Two Female Mini Lops (not spayed)

Question
Hi I currently own two rabbits Dumbo and Latter who are both female mini lops. They are both about 2 months old, and around .93 kilo's each. Well recently I accidentally sat on Dumbo's head which resulted in her breaking her jaw. The surgery and everything went well, we were asked by the vet to separate Dumbo from Latte due to Dumbo's jaw. Well after bringing Dumbo back from the Vet(she stayed at the vet for 3 days) we placed her back in her new cage (separated from Latte). Shortly afterwards we let Latte out of her cage to run around the house and she ran up to Dumbo's cage and flung her two paws at her through the wire, as if she was trying to punch her. I dismissed it thinking she was just trying to say hello, but later on she did it again whenever Dumbo sat or went near the edge of the cage where she can reach her. Ever since Dumbo was taken to the vet Latte has become a lot feistier and sometimes would attack your hand (with the whole paw thing) if you disturbed her while she was eating. This was never a problem before and I am worried about what happens later when Dumbo recovers and we place her back in the cage, because every time they are at arms length latte tries to swipe at her through the cage. They were from the same litter, from the same store and have been together for about 2 months now without a single problem. I don't understand what is going on can you please help? Thanks.

Answer
Hi Richard

When rabbits are separated even for a short period of time, generally over 24 hours, they can lose their bond.  Naturally since they are both un-spayed they are both going to start getting tremendous hormones that are almost to the point of annoyance pretty shortly.

The best thing you can do is take them back to the vet and have them spayed and then bond them properly.  Latte is showing aggression towards Dumbo because she either can't be with her or she blames her for leaving her.  

Whatever you do absolutely do not put them back together in the same cage until they have been properly bonded.  One of them will end up injured and chances are it will be Dumbo who is already weak from the surgery.

If you want some info on how to properly re-introduce them you can try these sites:

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

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

Good luck and I hope they will start to get along again after they are spayed

Pam