Angry bunny! Heelp

Hey introduced myself in another section, but in case no one read that - I'm Lily and the owner of two bunnies, Luna and Thistle Twayblade (Thistle for short )!
Anyway I wandered if anyone had any advice, I got Luna first and she's been neutered etc...but seemed quite bored alot of the time and I wandered if getting her a friend *could* help...Sometimes I work long shifts so unless my boyfriends home she'd been on her own for a whole day! So I got Thistle and he's too young to be neutered still, so I can't properly try and bond them whilst all he wants to do is hump her >_<! Theyre cages have been next to each other since I got him (about two months or so ago)...and Luna still won't accept his presence in my bedroom, whenever he's out running around she gets so angry she attacks the side of the cage...and when shes out running around she trys to jump on top of his cage and grunts a lot - it's even making her more aggressive towards me! She even grunts at him a lot and gets rather angry when she can just see him in his cage from hers. Do you think I should move their cages away from each other? And give up on trying to get them used to living in the same area? It doesn't seem to be improving just getting worse n I'm worried I'm just making Lunas life more miserable ..Thistle is a bit happy go lucky and doesn't seem to notice shes annoyed at him - bless him! I feel sorry for him sometimes!

Hm I did find some information but it suggested being put to sleep. Which I don't think it needs to be considered here. I think perhaps you should move them away for the moment and on your own try and bond with the rabbit perhaps clicker training my benefit here? I don't know what everyone else's view is on this. Does anybody else think that clicker training would benefit here?

Velvet.Tears wrote:Hm I did find some information but it suggested being put to sleep. Which I don't think it needs to be considered here. I think perhaps you should move them away for the moment and on your own try and bond with the rabbit perhaps clicker training my benefit here? I don't know what everyone else's view is on this. Does anybody else think that clicker training would benefit here?

Yeah I wanna try and bond with her again properly...When I got her she had been in the petshop a bit too long and was in the adoption section because she had originally been up for sale and then no one had bought her. So the first part of her life I'm assuming she was barely handled. She turned into a bit of a stress pot when she hit sexual maturity, typical woman behaviour..and neutering didn't make any difference. She also had a bad time with that because her wound came open and this meant more trips to the vet than originally intended and she hated it, especially the antibiotics which she absolutely hated no matter what form I tried to give them to her in (in ribena, her water...even tried injecting it into her tomatoes cause she loves though) . Since then she hasn't really like much human contact , which I feel so guilty about having taken her to the vets to get her neutered, feel like its my fault

Aw don't feel like it is your fault. I think first step you should re-bond with her. My rabbits love Carrot Juice which I buy from P@H and you add 2/3 drops into their water bottle. But definately first step should be bonding with her again and see how that goes, it may be the only step you need.

I dont know a lot about bonding but there will be someone along here soon that will know lots.

Im sorry that she seems cross at the moment and I think perhaps she needs to learn that you just want to love her and I think this takes time, so you need lots of patience and she will come around eventually. Baby steps.

The best suggestion is always to try bonding bunnies in neutral territory, in short frequent bursts. But somone who has experience of this will know more.

Katie x

Katieb wrote:I dont know a lot about bonding but there will be someone along here soon that will know lots.

Im sorry that she seems cross at the moment and I think perhaps she needs to learn that you just want to love her and I think this takes time, so you need lots of patience and she will come around eventually. Baby steps.

The best suggestion is always to try bonding bunnies in neutral territory, in short frequent bursts. But somone who has experience of this will know more.

Katie x

Hey thanks ! Yeah I did introduce them firstly in neutral territory and they got along fine, Luna even let him groom her n they were laying together...and there was sme promise when she was lying next to his cage etc. However I haven't had them out together since then because he just annoys her with his want to constantly hump her! So I figured I'll wait till I can get him neutered to properly bond them...just was hoping she'd get used to him being in her place, even did cage swapping for about 20 minutes and things so she'd get used to his scent. But yeah hopefully someone will have sme good experience with it, have moved their cages further away frm eachother now and am going to purchase a clicker and see how that goes! She does love her treats, so we may get some progress .

And maybe you could teach them some tricks with the clicker too. I might get one for my bunnies.

I don't think that clicker training would really help in this situation although it is pretty useful for some things.

Female rabbits are pretty territorial and as she was here first, this is HER territory. From her point of view, he's an invader.

I would move them so there is no chance of them nipping each other through the cages bars and maybe find an area for them to exercise out of sight of the other.

Once he has been neutered which can happen with a male around 12 weeks or when their plums descend, you may find things a bit better. He will still smell like a whole guy to her. It will take a few weeks for the hormones to drop off.

Then you can perhaps try them together. Start with a neutral area where neither of them have been before so there is no residual bunny smell. You need the space to be small so they have to deal with being together. If the area is too big, they will simply claim separate areas and stay there.

Some people put them into carriers together and take them for a car ride. However, you would need to have someone who could sit in the back with them to make sure WWIII wasn't breaking out.

Any bonding I have done has been done outside so have no experience indoors. Hopefully Snowy will come along soon as she is very experienced.

Yeah they haven't ever been near enough in their cages to nip eachother...I worry to much that would happen! Yeah figured about the territorial thing, most of the time i had a sheet over one side of his cage so she couldn't see him, but last night he decided to pull it all inside his cage n sleep on it lol! So now he's hidden by a cabinet on the other side of the room >_<.
Also bought some stuff today to put on her food which apparently calms them down which I hope will help her temperament in general...and her cage has had a revamp!!

It's a shame it's gonna have to wait a couple of months before I can take him to the vets to be neutered due to money! As I said that one time I had them in a small room together, it seemed to go well, so I'm hoping that's a good sign for the future.
Thanks for the advice I'm not working so much atm now as in the summer so I have more time to work on things ^_^

Velvet.Tears wrote:And maybe you could teach them some tricks with the clicker too. I might get one for my bunnies.

Yeah I looked up some stuff on youtube, it looked so cute..and Im guessing keeps them entertained. Luna loves popcorn and these biscuit things I buy, so should be easy to win her round with the clicker I hope >_<. I shall post if I eventually get her to do any tricks haha

Nickie's advice is sound. Luna will be able to smell Thistle's testosterone, and this may be aggrivating her. It may be an idea to keep them apart until he's been neutered, and then wait a few weeks, until the hormones have subsided, then do as Nickie suggests, and bond them in neutral territory.

I doubt that clicker training isn't really something that would help in this respect, as you are dealing with hormonal and terratorial behaviour. Once Thistle is neutered and calmed down, he will respond much better to it.

It is a lot of fun, but it has a purpose too, to stimulate the buns and it really does encourage them to almost think for themselves. After doing a lot of training with mine, he was much better at entertaining himself, with the things that I trained him to do Clicky

Jay wrote:Nickie's advice is sound. Luna will be able to smell Thistle's testosterone, and this may be aggrivating her. It may be an idea to keep them apart until he's been neutered, and then wait a few weeks, until the hormones have subsided, then do as Nickie suggests, and bond them in neutral territory.

I doubt that clicker training isn't really something that would help in this respect, as you are dealing with hormonal and terratorial behaviour. Once Thistle is neutered and calmed down, he will respond much better to it.

It is a lot of fun, but it has a purpose too, to stimulate the buns and it really does encourage them to almost think for themselves. After doing a lot of training with mine, he was much better at entertaining himself, with the things that I trained him to do Clicky

Thanks!! Yeah tis the best advice I can follow I think and I got erm ahh I can't remember what it's called but you put it on their food and it is an enzyme that apparently makes them feel calmer and content, so I'm hoping that will help a bit with her aggression in general! She's so territorial lol, it does make me laugh..she wouldn't be her if she was a cuddly bunny - but she does need to calm down an tiny bit. Moving his cage to the other side of the room has helped ^_^ I shall keep y'alll updated .
Thanks again!