Bonded Bunnies Fighting

Question
Hi,

Our two house rabbits, Kiwi and Coco (both Holland lops, male, Kiwi is about 2 years old and Coco is about 3 years old, and both are neutered) have recently been fighting quite a lot. They've been best of friends for about 5 and a half months. When originally introduced, they did not fight at all, chased each other a little bit, both tried to mount a fair bit but between sessions would snuggle. Within a week to a week and a half, these two were pals. They lived in separate cages placed right next to one another, and would have about 4 hours play time in a rabbit-proofed room with human supervision (though it wasn't necessary - they never, ever fought).

Last month, my boyfriend and I went away for two weeks, leaving our bunnies at his mother's place. Here they were allowed to stay together without any physical separation, living in a bathroom and getting play time in a much larger area. They got along perfectly here as well. The problem started very soon (within a couple of days if memory serves me correctly) after we got back from our trip and brought Kiwi and Coco back to our apartment, where they needed to be separated into their cages again. It's been about 2-3 weeks since we've been back, and we've witnessed about 10 fights or so. As of yesterday, they have a 4 foot by 8 foot pen to play in (meaning they would no longer need to be separated at all), but we can't leave them in it alone as they might start to fight. It's not all bad times: there's lots of cuddling and grooming. They also go about doing their own thing at times, not at all concerned about the other.

I'm at a loss for what to do here. My best guesses as to what started the fighting are either that they are unhappy that they needed to be physically separated while we built the pen for them, and/or perhaps being home, as they have less space to run around here. I think Kiwi was dominant, as he is bigger/tougher, and Coco generally follows him around a lot and grooms him more often than Kiwi grooms him. I notice lately Coco tries to mount Kiwi more often, which seems to often be what triggers the fighting. At their first introduction, they both accepted, generally, the other rabbit doing the mounting. Now they both seem to react fairly negatively to it, as if both suddenly want to be dominant. Do rabbits personalities change, where one rabbit who used to be happy being submissive suddenly wants to be dominant? What do you reccomend I do? I've been hesitant to separate them because they seem to thoroughly enjoy snuggling, etc. when they're getting along, but also worried about keeping them together as they break out in fights! To give you an idea of the inconsistencies in their behaviour: yesterday, in the pen, they had one fight in 9 hours. They fought once after about 3 hours together, we broke it up, and they were happy together for another 6 hours, snuggling, grooming, etc. I separated them for the night, as I worried they might fight while we were sleeping. This morning, back in the pen, they fought after an hour together. I stayed in the pen with them after this, and they would only get along if I pet them. About 5 minutes or so after I'd stop, I'd need to prevent another fight!

Whew, OK, so I think I've given you everything (and maybe more!) that you need to know! Please let me know as soon as you can.

 Thank you.  

Answer
Ah yes, the "we love each other but we are going to fight anyway" couple.  I am guessing that now that they are back on their turf after their trip away from home that they are trying to re-establish who is the dominant bunny.  And obviously they can't agree on which of them it is.

There are a number of things you can do, there is a section at http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#bond called Difficulties in Bonding that you could check out.  You may need to try the car ride of terror with them (make sure you have a second person with you), or you may need to just separate them for several days and try again.  There are lots of suggestions at this link that should help you out.

They want to be together, they just need your guidance to help them work it out.

Kim