two sisters fighting

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Destefanol

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Hi, I have two sisters, Dutch bunnies, that are 17 weeks old. They used to get along so well. They were in their outside pen running around a few days ago and started really fighting. Clumps of fur everywhere. We separated them into two different cages. I put them back together in their pen for exercise yesterday and one is definitely the aggressor and keeps chasing and climbing on the other one. I'm afraid to put them back together in their hutch but it really is a huge inconvenience bc I only have one hutch. So the other one has to stay inside in a smaller cage that is not safe or sturdy enough to leave outside. I plan on putting them together each day for supervised exercise but do not want to leave them alone. It seems like from what I have been reading it is time to spay them. Is this a good age or would it be safer to do it when they are at least 5 months. I called a vet and she recommend at least 9 months unless they are fighting which leads me to believe it is safer if they are older. Thank you for your thoughts.
 
Rather than spay them ... I'd just get a second cage and not put them together. If you spay them , there is no guarantee that they will get along and conform to your plans of putting them together for playtime. They are territorial by nature.
 
Some does will fight no matter what you do.
One thing to try for exercise time is a much bigger space... That will sometimes make the difference!
 
I have kept lots of pairs of sisters together. Usually, space is key to getting along. The more, the better. However, I've run across a couple pairs that just no longer get along for whatever reason. They were best separated to two hutches.
 
Thanks for the responses. They have been separated for almost a week now. They are together each day for at least 30 minutes for exercise. They haven't been in another fight but the aggressor is constantly following the other bunny. Each time the other bunny just hops away. It happens over and over. A few days ago, the aggressor kept climbing on top and humping the other bunny. After the 3rd time the other bunny would just lay there and let it happen. They have together a few more times for exercise and no more humping but the following/chasing continues. I put them together for the night last night in their hutch. The following keeps happening. I haven't seen any humping and outright fights. They were occasionally sitting together or grooming each other like old times.

I am hoping that they can be together. I do not want to get another hutch. I found a very low cost clinic that is going to spay them in a few weeks. I am hoping this will help. I bought some wire and I probably going to put a divider in the hutch. I feel bad that one bunny can barely get any rest.

Has anyone ever been able to have their bunnies get along again after going through this?
 
Humping is a sign of dominance. However, that being said...are you sure they are both female? It can be hard to sex young rabbits. It's not infrequent for someone to get two does and then end up with a litter of babies.
 
The girls can fight even worse than the boys. In nature one rabbit wins and the other runs off. You are not giving them this option when you force them together. Female-female is not so great as they are territorial more so than males.

Many people say male-female pairings are best (of course surgery is required if you don't want babies). Rabbits can be semi-monogamous. One breeder in our area told me of a rabbit who somehow always broke out of her cage and into one male's cage. The two would only reluctantly breed with other rabbits. This behavior continued for years. When the boy died at age 11 the girl, age 13, was with him, then stopped eating and died two months later.
 

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