Hey all,
We have 2 female (unspayed) french angora rabbits (for fiber) from the same littler that are 9 months of age. I've got them in an 8x3' hutch and have recently been exhibiting some unwanted behavior in which they will take turns mounting each other. When they do this however, they will bite onto each others neck hair and rip each others 4" fiber out. No blood or wounds but it being the middle of winter it is a little concerning. We have noticed that the tousling comes and goes particularly with spouts of warmer weather. In any case, we have looking into spaying but the nearby vets were asking $300 per animal or wont perform it at all. From a financial aspect this is uneconomical and makes keeping these animals problematic if this behavior continues to escalate. So I have done a fair amount of research and it seems that most information is based on either 1) Rabbits as pets which just spay/neuter regardless or 2) Are raised for meat and do not reach the hormone growth stage. I've seen rabbit fiber farms in which they all house the animals in cages but this also seems somewhat cruel (both from a social aspect and also on their footing)?
So my questions are
1) What are the odds this will continue to escalate with age or will the hormones calm down after adolescence to a point of reasonable behavior with an occasional spat?
2) Any ideas hutchwise? Debating hutch modifications like including some wooden hiding tunnels/multiple feeding areas and nests ect. OR just dividing the hutch and separating permanently. OR is this behavior from not getting to blow off enough steam in the winter. We typically get them out 1-2 a week to run around inside.
