Mini Rex turning mean

[Tiffanylg]

I have had a female Mini Rex and a female Rex for a year now. They have been in the same cage this entire time. I came home last night to find that the Mini Rex torn up the back of the Rex. The Rex is missing tons of fur and has scratches and was bleeding. We have not had an issue with these two getting along before. Can someone please offer me some insight as to why the Mini Rex would attack the Rex after so long living together.

 

[sawfish99]

Because it happens. Eventually, rabbits that have lived together may no longer be willing to live together. Get separate cages and you won't have any more problems.

 

[pennylove]

Any time you have caged rabbits, you're likely to have fighting. Sadly, I've read very, very few accounts of rabbits living well together in cages. My rabbits are colony raised, cage free, and they don't fight, but I've read and spoken with breeders who raise their rabbits in colonies and do have fighting--in all cases, the number of rabbits in the area leaves much less space per rabbit. I think adequate space is the problem--they're territorial animals and they need to be able to carve out areas just for themselves; in close quarters that just isn't possible.

In your case, I definitely recommend caging them separately. You can try to rebond them by letting them interact, observed, outside their cages and if all goes well you might be able to house them together in a significantly larger cage, but unless you're quite determined to do it, I'm not sure you should try. It will require a lot of time and effort and may not work; worse, it could result in another serious fight between them.

 

[birdfreaks]

how old when you first got them? if you got them when they were babies, then that is why they got along so welly in the beginning. at 1 year, they are still in their prime, hormones are raging & more than half the territorial battle may be due to the fact you have two mature females. they are mature before 1 year, so this may have been brewing on smaller levels for several months without you noticing it. mature females and mature males will fight even if no opposite sex is present. you can pair-bond rabbits of opposite sex, one male per one female most of the time and they do ok. when you have an odd number of males to females, or all males or all females, that's when things get ugly. they fight for dominance on who is the top female, and who is the top male. they will often fight to the death, if left in the same space as one another, because neither can run away. in my personal experience with my own rabbits, it is less about territory and more about hormones.

 

[Bunnylady]

Wow. 5 1/2 year old zombie thread.

 

[birdfreaks]

Wow. 5 1/2 year old zombie thread.

i still reply to old messages, because somebody new might read them , having a similar issue & gather important information from all the different comets posted.

Edited by staff

 

[Bunnylady]

i still reply to old messages, because somebody new might read them ,

It is generally considered poor forum etiquette to drag up old posts and respond to them, without at least acknowledging that it is an old thread. People wanting to be helpful may think the person posting is dealing with a crisis, when (as in this case), the crisis occurred years ago, and the animals are very likely dead by now. I only make the "zombie thread" comment to alert such well-intended people that they needn't feel alarmed, and that any questions they have may not be answered (since people come and go from forums so often). In fact, this is this OP's only post in the forum, and they have not been back since.

My (more than 30 years) experience is that rabbits get along until they don't, and you can't guarantee which ones will or won't, or how long it might be. I wouldn't consider putting bucks together, and have seen brothers destroying each other as early as 8 - 10 weeks of age, but I know people who have managed to keep intact bucks together for years (even using them for breeding). I have two Mini Rex sisters that have been in the same cage together for more than 4 years, but I have also had sisters tearing each other up at less than 4 months. I have seen does attacking their own daughters that were left in their natal cage too long, and have put unrelated, older does together in "retirement colonies" with no issues. I have set up breeding colonies where I had to pull a doe out because she was too aggressive/dominant, and have had a few where the does got along fine, but the buck had to be pulled out after a day or two because he was beating up the does. So my advice is, give them space, and be prepared to move them to their own, separate, spaces, if or when they decide it isn't enough.