Bonded Pair--Fighting

Question
Hello Lee:

I have two 4 month old sisters. I just adopted them yesterday and up till this point I have only had experience with OLDER, SINGLE rabbits. The girls are spayed and have been inseperable in the past. Today, while playing, the more dominant one started humping the other one and then they started full-out fighting. It took forever to seperate the fight and when we did, we put one in the play pen and the other in the cage. After a bit, we put them back together, but the fighting started again. They are miserable when seperated but when together they start this whole fight thing again. Any ideas as to why this is happening? I noticed that the dominant one spent a while sniffing at her sisters bottom and being nosy there.

Do you have any suggestions about how we can put them back together and what we should do?

Thank you in advance!

Answer
Hi Ruth,

right now I would not put them back together, it is too dangerous.  I would check them very well for scrapes, and bite wounds.  These will get infected and you'll probably need to take them to the vet to make sure abscesses do not form - they may need antibiotics.  Don't bring them in the same carrier, they will each need a separate carrier, or bring them one at a time if you only have one carrier.

What I believe happened is that the dominant female was already sexually mature.  (Females hit maturity anywhere from 3 to 6 months.)  I believe the second sister hit sexual maturity, and the first one realized it, and made a point to remind the other one she was the dominant female, and they started fighting.

You will need to get both of them spayed by a good rabbit vet.  Go to : www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society-recommended vet in your area, if you don't already have one.

You will need to wait at least 4-5 weeks (for hormone levels to drop to their new lower levels) before even attempting to re-bond them.

They will need separate cages, preferably in the same room so they can at least see each other.  But they should not be placed together at all.

The fact they fought again when placed together tells me you will need to wait probably about a month or so before starting to go through the re-bonding process, which may take weeks to months.

I won't waste your time writing it out here, because the House Rabbit Society has great articles on bonding.

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/behavior/bonding-tips.html

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

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/behavior/bonding.html

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

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/behavior/index.html

I'd split your room in half with an exercise gate at least 30 inches high, and if they nip at each other thru the gate, you will need to double-gate them from each other, leaving a few inches between the gates so they cannot get the other rabbit.  

But the first step is to get them spayed.  Their behavior is hormonally-driven and fighting between intact females is common.  Being spayed will make them much less likely to fight and is the only way re-bonding is going to work.  It will be an exercise in futility to re-bond them if they are intact.

Lee