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Two bonded unsprayed rabbits now fighting?

22 9:57:46

Question
We have two female bunnies at 5mths old who have not been sprayed. One is a black dawrf lop, the other a grey lionhead. We bought them together from the pet shop and they live indoors perminantly in a shared hutch/cage. They have been the best of friends since day one and never been seperated, not even on visits to the vets. They share everything, including food bowls and this has never been a problem.

Out of nowhere one morning they suddenly had a massive fight and have caused injury to one another. The dwarf lop in particular keeps 'going' for the lionhead now (which is a little smaller and lighter but not by much). We are aware that two unsprayed females would fight, however we are not sure if this is just a hormone thing?

The lionhead has more plumage on her front then two weeks ago and keeps showing signs of a phantom pregnancy, would the female dwarf lop attack or show hostility like this to her because she thinks she is pregnant?

Also last night we gave them a treat which they had never had before, all day today their poo and bottoms suddenly smell much stronger and potent then normal. Is it possible the new treat has 'altered' their poo so they think that their mate is another rabbit?

We are really concerned as the fight was really distressing to see and we don't want them to loose their bond.

Answer
Dear Laura,

Sorry for the delay; I have just finished an excruciatingly busy middle school ecology outreach program that pretty much prevented me from doing anything but that!  But now I'm back.

What you describe is not uncommon.  Once puberty sets in, all bonding bets are off.  The two will try to establish dominance, and mounting behavior can foment ferocious fights.  So until both girls are spayed, keep them apart to prevent further injury.  I hope it's not too late to re-bond them, but only time and patient trials (post spay) will tell.  Here are some good articles on bonding that I hope will help:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-a=00062824-sp00000000&sp-q=bonding

But spaying them is of utmost importance:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

and you can find an experienced rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

The treats and the false pregnancy are not the culprits for the fighting.  It's just onset of sexual maturity, so it's time for both girls to be spayed, preferably at the same time so they can be miserable together and recover together.  That might help the re-bonding process.

Hope this helps.

Dana