Pregnant ot just agressive??

Question
I have two dwarf rabbits at about nine months of age. We bought them together and never got the sex of them, they haven't had babies yet so we assumed that they were both male or both female.We have no problems until now. Just a few weeks ago we noticed that one of them was missing a small patch of fur from its left thigh. We didn't worry about it too much but as time has gone by the fur just keeps going missing. Today we cleaned the cage and took out the house we built them. The rabbits fur was in there and it looked like a nest and the rabbit itself has no fur left on his left leg and on his left side there is a lot missing as well. The other rabbit is completely fine. When we put them back in the cage I saw the healthy one mount the one with missing fur and start tearing out more fur. Other than the missing fur there is no scratches or bite marks. I have separated them for now but I would like to know what is going on! I'm not sure if the healthy one is pregnant or if they're both the same sex and just fighting.

Answer
Dear Jeannine,

If the one is actually pulling fur, it could be a false pregnancy.  But that won't last long if the other is male.  Same sex pairs will mount for dominance reasons, and this can elicit a false pregnancy. But at the age of nine months, they are fertile, and both rabbits should be spayed or neutered to keep the peace. Fighting can ensue from unwanted mounting, which will continue if the bunnies are intact.

Also, females have a very high risk of uterine cancer, so must be spayed.  Please see:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

and find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

In case you do suddenly get a litter of babies, please also see this for help:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/surpriselitter.html

Hope this helps.

Dana