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aggresive female rabbit

22 10:30:35

Question
I believe my 2 year old black dutch is female.  I recently got a friend for her that
I think is also female but maybe a rex.  The dutch is aggresive towards the new
rabbit and tries to mount the her.  I have checked the sex, I thought, correctly.  
Is it probable that the dutch is a male or do some females do this as a show of
dominance?  Thanks for your time.... staceee@verizon.net

Answer
Hi Stacey,

please separate them as soon as possible.  They could seriously injure each other, and possibly kill one of them.  Your vet bill will be large.

You need to do proper bonding and if neither have been spayed, you should have them spayed.  By doing this you have put a strange rabbit into your gal's territory and she will naturally defend it.  This is not good.

Two female, unspayed rabbits will fight.  They will mark excessively.  This is not good.  

You need to keep them in separate spaces for now, where they can't touch each other. Keep your first gal in her normal space, put the new one in a space the first gal does not consider "hers".  Then start looking for a GOOD rabbit vet that can spay both of them.

To find a good rabbit vet start here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.

Right now you have two rabbits that are being totally run by their (large amounts of) hormones.  They cannot help their behavior to dominate the other and because they are intact, they will be a lot more aggressive.  If they are spayed this will allow their natural personalities to come through, they will not be overridden by hormones and they will nto be as aggressive.

You should never introduce two strange rabbits together without doing bonding (and having them fixed).  Don't even try bonding them until one month AFTER the last ones' spay procedure.  It takes about a month to get their hormone levels stabilized at their new lower levels.

Spend time on the House Rabbit Society reading their articles on bonding:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/multiple.html

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/4-4/tough-bonding.html

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-4/marriage.html

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-8/rabbits-in-the-plural.html

Lee