HELP PLEASE

[b]I have just put Jazz back into the hut with Fizz and plenty of treats they seemed fine but i will keep an eye on them have also locked them in at the moment bunnnnsssss

I hope it was just a one off spat

God they are complicated little creatures arnt they!

Dogs and Cats - easy to understand - Buns, well thats another story altogether.

I hope that he gets over himself, apologises to his wife and they are snuggled up together again. x

oh dear, ive never had any experience of bonded buns, but i hope it was just a one off spat and they are fine again soon!!

I had the same thing with my Trio when I had Rosie and Hutch. When Vince saw either one of them, he would attack Faline and Hazel. I'd have to shout at him to get him to stop. I learned it was referred agression, he couldn't get to the two strange buns, so he took it out on his two girls.

I found covering the runs so they couldn't see each other worked. As long as Vince couldn't see Rosie & Hutch, all was ok.

It didn't affect Vince's bond with his girls, and I was able to bond Vince to Rosie, and to a lesser degree, Hutch, but unfortunately the bond was unstable so it never worked in the long term.

[b]I have just been out to feed them and they are ok together I am going to get some plywood on one side of the run partition tomorrow I have also comandeered a bit more of Anns garden to extend the run all I have to do now is tell her

[b]Just been out again to turn out there hutch lights and Jazz was sat on the shelf in front of the interconnecting window giving Fizz a realy good grooming as if he was showing Jim Fizz is my girl dont try anything funny bless them

Oh bless him - poor misguided boy.

Cant he see that Jim has a lovely of his own!

Good luck with the land grab! ha ha

This happened to my pair, Gloria and Wolfie when Felix appeared and when a wildie was in the garden. As soon as another rabbit was in the garden, Wolfie got really anxious and aggressive. He had nobody else to attack, so poor Globags got it! Referred aggression is really scary because often it just appears out of nowhere!

Once they get used to the smells of other rabbits and stop seeing them as competition, hopefully they will all settle down.

Bruce has never been threatened by the presence of Elvis next door. Flo is absolutely fascinated by him as she can only smell him through the fence - she cannot see him - and spends ages running up and down the fence and next door tell me he does the same on the other side. But Bruce just carries on grazing, or sunbathing or sleeping. He is very secure in his own manhood!

I suppose some buns are more laid back than others. My wee man was obviously a bit of a worrier! I had a friend's buns to stay and he was the same with them too. When Felix was housed within sight of the main run, Wolfie patrolled up and down every day and every morning went straight over the the corner nearest and just stared at him. If Gloria showed any interest, she would get a nip on the bum to dissuade her!

I'm interested in how this has happened, and the referred aggressioin a couple of you have mentioned. I'm gonna talk to Anne and see if we can get more of an insight into it

[b]I have put a screen up between them now so as they cant see each other at all. Everything was going reasonably well then Fizz went up to the dividing wall put her head allmost to the ground with bum and tail in the air (not a pretty sight the little slapper) then Jazz went totaly wild again. I have noticed that Rosie was trying to dig down under the dividing fence right where Fizz had been so back to drawing board for now I am letting Rosie and Jim have a play for an hour then I will put them away somehow and let the crazy gang out again

Ohh dear! Bless you, its frustrating at times! Hope they settle down soon! x

[b]Yes very frustrating but I wont give up on the little swines

Little monkeys!

Are you going to bond them all together Ruffin?

Jay, I'd be very interested to hear Anne's views on referred aggression.

i'm sure they will settle eventually
i'd get her some tin knickers

[b]Who's Anne??

Ruffin wrote:[b]Who's Anne??

http://www.houserabbit.co.uk/?section=patrons.html

Third person down. She writes and edits articles for Hopping Mad and makes videos for us, which she's coming over here to do in an hour or so! Also wrote 'Why Does My Rabbit...?'

She's the only person to have ever done a PhD on Rabbit behaviour, I've seen it, it's Huuuge!

[b]Souns interesting is hopping mad on general sale as I only get rabbiting on at the moment

Ruffin wrote:[b]Souns interesting is hopping mad on general sale as I only get rabbiting on at the moment

Rob, its free! www.hoppingmad.org

Jamie has always been next to Murphy and Rosie but when we first bonded her with Chudleigh and he went into her play pen next to Murphy and Rosie Murphy was attacking Rosie and chasing her around. I think it's a touch of jealousy and territory. In the wild Murphy would have no doubt had a fight with the other buck and chased it off and all would be well but of course in a domestic rabbit in a pen they can't do much apart from keep their doe away from the other chappy. They all are fine now.

I spoke to Anne about this yesterday, and it is indeed redirected aggression, brought on by the situation that occurred. When a rabbit (and this is true of many animals) sees a situation that would normally require an action, but that action is restricted due to our intervention (inability to move freely and go and scrap, in this instance) the rabbit may take it out on the other rabbit - bonded chum or not, so the territorial challenges that Jazz was feeling weren't able to be expressed how he instinctively wanted to, so Fizz got it in the neck..glad they've settled and regained their bond

I have this with Stewie, when we have to clip claws and Burrito him, for example, he takes it out on my trousers! He has the 'Mad rag' towel that also gets a punishing, but this is no different to what Jazz was doing.

It's another example of how us keeping 'wild' animals affects them in a negative way, and this could have been worse, either Jazz or Fizz could had have gone into stasis with the episode, and the bond could have been completely broken. Wild buns don't get GI Stasis

The referred aggression is a real issue for me now as well. It's odd as when I was rescuing my rabbits were very tolerant of the never ending stream of new bunnies coming and going and all my runs were within sight & smell of each other. These days however, with just 3 rabbits, I have to place the runs out of sight or place a towel down the side to hide them from each other, or WW3 breaks out.

It is very annoying but not at all uncommon sadly.