HELP! How to introduce males together

[Colorqueen]

Hi,
I am still pretty new here and need some advice.

We used to have two rabbits- male and female, but our female passed and we have the male that was her brother. He is very laid back and very calm and fun. He is a white English Angora with blue eyes that flicker red every now and then.

Because we did not have them neutered, we kept them apart, and the male would always try to mate with the female if he got too close. He was rather vigorous in his mounting everything. Once she died, he completely changed and relaxed and has been great since.

We have gotten two rabbits this past few months that are completely different in temperament. They are both French Angoras and males. One is very high strung, and FAST, and he seems to like the white one but when we tried to introduce them to each other, Max, the white bunny tried to mount him and we panicked b/c we didn't want a fight, so we separated them.

The third one is a more relaxed male who seems to be more submissive, but he was wounded at the place where he was born when another male in the litter tried to slash his male parts to pieces He is still functional for urinating but he will not be able to mate. This happened quite a few months ago before we got him and he is healed now.

We thought of maybe putting those two together so they could play, but now I am paranoid b/c I don't want any males doing what happened to the wounded one.

What kind of experiences or ideas does anyone have with this type of thing? I am not sure what to do, but it would be easier if at least two of them could become friends and hang out together- and it would be easier on us too so we could have them be let out at the same time for exercise instead of keeping them separate.

The white one is about three years old and the other two are about 8 months or so old.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Unaltered bucks should not be housed (or even temporarily exercised) together. They will fight, which could lead to further injury.

If you wish to bond them, the best option is to have them neutered first, and then try to bonding process.

 

[agnesthelion]

Yes I agree.

Same sex pairs prove to be a bit more difficult to bond anyway. Let alone unaltered males which will more than likely fight. It is just to big of a risk. don't want them to hurt each other. Bunny fights can be pretty viscous!

I agree to neuter them and then attempt a bond. Just be aware there still could be challenges since they are same sex. Spontaneous fighting even in altered buns is a bit more prevalent in same sex pairs.

Good luck!

 

[1357bunnylover]

Everyone i know that has tried to bond 2 males have told me to never try it lol Even after neutering it can be hard, it's just much easier to bond a neutered male and neutered female. I wouldn't want to try it, but it might work with your 2. But as OakRidgeRabbits said they would both have to be neutered and then you could try the bonding process.

 

[missyscove]

I have a bonded pair of neutered males. They came into the shelter together after being found as strays and they kept them together until and after they were neutered. I think the stress of being in a shelter makes the bonding process easier. Personally I wouldn't try bonding two males until well after they were neutered.

 

[Shmoo06]

I have 2 bonded altered males. They knew each other when they were babies before I had them(a got one from my friend and the other from my friend's mother a couple months after). I kept them separated until it had been at least a month of both of them being neutered. I got them neutered about a month apart for financial reasons. Before they were neutered, I had them close enough to where they could smell each other and see each other, but not touch each other. After one was neutered I would let them touch each other through the xpen while supervised. They were pretty friendly, but would randomly get a little nippy with each other. It wasn't hard to break up that way. When I first started letting them be together without a boundary, it was a hump fest for sure, but it didn't last for too long and they weren't viscous as far as I could tell. They eventually worked out the dominance thing. One day it did randomly start again(I made a post about it), but I haven't seen it since.

They aren't a year old yet(were born around February), so that may be something to take into consideration. My recommendation would be to get them neutered first.

 

[Imbrium]

you definitely want to get them neutered before you try to bond anyone - on *rare* occasions, it's possible for two unaltered males to get along, but that's definitely the exception to the rule (and the few stories I've heard where it worked out, the bond basically happened by accident). given that bunny fights can be vicious or even deadly, I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to bond unaltered bunnies. keep in mind, it can take as long as 6-8 weeks after a neuter for a male's hormones to be totally gone.

as others have said, same sex bonds are a good bit trickier. they're easiest to establish if you start them together as babies, though it's not impossible with adults if their first instinct isn't to start fighting. assuming you manage to bond two males, you definitely want to keep an eye out for fights (or signs fighting has happened, like clumps of hair scattered around) in the future, as sometimes a same-sex bond gets randomly upset for no apparent reason (if the bond gets messed up somehow, it's typically possible to repair it).

 

[edwinf8936]

I have a bonded pair of males, New Zealand and Lionhead. They just kind of took to each other without me trying to get them together. The lionhead worships the New Zealand.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Neuter before trying to bond--no other way.

 

[Chrisdoc]

I have three bonded males, two who I got together, think they are brothers, and who lived together from birth and the other is around 5 months younger. I had always intended neutering all of them as I had read on a few sites that it is recommended but I had been putting it off as I also read that it is better to neuter all of them at the same time as well. The first two I never had trouble with until they got to around 8 months and they began to fight. Nothing serious but I was scared it would get worse with time. Houdini was also a serious sprayer. Bandy, my angora cross was OK with both of them and has never fought with either.

I had them all done on the same day and separted the two brothers for a couple of days until they had recovered. However, when I put them back together, the fighting was far worse and I had to separate them which caused lots of problems at play time as I couldn´t let them both out at the same time.

I had also read that rebonding should be done on neutral territory so I chose the bath and put them in there every day increasing the time they spent together. It was hard and when I thought that they wouldn´t sort things out, after about a week, they suddenly lay down together and that was it.

So now, I have three lovely little boys who get on so well together and love cuddling up and grooming each other.

Here are the three of them having a little siesta....

 

[holtzchick]

Awh your boys are gorgeous together good for you

Sorry unfortunately my only advice on this topic is to get your males neutered. I know it's like a broken record but that's all I can suggest

 

[Chrisdoc]

Yes, I was lucky with my three as when I got the third one, he just bonded with the other two immediately. However, I do agree that even if they are bonded from birth, you still need to neuter as eventually they will start to fight as mine did. I waited to do mine, if I could do things again, I would probably have had them done as soon as I could to avoid any problems.