What on earth should I do about our rabbits? :0(

[bloooeee]

We have two female rabbits who are nearly a year old. We bought them from a reputable farm (we thought) as siblings - we were only going to get one rabbit but were advised to have two females from the same litter as one on its own would get lonely.

However, one is much bigger than the other and totally different colouring/markings which makes me wonder whether they were not from the same litter after all. Plus the larger one tries to mount the smaller one all the time which must be incredibly frustrating for both of them!

Do you think we be best off getting one of them rehomed? I hate feeling like I'm giving up on them but the mounting is constant and the smaller rabbit cannot sit still for a moment. Will they get lonely on their own? We can't afford to buy another hutch to seperate them.

Advice please

Put one in a box and give it away on freecycle. They may both be males!!!

you could try getting the larger one spayed and see if that helps

Oh god, I guess they could both be males couldn't they? We did phone the farm but they said "oh they do this, nothing to worry about" but I don't think the smaller rabbit would agree with them

I'd been advised against spaying rabbits - is it a common thing to do?

well, GA;s on rabbits can be a bit dangerous, as with any small animal.
it depends how much you want to keep them.
rabbits can/do get lonely by themselves, so it is nice for them to be together. and if you'd like to have them both and can afford to get her spayed it might be worth it.

otherwise rehome her

The mounting is a dominance thing and not ness a sign of them being male.

Spaying makes them less at risk of mammary and reproductive cancers just like with cats and dogs, as well as preventing unwanted pregnancy

So spaying won't help then if it's a dominance thing?

I just want them both to be happy - seems an impossible ask atm.

spaying is a really good idea. cancer of the uterus is a very common cause of death for bunnies. of course they may both be boys! or one of each.
anyway, get them to a vet. there are safe(r) ways to adminster GA to rabbits, and some vets do specialise in it.

I reckon I'd know by now if they were one of each

Thanks for all the advice - I think I'll look into getting the bigger one spayed and see if that improves things.

This is what I found on a rabbit website:

There is lots of interesting info about rabbit behaviour on there:
www.fuzzy-rabbit.com/behaviourfaq.htm

"Mounting / humping
Single male rabbits will often try to mount soft toys, cushions and even people's legs. This is a sign that your rabbit is ready to be neutered. This behaviour usually ceases a month or so after neutering.

Mounting is also used as a sign of dominance in both male and female rabbits. The dominant rabbit will mount the other rabbit to show who's boss. Once the dominant rabbit has been decided, this behaviour usually stops."

i have two female sister rabbits (and one house rabbit) one of the female sister is totally more dominant than her sister so we had to separate them. speying may help

I had two rabbits together for 7 years and they mounted each other a lot of the time, especially in spring. They were fine though. If its just mounting and not fighting then I wouldn't worry about it.

I would recommend speying and get both of them done at the same time. The anaesthetics are much safer these days than they were a few years back. If your vet advises against speying then it suggests they are out of date with rabbit medicine and I would personally look for a new vets.