I thought they were both girls

Question
I got what I thought was 2 female bunnies about 3 months ago. They are
now about 5 or 6 months old. Lately I have noticed tufts of fur in
their cage and I didnt think anything of it. Today while they were in their
play pen, one of them started chasing the other, it then grabbed a
chunk of skin/fur on its back and then mounted. It will not leave the
other one alone. I went online and looked at how to sex rabbits and that
left me still unsure. Do you have any advise on either sexing or telling
if  rabbit is pregnant? Thanks!


Answer
Dear Sunnie,

Your rabbits are reaching sexual maturity, and unless you have them spayed/neutered ASAP, the fighting will escalate and could have fatal consequences.  For now, provide them with a MUCH bigger space so they can get away from each other and not have to engage in this dominance behavior (even rabbits of the same sex will mount each other to try to gain social dominance) that is highly stressful to both rabbits--but especially the "underdog."

You can find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and read this:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

If the rabbits are really fighting, you must separate them until they are both fixed, and then carefully reintroduce them with the tips in the articles here:

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

If the rabbits are of opposite sex, it's even more important to have them spayed/neutered ASAP, to prevent unwanted litters.  Please see:

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

Hope this helps!

Dana