I never expected to pimp for a rabbit

[tatt]

have just acquired a male to keep our female company. It was hate at first site. They are in separate hutches but can see each other through the wire of a run - female was aggresive and male tried to bite the wire between them. Obviously we are keeping them apart for several days and the boy can go back to the RSPCA if necessary - but does anyone know how you separate fighting rabbits? Quite nervous about the first time we let them in together.

Do it on neutral territory otherwise the other will think their territory is being invaded. maybe keep hold of them both just letting them sit by each other without touching first. Has the male been neutured? or you could end up with more rabbits than you want!

Oh god rabbits and sex again, I may have to go a lie down in a darkened room

both were neutered about a month ago but the feamle still circles our legs, which I've read is sexual behaviour? She's a bit of an aggressive rabbit, charges around madly and has dug some lovely holes . Male is bigger and seemed calmer in the RSPCA place but he was the one biting the wire. They said he'd been tried with other females and was fine.

We haven't really got anywhere we can put them that is neutral so have been swapping them in and out of the run today. One hutch is in the run, one against it so we're trying to make it shared territory before they meet. Might have to buy/ make a separate run

Didn't realise when I become a parent what I was letting myself in for!

they were a lot better last night, sniffing each other through the wire but no more biting. Looks a lot more promising so we may risk putting them together for a few minutes this evening but then separating them again.

Have to go and get some more vegetables soon - they get through lots!

ooh tatt might be a long job.... don;t give up yet! circling behaviour is "courting" but I shouldn't conclude that this means they are still "sexual" - my male/female pair still - ahem - mount but they are long since neutered.
This is a useful website with some good tips for bonding

could you try them on the floor of your kitchen?

by the way tatt please feel free to CAT me
been there, done that

good website, but my kitchen - no way. These are outdoor rabbits who haven't been taught to use a litter tray. Bad enough clearing up their hutches Think we're going to have to get a separate run anyway as they are getting through so many vegetables so we can try them together in that.

If the male mounts her maybe they'll become friends faster However he seems such a big dope that I'm not sure he has it in him. Still, early days - when she's chased him around a bit he won't be so podgy and he showed by biting the wire that there was some life left in him. He can race into his hutch fast too, he's still a bit shy of us.

ah bless
I am a hard faced bitch but somehow come over a bit soft about rabbits... is the female bonded with you? If so, you could try with two people, each with a rabbit on each lap (with towel!) then just sit next to each other and let them sniff each other? then swap laps.
try swapping their food bowls so they get used to the smell, and a bit of used bedding, ditto.
if you need to calm them down, them try putting your hand over their face and pushing down gently, that can make them a bit calmer.
sorry if this is all old hat to you

could be a long haul... good luck and let meknow how it goes

raor at thread title

thanks - no it isn't old hat, we're pretty new to rabbits and I've not tried to pair any before . The female has improved a lot since being neutered but she's much better with the children than with me. The male is rather big for a child's lap but I think he'd sit on mine. He's getting used to me now, doesn't run for the hutch anymore although he doesn't take food from my hand yet, the girl will .

Do you think you can have hyperactive rabbits? She's only 7 months old and more like a dog than a rabbit. Picked her up once with a red shirt when she was being hard to catch and now she'll charge it like a bull. She may not have totally forgiven me for that.

no, she's not unusual or hyper, that kind of behaviour is quitge normal for rabbits. when they get really over-excited they do this thing where they do sort of a jump/twitch/twist in mid air. There also do a lot of tearing around when they're happy. they are quite a lot like puppies, esp if you tame them from a young age. mine like to play hide and seek and also like to show off about how very very fast they are. just for the sheer joy of speed.
btw, re putting them on your lap. lots of rabbits don't really like being too far off the floor, so sometimes it is easier to sit on the floor if you want to cuddle them. Also, if you want to carry them around, or put them in the hutch, sometimes you can persuade them/train them to get onto a litter tray or box, then you can lift them on that. may need to tempt them on with soemthing yummy like a bit of apple.
sorry I am going on now...

been out buying a run. So now they have a small fixed enclosure ( minus grass where our escape artist has removed most of it) and a moveable run to get their grass. The male is so sedate I'd begun to think it was the female who was odd but sounds like he's the odd one. Perhaps he'll liven up when we've had him a bit.

We use the step we had for potty training as a seat. The female will jump on our legs/ lap if we tempt her with a dandelion leaf. The male tolerates being picked up, he's so much quieter I worry he's ill.

step is a good idea - they like things to hide in too like a bit of old drainpipe.
watch out for the female burrowing.
they like cauliflower leaves btw, if you can find a friendly market trader to give them to you for free.
are they getting on any better?

we like cauliflower so they are getting the leaves from ours. Used to buy frozen [sigh]. Found a second one reduced at the greengrocer yesterday so they got their own. We did have a bit of pipe but even the female is now too big for it and we can only get sewer pipe in 3 metre lengths I think the price they charge for the tunnels in pet stores is silly so they have to make do with cardboard boxes. So far they have shown no interest in cardboard tubes from toilet rolls - do yours?

They are sitting/ lying one either side of the wire so we're going to try them in together tomorrow evening Has to be when the children are here to watch and its raining today.

decided to leave it until today as the weather was so poor. Didn't go too badly although they started to act rather aggresively (he trampled over her, she got cross) after a while so sprayed some water and separated the again. They'd been Ok for about 20 minutes though.

hilarious thread title - the best this week, I reckon!!!!!
Has mumsnet ever considered publishing random lists of the funniest in booklet form????????

hi tatt, I was wondering how it was going. twenty minutes sounds like good progress. are they within sight and smell of each other?
my male rabbit likes to chuck toilet roll middles around, although he is very disdainful of most rabbit toys.
I am always looking in skips for things for them to demolish... also, those wooden crates that you see piled up in fruit and veg markets. (god I am sounding like a bunny obsessive now....)

they can sniff each other through the wire of the permanent run, although we can't devide the separate run so they aren't together all the time. As they'd been sitting one either side of it for a few days, so it seemed like the right time It was totally different to expectations as he was definitely the boss. She kept putting her head down (that site you recommended is great buffythc) and he only gave her one little lick.

I collect cardboard boxes in supermarkets and we have a toy with a bell they get treats in. She has them out in seconds but at least if I ring the bell she comes running.

Funny how people get so attached to their rabbits

tatt - I saw you were on and wondered how the pimping was going?

Thanks for asking. They are now spending hours in the run together with no sign of aggresion, no mounting, but unfortunately not grooming each other either. They do sometimes lie together but are still walking over each other's heads. Last night we put the male rabbit in the female's hutch without her to see how he reacted. It has a ramp down but he didn't seem to be able to work out how to get down it, he's quite a bit bigger so we mave have to change it. He seemed a bit stressed tbh so we didn't put the female with him. Going to try putting him there again later today and see if he looks more comfortable. I'd like not to have two hutches to clean out but don't want to risk any aggresive behaviour from him.

The male rabbit is a bit of a podge and the only time he moves quickly is when frightened/ when he first saw the female - how much do you feed yours? We were told to give him vegetables and dried food but that he was a bit overweight so we don't quite know how much to feed. He's a dwarf lop, weighed 2.7 kgms but we've reduced that a little.

ah well that's really good progress. grooming will come! esp if they are lying together. funnily enough my male rabbit is a ramp refuser too. give him a bit of time, he might get used to it. is it a bit steep? sometimes they can geta bit freaked by heights/falling off.
I tend to them a good handful of food (I use Suparabbit excel, which is the best IMO) morning and evening. mine is a dwarf lop, tends to be a bit chubbier this time of year as winter approaches. also carrots/cauliflower/greens, but not too much. you can only encourage him to do a bit of exercise with toys and things - and with any luck they might start to do a bit of frolicking together! if you are confdent then you could try walking him around in a harness...
well done so far, they will Definitely be happier together so you have done the right thing.

don't think heights are the problem as he jumps on the roof of his hutch, which is just on bricks. We put the step there to help him up as he's a podge but he seemed to want to go up. The ramp is not only quite steep (but has pieces of wood across to give them something to grip) the entrance is quite small. We built the hutch without much advice and would locate it differently if we did it again. The female manages it easily but she's been using it since she was tiny. We've also put him at the bottom of the ramp and he's shown no interest in going up. We're going to try waving cauliflower stalk at him later, we taught the female to use it with dandelions.

ah just lazy then
yes bribery with food works well, for rabbits as well as children... leaving his food bowl at one end and bunny at the other if all else fails.
one last thing about the food - if you're trying to keep his weight down, then don't give him any food until he has eaten every last bit in the bowl.
you must think I am a rabbit OBSESSIVE...

not really. Anyway you're talking to someone who moves the run regularly during the day so the rabbits get fresh grass and has just gone miles to buy turf (hard to find this time of year) to returf their enclosure.

Yes the male does seem to be really lazy. He's a good children's pet but we really prefer the more lively female. Off to move a run......

they spent last night together although there was access to both hutches so we aren't sure who slept where. He had been giving her a quite lick so we think we now have a bonded pair .