doing.

my pair does a little of this but it isn't enough for me to think that one would hurt the other.
i truly don't know how to prevent the feeding frenzy behavior.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

You could try putting the food in the bowl in another room. That way they don't see the bag and get excited. This may not work for long as he will get used to you bringing the food dishes out.

Letting them out of the cage could also help.
Giving Penny a place to get away could help her too.

Stopping Basil form doing the behaviour may help. Keep interrupting him until he stops.

 

[kirst3buns]

They are usually already out when I feed them. Luckily, Penny is learning to run and hide until he is safely eating. I just feel bad for her. A few days ago he took out quite a tuft of fur because she wasn't quick enough. :XAfter dinner they were back to laying next to each other and acting as though nothing happened. The same thing happens when I show up with greens or pellets.

I actually hadn't thought of just stopping the behaviour while it's happening. Maybe I can enlist someone else in my house to bringtheir food while I'm distracting him with pets or something. Once he's eating, he's fine. It's the 30 seconds it takes me to set the bowls down where he goes nutso.

 

[MissBinky]

"He runs at her and me grunting so I try to hurry and get pellets in both bowls. He acts the same when I feed them their veggies too."

How about you prepare the bowls away from them and set them down at the same time after? (sorry if I misunderstood what you were saying) What I sed to do is give them each a treat such as a parsley branch or baby carrot and while they were chomping down on that I'd give them each a bowl of food

 

[Maureen Las]

Actually Penn( lop in my avatar)does this with Daisy..bites her in the butt but doesn't pull hair unless I place both food dishes down at exactly the same moment and direct each nose to separate bowls.

he is so skittish anyway that i don't want to reprimand him as he is not comfortable with me yet
I have to admit that it aggravates me to see him being mean to her ..he sometimes just bites her in the butt for no reason apparent ..he even gets a nasty look on his face. She looks frightened and runs away.
next moment they are together again :?

he has never liked her as much since she was spayed.
When I adopted them he was neutered and she wasn't spayed ..so I went through the spay with her and kept them together yet separated.

he was mean to her right after the reintroduction but has improved somewhat. I know that her scent was different.

 

[MissBinky]

Also keep in mind that they are in a hierarchy and the dominant one is usually the first to eat. It sounds likePenny is testingBasil andhe is putting her back in her place. I hope putting their bowls down at the same time will help if that's not what you were doing

 

[kirst3buns]

Funny that once I asked the question, last night with the food was better anyway.

However, he is just doing a lot of chasing and mounting in general right now so I wonder if something else is going on too. The food thing has been ongoing, but this behavior is new. Sigh, if it's not one thing, it's another...