My rabbits are mental! Help! - Paw Talk

RSbunny · #1 03-11-2004, 04:45 PM

Ok just wondering if any of you rabbit owners have any advice for me cause I am coming to the conclusion that my rabbits are never going to get along!! They are both spayed and have been for over nearly two months now so their hormones should have subsided a lot!! They are in a cage together but seperated by wire. We did this once before and Shadow climbed over the wire and attacked Molly and Molly jumped out of the cage! I don't know how they jumped so high cause i'm 5'8" and when I clean the cage I have to bend over it and I balance my waist on the top and my legs dangle off the ground....so yes it is high! Since they have been spayed I have let them run around the house together and when they are in a big open area they are okay together. They still thump at each other but they only nip at each other rather than full on attacking. I let this happen cause I figure that they have to sort out their dominance issues but it is very supervised!! In the cage seperated by wire they will lie next to each other and be fine. I can thoroughly clean the cage out (and they swap sides every week so they get used to each other's smell) put them in together and within five minutes they'll be attacking each other!! what on earth is going on?!? Why don't they get along?!? They groom each other as much as possible through the wire and pull on each others fur (they both look like they have been in a wind storm!) but it never bothers the rabbit that is getting pulled on. Molly lived with two other rabbits for a couple of weeks before I got her and Shadow lived with a buck for the first 6 months of her life. Do you guys think that they just don't like each other and I should give up or is there still hope??

Formula86 · #2 03-12-2004, 07:15 AM

i think that you should totally contact sonya fitzpatrick!!!!!!!!!! the............................................... ....................................PET PSYCHIC!!!!

Nall · #3 03-16-2004, 03:42 AM

Maybe you could let em' fight(with supervision!!), assuming they're not trying to kill eachother, they might calm down, and quit. My rabbit has never been with another rabbit since I bought him. Just other animals. He gets along with cats. I brought him to my friend's house once, it had like 5 cats. He had no fear of them, but wouldn't attack them. Most of them were afraid of him. One was curious, and looked at him. Though, Recently he got into a fight with my cat. I think he was mad because he kept trying to cuddle with her, and she kept ignoring him, walking away, and sometimes batting him with her paw. After one more slap from her, he ran after her, and she hissed, and kept hitting him, and he kept running after her. He never seems to bite or scratch though. He scratches my foot if I try blocking him from going out of my room when I walk in.

elfomatic · #4 03-17-2004, 03:24 AM

it sounds like a territorial issue ... otherwise your problems would be the same outside of the cage. i would recommend replacing the wire with a solid barrier ... cheap corkboard or something. more than likely, this out of sight, out of mind scenario will fix the situation.

BrendaLynn · #5 03-19-2004, 09:59 PM

Hi, I just wanted to say that I can relate. My two females never got along. It got to the point that I couldn't stand to watch Ruth tear at Pinkie so I found Ruth a new home where she is doted on and doesn't have to share her territory with any other females. Now Pinkie is much more relaxed.(Well I am at least!)

RSbunny · #6 03-20-2004, 12:02 AM

elfomatic thanx for the advice but I want them living together if I can, not seperate. LMC I think it is just a personality issue....I think I have to accept it now. They both attack each other....they have very bad haircuts at the moment from where they pull at each other through the cage! Lucky for me I only have the two and I'm able to keep them both seperately. shadow loves the outdoors so she will become an outside bunny as soon as her cage is finished and we will buy Molly a proper indoor cage.

RSbunny · #7 03-20-2004, 12:07 AM

Nall sorry, I missed your post!! I have been left them fight supervised for the last two months or so (after they got their staples out from being spayed) and it is when they are out of the cage....they still fight, it's just that they don't fight as bad as if they are in the cage together. Thanx though!!

Nall · #8 03-20-2004, 06:29 AM

Well, darn. My rabbit and the other pets don't always fight. I don't know how rabbits fight. In the story Watership Down, rabbits would kill eachother violently, and there'd be blood(well that was the animated movie, I don't know about the book). Not once has my rabbit ever bitten me, or the other pets. the dog he'd only grunt at. Me, he normally just scratches. Sometimes if I'm annoying him and my hands are in the way, he will grab them with his teeth, and move them out of the way, but he doesn't hurt me at all. But one day not long ago, I picked him up, and he kicked me, hard! On my wrist, drawing blood and he also grunted, so he was pretty mad at me for some reason. Maybe just picking him up alone did it. Maybe bad mood. He hasn't kicked me in a very long time. He's normally quite cuddly, sometimes he'll let me pull him close to me and pet him. He loves pets.

BrendaLynn · #9 03-20-2004, 10:14 AM

That is an adorable Sig pic Nall! Yeah I know that it is hard to keep two animals that don't get along and I intende to keep Ruth but this opportunity came along where she got to get a loving home so i took it. I have my 3 guinea pigs that don't get along also and so MilkieWay is is his own space on one side of the girls' pen and Teddy and Sass are on the other side of the girls' pen and everyone gets along just fine now.

RSbunny · #10 03-20-2004, 07:01 PM

luvmycritters it is hard to have two animals that fight but I've had Shadow since she was 6 weeks and molly since she was 4 months and they are both nearly a year old now and I would miss them so terribly. Shadow has become the sweetest little cudle bug but she chews everything and still flicks all her litter out of her tray as soon as I've cleaned it (I have given up on chagning it every day for her...she likes it messy so I just change it a couple of times a week now) and molly is so clean and tidy and such an angel, she doesn't chew any cords (but used to like the walls) and I just couldn't bear to let one go. When we move I'll get a proper indoor cage for Molly....it's going to have to be that way, there is nothing else I can do...but I guess that cause they'll be living by themselves they'll end up very big cuddle bugs with me which is a bonus!
Nall, rabbits draw blood and fight to the death if they want to. Shadow attacked my friends bunny once (she let her down not realising that Shadow was out and Shadow just went for her) and she grabbed onto the back of her neck and din't let go untli she'd pulled the first few layers of her skin off. It was very very scary and how Skittle didn't die of shock is beyond me. Molly and shadow just pull each other's fur out so it's a bit more disciplined but in the cage they don't let go of each other easy. Lucky there has been no blood. I'd say that your bunny was just having a bad day Nall. Everyone has them!

Raiquee · #11 03-28-2004, 09:42 AM

Some rabbits may never get along, like people. I could get my tubes tied and still hate the people I do. I suggest not trying to put them together again.

BrendaLynn · #12 03-29-2004, 07:32 AM

THat is so true!

rain_761 · #13 04-14-2004, 04:40 PM

My two rabbits get along well, but when they are in the same cage now that's a different story. I thought that since the got along i'd try putting them in the cage. Well BIG MISTAKE!I left them alone for like 10min. when i went back in the room there was white fur all over the cage my newnew zealand rabbit had bit my dwarf rabbit on the belly two or three times and took a chunck off her. I got medicine and she's all better now. They still play together.

veggiegirl · #14 05-13-2004, 05:31 PM

I did a lot of research on bonding rabbits before I got my two together. It can take a very long time, but if you do it right they should learn to get along. You should keep them in separate cages at first, exercise them in separate areas, and only introduce them for short periods of time in neutral territory. If you keep letting them fight and live in the same cage, they may never get along because they will remember the fights that they had in the past. Try looking up "bonding rabbits" on the internet and you should find different techniques. Taking them on car rides together or putting them in an empty bathtub works for a lot of people. The key is to get the rabbits together in a slightly stressful situation for short periods of time. They will learn to comfort one another and they will remember that comfort instead of the fighting. If you do this over a period of a few weeks for short amounts of time, I'm sure that they will get along. Just try to be patient with them and understand that this is totally normal behavior for rabbits, especially two females. I hope that it works out for you because rabbits do much better in pairs. If you need any more advice, let me know.

Stephanie

RSbunny · #15 05-14-2004, 01:49 AM

Thanx for you advice stephanie but I'd be doing that from the time I got molly...that was almost 7 months ago. They started in the bath tub and in the car and they were fine. I have done lots of research on rabbits and read lots about bonding. I also know that male/female are the best combinations and introducing two rabbits that are adults or in their teenage years can take a long time and that sometimes two rabbits will just never get along. The cage with the divider down the middle is the next step in the bonding process to get the smells in the cages properly. It didn't work. They have been seperated now for about a month and are both much happier. I do still believe that having two bunnies as friends is better than one bunny but I can't own four bunnies, these two girls are not going to get along and they just enjoy their attention from their mumma now instead

Thanks for the help though!