Aggression between rabbits

Question
I gave a home to two lionhead sisters earlier in the year.  They have a large hutch for night time and spend the daylight hours in a large run on the lawn.  They have been fine together until they were both spayed.  Unfortunately one did not cope well with the anesthetic and had to say in the vets overnight.  When she came home the other rabbit attacked her quite severely.  Since then I have kept them separate by  secctioning the hutch and the run with wire mesh so that they can still see one another but not get hurt.  Today (2 weeks after the spay ) we tried them together in an area neither had been before for about an hour.  They seemed ok but there was a lot of ' head resting on the back of the others neck', the one which caused the wounds previously was pulling the others fur from its rear end and nibbling her feet. Does this behaviour indicate aggression or just ' I am top rabbit' behaviour as I would not wish to put any of my pets in any danger of injury.  Your help would be appreciated.  Thanks

Answer
Hi,

in the future it's almost always better to keep a bonded pair together even in recovery at the vet, to prevent this from happening.  the only time not to is if one is attacking the other and they would then require recovery in separate cages (but next to eah other).

You will have to slowly reinro them at small intervals.  If things go well without fighting, it can be considered successful.  One will always be dominant, so the behavior you describe will occur, that isn't fighting.  Fighting is different from dominance moves.  However you must always be on the lookout for things to get out of hand and lead to fighting.  Start with small periods together in the most neutral parts of the house.  If things go okay, increase the time.  If fighting goes on, take a break and next time go slower - fighting indicates you are movign too fast in the bonding.

I'd suggest going to the House Rabbit Society web site and searching on articles with "bonding".  Also the books I recommend are good to have on hand.