Infrequent mounting

Question
Hello, my wife and I adopted two bunnies which we believe are sisters and are now about eight months old.  I have read a lot of information on mounting which generally suggests that the bunnies will mount until a dominant bunny is specified and then the behavior will stop.  Our bunnies however seem to have continued mounting one another, doing so about once every week or two.  Once every six to eight weeks they will "circle," though I would say they have never fought.  We have generally stopped the bunnies from the circling (they haven't done this for quite some time), and mounting when one is mounting the other's head.  They seem to get along lovingly the other 99% of the time, always laying next to one another and playing together while exploring the same things and sharing the same interests.  I'd just like to know if it is typical for the bunnies to continue expressing their dominance in such a way throughout their relationship with one another and whether we should stop the bunnies from mounting the other's head even though they are both females.  The mounted does not seem to mind too much, generally laying there looking content.  Thank you very much!  Casey, St. Paul, MN

Answer
Hi Casey

The answer is yes.  :)  They will mount each other forever.  I don't know why they do it but I think they just like to remind each other every once in a while who is the top bunny.  As long as the head mounting doesn't make the mountee upset and the other one isn't suffocating her its really not to much of a problem.  It is more of a problem in bucks because they can have their testicles ripped right off if the other one gets angry.  Circling can end up in fights so you are right to stop that behavior.

You are very lucky to have 2 doe's that get along.  It is not common but can work with litter mates to have two non-spayed doe's successfully bond.  Just keep an eye on them as they get older and they have more hormones.

I found a neat site on bonding.  I don't know if you may have already saw it but as I was looking through it I found a lot of interesting things about rabbits that even I didn't know so I saved it to my favorites to share with others.

http://www.mybunnies.com/

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Thank you

Pam