Bunny moshing

Question
QUESTION: A few weeks ago we saw our 7 bunnies go into a frenzied wrestling match where all of them were intertwined in a twisting, roiling melee. They did it for about a minute and it was downright scary. When they disconnected from one another, there was fur everywhere and one of the bunnies had a scratch on his leg. If this is some kind of weird sexual thing they do, I'm not sure I want to know. Can you please shed some light on this disturbing phenomenon?

ANSWER: Hi Dennis

Are they all males?  Are they all neutered?  Are there any doe's in the bunch?  I honestly can't believe with 7 rabbits whether neutered or not that you haven't seen something like this before.  It is very difficult to bond 3 rabbits successfully much less 7.  I suppose it can be done but they would all have to be fixed.

Can you let me know

1.  Their age (babies or adults is fine)
2.  Their sexes
3.  Their neuter/spay status

If I know a bit more about them I can probably come up with some sort of answer.

Thank you

Pam

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi! Thanks for getting back to me. The bunnies are all related and they usually get along fine. They'll often all be nestled together. There is a mama and papa, ages unknown. The papa has been neutered, but not before he knocked up Mama twice. The first litter arrived in mid-January and is made up of a male (just freshly neutered, thank you) and three females. Only one baby survived from the second litter, born mid-February, and she is a female.

Thanks again!

Dennis

Answer
Hi Dennis

Well here is my opinion.  They obviously have a bond since they nestle together.  The male that is recently neutered can still have those dreaded male hormones for about 30 days after the surgery.  The females that were born in January are just starting to reach sexual maturity and are confused and don't know what all those strange hormonal feelings are.  The baby is still most likely to tiny to care.

Sadly when doe's reach sexual maturity it is very complicated to have them all get along.  Even though the bucks are neutered they are still going to want and sometimes even demand to be bred.  Since the bucks have no interest this can cause an all out slugfest, not only against the bucks but between the doe's who are competing for the bucks.  

Their hormones will slow down when they age but fights can still happen.  The best possible relationship between doe's is to have them all spayed, but realistically I do understand the expense involved with so many.  There have been rare occasions where 2 sister siblings have formed a tremendous bond and will remain bonded for life.  However as soon as you introduce a buck whether neutered or not it tends to cause rivalry.

There is always going to be a bunny that wants to be the dominant one and when the others don't bow down to them they will fight.  Since you have a few then it is very possible that several of them insist on being the dominant bunny.  In this instance they can literally fight to the death.

The bucks should be ok since they are both fixed.  I highly doubt it was them that instigated the fight but unfortunately ended up in the middle of it.  I can't promise because I have never successfully bonded more than 3 rabbits, but if you have the doe's all fixed it may be possible.  Eeeks I can only imagine the cost to get 5 doe's fixed only to find out they won't get along anyway.

You can do a few things.  You can make sure that their play time is always supervised and have a water bottle handy.  If a fight breaks out just start squirting.  You can separate them into groups and never let the groups together.  For example:  I have 3 groups of rabbits in my house.  1 lives in my bathroom/bedroom, 1 lives in my spare bedroom and 2 live in the kitchen dining room.  None of them even know that the others exist as I never let them in each other's area.  I know its complicated and it gets annoying to trip over my child gates everyday but that is the only way my situation will work.

You could keep the original mom and pop together since they have an intense bond.  It would be very easy to bond the neutered buck with one of the other young doe's since they are already used to each other.  You could try to watch and find out which rabbit is instigating the fights and keep that one by itself, with plenty of toys to play with so it doesn't get lonely.

Or you can just leave them all together and assume that fights will break out and hope that none of them are horribly serious.  I really don't know what I would do in your situation.  I feel really bad that this happened to you but I am just afraid that without having all the doe's spayed that it is going to be extremely difficult.  

As for being a sexual thing.... I am sure it was but since the bucks are both fixed I don't think you have to worry about more babies, thank goodness.  I think the fight was more related to hormones.


I don't know if this will help since it is about bonding 2 rabbits rather than 7 but it doesn't hurt to take a look..

http://www.freewebs.com/hgrabbitry/howtobondmybunnies.htm

I hope that I was able to answer at least some of your concerns.

Thank you for being a rabbit lover and good luck with all those young ones  :)

Pam