Sisters humping

[Lamb Lover]

I read another thread about this but I'm really worried. I have two female rabbits, they're sisters and they are 9 months old now. I noticed that the larger dominant one Clover was acting strange about two days ago. She growled at me a lot, tried to bite me, she even chased after our other pets. Last night I brought her and her smaller sister Monkey inside. Monkey proceeded to hump Clover and no matter what I did she wouldn't stop. Today I brought them in again and Monkey was right back at it. This time however, Clover bit monkey a lot but just pulled out fur. Then all of the sudden monkey jumped and ran away and on the floor was a tuft of fur about the size of a small lemon with skin attached. They're now separated an shave been for about an hour. Clover is really agressive all the time anyway but I did notice that she's come into heat or at least I think she has. I'm not sure what to do and I'm concerned that this will happen again.

 

[LukeMeister]

Hmm, sometimes females hump each other to claim dominance (which is probably what's going on), but this does seem a little more... extreme. I would first recheck the gender of Monkey. Then (if she's still a she) put the cages close together (but not so close they can fight through the wire) so they don't "forget" each other. And just give them some chill time.
BTW - Rabbits don't go into heat. About 8 hours after rabbits mated, the female releases an egg to be fertilized.

 

[Lamb Lover]

Yeah they're both girls but the only time Monkey was ever dominant was when we first had them. After that Clover practically beat her into submission. Clover is at least two times the size of Monkey, she's disrespectful, she bites and growls, Monkey is the complete opposite but they both like to cuddle and be wrapped up in a blanket. Their parents were pretty crazy, Clover looks exactly like her mom with an attitude to match. I took the spray bottle to Clover a while ago and she was better but then she went back to this weird behavior. I've been told to get rid of them but I couldn't do that I'm too attached. I separated them for just over an hour and when I put them in the hutch together they were just fine. If you take them out of the hutch Monkey humps and Clover attacks.

Yeah I wasn't sure if they did or not, she just looked a bit strange down there compared to Monkey. I'm a first time rabbit mom, thought I would know it all by now but apprently not. Haha.

Another thing to mention besides the size difference is their weight. Clover has a large fat roll on her neck and you can't really feel her bones, Monkey just has thick fur and you can feel hers sometimes. They both eat the same amount too. Basically everything on Clover is bigger than Monkey.

 

[LukeMeister]

Okay. Hmm, probably (in my opinion) territory. If they do it when ever you take them out of the hutch and bring them somewhere else, they'll try to claim the territory and be the dominate one in that new area. My rabbits do that too, if I bring them in side 2 or more at a time, they'll try to be the dominate one.
I don't know how you could prevent it other then just not bringing them somewhere 2 at a time, or keeping some space between them when they do.

Yeah, sometimes my rabbits seem kinda like that for a couple of days too.

Ah, I see. it seems the smaller ones are always the feistier ones.

 

[Lamb Lover]

Ok I'll see what I can do. I'm not sure what I'll try otherwise, I can always go back to the spray bottle.

Yeah Monkey can be that way. She's far too curious for her own good. Thank you very much for your help I'll give it a shot.

One other thing while I have you, I've been told rabbits need to eat a ball of hay the size of themselves every day. These two don't like hay that much. They hardly touch it. The only time they liked it was when they were babies and I was watching their whole family. (Their owner went to Peru so I had mom and her two litters. These came from the second litter. Pebbles had the first batch which was a surprise, two died and dad got her again and a month later she had another surprise. Then about two months ago she had a third of four black ones we call the ninjas.) Now they eat it from time to time. Is that ok or is it bad for them? I know it can affect their teeth but they chew on everything. According to all rabbit sites they should have been dead a long time ago but if what I'm doing suits them just fine it's ok right?

 

[LukeMeister]

Cool. Yeah. Good luck!

Ah, yeah. You're welcome!

Do you have them inside or outside? I don't feed mine hay, but rather have them in a "bunny tractor" that I move across the yard and they have fresh grass all the time. (although I do have to move 1 of them with 7 rabbits in it twice a day)
I don't think there's any danger to them if they've been ignoring their hay for this long and have no problems yet. It could also be that you just aren't seeing them eat their hay, as rabbits are crepuscular (most active during dusk and dawn). They could be eating most of their hay very early in the morning.

 

[Lamb Lover]

It's complicated. They're indoor outdoor basically. They sleep in a hutch outside when it's not too cold, when it is cold they have a dog crate in the garage and then they come in and out to run around in the house and their pen in the front yard. Spoiled rabbits. Holy cow 7? After taking care of the whole family I'm happy to stick to two. Ok good to know. I did give them some just now so we'll see if it's gone by morning. As long as it's not a bad thing I'm ok with it. Thank you again.

 

[SA Farm]

I agree, it does sound like territorial behaviour. At their ages, they are at sexual maturity and while rabbits don't have a heat, they do cycle somewhat with days that are more fertile/receptive than others.
My first thought was that all Monkey's dominating behaviour was causing Clover to have a false pregnancy, but if the behaviour is only happening in more neutral ares where they're fighting for territory, that doesn't follow

As long as they're being fed pellets and have other foods or toys to gnaw on, they don't require hay. Pellets are formulated to have all the required nutrition. However, rabbits can get overweight on them and it sounds as though Clover may need to cut back a little if you can't feel her bones.
Maybe offer her more hay, less pellets...

 

[promiseacres]

They may need separated (or a bigger indoor cage) some does are very territorial and won't tolerate other does even if raised together.

 

[Bunnylady]

I've had even unrelated does that lived together peacefully for years, and sisters or mother/daughter combinations that seemed to have been fine until one day they decided to try to kill each other. You can't be sure how any two will do; you just have to watch and see (and be prepared to separate if necessary).

On the matter of hay - yes, of course it's a good thing for a rabbit to have hay available, but that business about "a ball the size of the rabbit" is just silly. Is that compacted, or loose? What are you supposed to do if the rabbit doesn't eat it - put the hay in a blender and force-feed it to them? IMO, a lot of the people giving advice on rabbit sites are young folks with a great deal more enthusiasm than experience (some may even be bunny-owner-wanna-be's, never having owned a rabbit in their lives). They mean well, but with little to go on, they wind up parroting each other.

The old, standard, general rule of thumb is one ounce of pellets per pound of healthy body weight per day, and free choice hay. Now, some rabbits won't eat even that much pelleted feed; others will snarf it down quickly and ignore the hay and spend the rest of the day trying to convince you that they are starving. I say, use your common sense. If the rabbit uses the hay mostly as gym equipment, that's fine, but you don't need to replace every stem that falls through the floor (though you do need to be diligent about removing hay that gets pee'd on). Rabbits' bodies aren't designed to carry fat around, so you need to feed what will keep a rabbit at a healthy weight; that may mean making adjustments that deviate from that "rule of thumb." In the horse world they have a saying, "if you ask four horsemen, you will get five opinions," and that seems to apply to rabbit people, too. Don't sweat the small stuff - if your rabbits are healthy and active, and you aren't doing something way out there (sorry, so-and-so's dad, but I consider feeding a rabbit dog food as "way out there"), you are fine, enjoy your rabbits - that's supposed to be why we have pets in the first place.