Two boys

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Bun

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Hello, so I have a an 11 week old boy, and I am introducing a male rabbit who is 13 weeks.

The younger one is humping him constantly it is only day 1 of being together in a large run. Will this calm down? I am hoping so he does seem to stop but then just will go back at it. And yes they are definitely both boys.
 
LOL Yes it will calm down. The 11 week old is just showing dominance. "It's my hutch ya know!" :twisted:

Just keep a close eye on them for a few days in case fighting breaks out.
 
It's not often I disagree with Homer, but this time I must.

I'm afraid this is just the beginning. You have two male rabbits just at puberty in one cage? They will almost certainly go from humping (a dominance behaviour in this case) to outright fighting. There is a very good chance one will kill or mutilate the other.

Please, please, please separate them immediately! You will need two cages, but even if you have to keep one of them in a pet carrier or the like, do it now.
 
You can disagree with me anytime you want Maggie, :roll: but not always. I have two males that have lived together for eight months now and get along fine. Never a grunt, fur pulling or fighting. Two of the Light Grays I had to hand raise...maybe that's the difference. :thinking: They did use to hump each other once in awhile but not anymore. In fact one of them just breed his first Doe. They other is getting ready to go to camp Kenmore in another week or two.
 
I agree with Maggie on this one. I had two brothers, raised from birht in the same cage. Puberty hit and they started slinging pee, I knew fighting wasn't far behind. I have them housed in a hutch, side by side, and they will go at it at any opportunity (the hutches were built with a small lip on the front and they can can back and forth, unfortunately... I usually feed and water them first so I can keep the peace).
 
Rabbits need their space :) bucks and does. For that reason, I don't put two into one cage (I have 4 x 4 cages).
They can/will hurt or kill. Someone just called me this week saying that one of the brothers killed the other :(

My experience with bucks... I have two large bucks living together in a 10 x 10 pen, but they are constantly next to each other.

I also have 8 bucks living in the back yard. Like any animals, they pick "their friends" with groups of 2-3 usually hanging out together. But all seem happy and eat at the same mallow patch without any fighting.
Should note that both Lionheads and NZ's are in the yard.

The girls pen in 16 x 16, with a mix of LH and NZ. Currently there are 16 does and 2 litters of NZ kits running around.

Any aggressive rabbit goes into the freezer, but that hasn't happened in over a year. I think I've finally bred out aggressiveness.

It's really the personality of the rabbits, some just don't play well with others.
I'm with Maggie on this one ~ I would put them in separate cages. Just to be sure.
 
Rabbits living together in a colony is different from rabbits living in a cage. I had a colony 8ft. by 8 ft. and had no fighting. But in a cage, they can't get away from each other and that is where the problems start. In the wild, a rabbit can always run if it is attacked by another rabbit. In a colony, they can run. though not so far. In a cage -- oops! no place to go.

Konrad Lorenz was an Austrian biologist who made a study of aggression in animals. His book was published in the early 1960s, and I think it should be possible to read it online. The title is On Aggression. It's well worth a read.
 

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