Mounting...

[alied14]

Hi,

We've just started to bond our bunnies Brie (6 months) and Blade (3 1/2 months) had there hutches against each others for a few days and there was bit of nipping but now just sniffing and bit of licking.

We decided to let them both out in neutral area tuesday night, no fighting, when they were sat next to each other being stroked together she licked his head and he nuzzled his head underneath her chin.

After a while SHE mounted him and we separated them and sprayed her using water bottle, this happened few more times and again last night too.

Other than that, no fighting or violence at all?

Any tips on how to stop mounting?

And how are we doing with the bonding?

 

[majorv]

Is the 6 month old fixed? If not, she is most likely hormonal and trying to mate, and/or show dominance. This could stress out the younger one if he's not at that stage yet. You can't really bond them until they're both fixed.

 

[alied14]

she's been fixed.

 

[Aki]

She's the top rabbit. Let her mount him, especially if he lets her. Dominant rabbits are often females, which is part of why I love rabbits so much. When I introduced my first two rabbits to each other, the female (which is half the size of the male) spent the first few days mounting him, following him everywhere and marking everything he touched. I was shocked because she was a tiny little ball of fluff and, considering that he was a lot bigger than her, I thought she would be scared of him.
After a while, as he submitted, she stopped (just mounting once in a while to remind him she was still top rabbit). They had the best relationship ever: the female was using the male as her personnal masseur, cushion, bodyguard and slave and he seemed really happy to do it all. They loved each other. The male died one year ago and my female had a really hard time getting over it. It's getting better, she gets on OK with her new boyfriend, but the first one was clearly the slave of her life ^^

 

[daisyandparsley7]

I have a 3 year old female and 3 year old male and she has always mounted. Both are fixed. She's super dominant and they have been bonded for about a year and she still does it often. Especially when I am about to feed them.... But my male is really passive so he just lets her and when he has had enough he runs and they chase for a bit and it stops. She's showing dominance like everyone here has said.

 

[JBun]

Spraying with water is really unnecessary. Some mounting is normal, especially as they are sorting out dominance. If it gets to be excessive and lasts more than 10 seconds then it is a good idea to interrupt it by just moving her off him. It will settle once they sort out their relationship.

The problem you will most likely have is if he isn't neutered yet. When he starts being hormonal and pestering her with humping, this can often lead to fights when the other rabbit gets fed up with the excessive humping behavior. So if he isn't neutered yet, then you will need to separate when he starts showing hormonal behavior, and start the bonding all over again 2-4 weeks after his surgery.

 

[majorv]

Given the male's young age, if it seems to be stressing him out then I'd try to keep her mounting to a minimum. Since she is telling him she's the alpha rabbit you may have problems when his hormones kick in and he tries to mount her.

 

[alied14]

The mounting seems to have changed slightly in that she sometimes nips him. Also,they'll lay down together happily and he licks her but when he lays his head down for her to lick him she won't. Will this change?

 

[Blue eyes]

With him getting ready to be hormonal, I don't think you should bother to try to bond them right now. Once his hormones kick in, he's likely to lash out at her and you can only hope you are there to stop it in time. Whether or not they start getting along now won't have any effect on how/if they bond after he gets neutered. The only exception might be if they have a really bad fight while he's hormonal. That could prevent them from bonding at all in the future.

The safest route to take is to keep them separated for now until after he's neutered and has had several weeks post surgery for those hormones to dissipate.