Neutered & Bonded, now suddenly mounting?

[rhianna]

I have a pair of neutered male bunnies named Bear and Jean-Luc. Bear is 3 years, 3 months old while Jean-Luc is around 2-2.5 years old but I don't know for sure. I had Bear neutered over a year ago, and Jean-Luc had been neutered before I got him.

These guys have been bonded very successfully for about 8 months with no issues whatsoever. The bonding process was pretty smooth and simple, and they were living together after about a month. They've always been inseparable and had no issues with each other.

During the bonding process, there was no mounting or circling. They basically just went straight from hating each other (staying on opposite sides of the bonding area, growling and biting when the other came near) to "hanging out" together to eventually snuggling and grooming and following each other around (in a friendly way). However, it's been 8 months of them being bunny boyfriends and some odd behavior has started.

A couple of nights ago I heard some ruckus in the bunny cage, so I turned on the light and saw that Bear was circling Jean-Luc ("Luke") around the cage. Luke would hop to one side, and Bear would follow, then Luke would hop to the other side, etc. The behavior stopped after a minute or two and they snuggled up and Bear started grooming Luke. Neither of them seemed annoyed or aggressive, except for Luke obviously trying to get away from Bear when he was circling.

This has happened a few times over the past couple of days. It lasts for a couple of minutes each time, then Bear grooms Luke for a minute or so, and they go about their normal business.

Today, this behavior happened again, but this time Bear was mounting Luke. Luke would hop away and Bear would follow him, mounting him again. They finally stopped after a couple of minutes and, like usual, Bear groomed Luke, and they went on with their bunny business.

I'm just a bit concerned because this is new and unlike them. Nothing has changed in the environment that would cause them to become territorial. It doesn't seem like aggressive behavior, either. Both of them have been neutered for at least a year. What could be causing this behavior, and should I be concerned?

 

[Aki]

It's completely normal. All the "male pairings" I've known are periodically battling for dominance - it's got nothing to do with hormones, but only with hierarchy. When you've got a male / female pairing, the hierarchy is generally stable (often, the female is dominant, rabbit society being naturally some kind of matriarchy) whereas in male / male pairing you can have an established hierarchy suddenly challenged for no apparent reason and a subsequent change of leader. That's why the male/female pairing is often recommended as "easier" to deal with. Nevertheless, quite often, the bunnies will decide who's boss after a few scuffles... until the other rabbit decides he wants to be on top too - I've seen 4 or 5 dramatic coups with the same pairing in the span of a few years (that's the funny thing, you'll have a submissive rabbit for 3 years who will wake up one morning deciding that that submissive thing just isn't working for him anymore) ^^. So , I wouldn't be very concerned. As long as you don't see blood, I would let them settle it between themselves, just make sure none of them can be cornered in a place with no escape. Boys will be boys...
By the way, why Jean-Luc? That's probably because I'm French, but that's a hilarious name for a rabbit - like something from a children book. I'm jealous I never thought of that...

 

[rhianna]

Aki, Thank you for easing my concerns! I thought it was probably something along those lines, but I wanted to make sure. The boys are still sorting it out and there have been no signs of aggression so I'm just going to leave them to it.

And I thought the same thing about his name... he's actually a rescue; the woman I adopted him from had rescued him from some Star Trek-obsessed teenager (though not obsessed with properly caring for bunnies) and he was named after a character from that. I'm not interested in Star Trek at all but it felt wrong to change his name! I think it's cute and it somehow fits him now that I'm used to it

 

[flemishwhite]

Just to repeat what I've posted before. We have two Flemmish sister babies...now 4 3/4 months old. 99.9% of the time, they just really love each other....they sleep together and groom each other. One girl is dominant. She will sometimes try to hump her normally submissive sister and it appears that a tuft of neck hair will result. But, my wife has seen the submissive sister hump her normally aggressive sister. For the basic activity, "humping," I don't think rabbits associate this necessarily with a sexual activity. I think it's some combination of friendlyness/dominance.

I plan to neuter them. This will cool them down. They will soon be 5 months and also be very big bunnies. ......................I really don't look forward to neutering them...it's such an intrusive operation for girl rabbits. It takes them several days (3?) to recover and they need pain meds. Also, when you love your bunnies, you know that every time they are anestized there's a slight chance they will die.