Rule No. 2 – What
ever happens in 'Bunny Fight Club' stays in 'Bunny Fight Club.'
Ok, so I am not Ed
Norton Jr., or Brad Pitt by any means, and it was never my intention
to start my own 'Bunny Fight Club,' but I felt I must share my
embarrassing moment with other new rabbit owners and breeders. We had
only been raising rabbits for about 3 months back in 2014 when I
needed to do some maintenance to the rabbitry which required me to
empty my three doe cages. Fortunately, so I thought at the time, I
had a 2ft x 6ft long rabbit tractor that I could place the does in
while I worked on the building rearranging the cages to make it
easier to clean and water etc.
I had the first two
does out and in the tractor and everything seemed fine and they were
busying themselves eating the grass each appearing ambivalent to the
other. Then came doe number three, after putting here in the tractor
I watched them for a few minutes and everything appeared fine, so I
began the necessary work on the rabbitry. Fifteen minutes later fur
was flying and blood was let as the 'Battle Royale' began when two of
the does took upon themselves to try and dominate the other.
Needless to say someone
screamed like a little girl (I am embarrassed to think that maybe it
was me), as I ran towards the rabbit tractor in an effort to separate
the two combatants. As I approached the rabbit tractor, I could see
both had what looked like a fair amount of blood on both the
combatants. One's muzzle was completely covered in blood, the other
had several patches of blood on it's head and hindquarters. At this
point I was not sure if one had bitten a chunk out the other or what
wounds they had sustained as the color of blood really stood out on
the white of the rabbits fur increasing my anxiety.
With the assistance of
my wife I was able to get the rabbits separated and placed back in
their respective cages. To be honest, they looked pretty battered and
bloody although a quick cursory inspection of each rabbit while
transporting them from the rabbit tractor back to their cages left no
blood on my hands (other than my own). I remember as I carried them
from the rabbit tractor to their cages I could feel their hearts
beating at what felt like 300 beats a minute, and I am not sure how
fast mine was beating but I know it was quite rapid as well.
As my wife and I
watched them in their cages, the girls laid there panting, their
chests heaving up and down and their heads rocking back and forth
with their eyes slightly closed. The adrenaline from the whole fiasco
made the pit of my stomach churn and the only thing I could think was
“please do not let my stupidity cost me the life of one of these
beautiful creatures.” I wanted to hold them and perform a closer
inspection of their wounds at the time, but was afraid to do so. I
knew that any additional undue stress upon the rabbits could cause
them to die from stress related cardiac arrest due to the over
production of adrenaline that can happen when their 'flight or fight'
response is activated.
At this point I went
into “nurse mode”, I knew from my years as an intensive care unit
(ICU) nurse, the only thing left for me to do at this point was to
watch and observe the girls and act only if I noticed any changes in
their status. Within the hour the doe with the bloody nose was
sitting up and grooming and I began to relax just a little, but her
opponent laid curled up in a small plastic basket I had placed back
in the corner of her cage a few weeks back. This particular doe was
the one I was most worried about as she continued to exhibit signs of
extreme stress and continued to lay there panting and rocking her
head back and forth with her eyes only slightly opened. I was
concerned that she was not going to recover from this event, and I
chastised myself for being so stupid, especially since my friend
Steven Coyne had told me when I purchased the does from him (four
weeks prior to this event) that they had just began to become
aggressive among themselves and he had to separate them to keep them
from fighting.
So why did I not heed
Steven's warnings? Maybe I rationalized my concerns away thinking the
rabbit tractor was big enough (2ft x 6ft) that they would be to busy
grazing on the grass to be concerned with infighting long enough for
me to perform the necessary maintenance that was needed. Or was it
simply my lack of experience raising rabbits? In truth it was
probably a combination of both, but it was not a mistake I will make
again.
The synopsis of the
'Bunny Fight Club' is as follows. It appears that doe number 1 took a
paw to her nose which bleed profusely like any good punch in the nose
will do. She then proceeded to rub her blood all over her opponent (I
assume attempting to bite her), making doe number 2 appear as if she
had multiple bite wounds that were bleeding. Yours truly, received
more than twenty various scratches while attempting to separate the
combatants (some which bleed more than doe number ones nose). Within
24 hours both does had recovered and I could find no bite or claw
marks upon either doe, and all traces of blood had been groomed from
their fur. Four days later, I on the other hand still had scratches
that were somewhat tender, especially one on my right hand between
two fingers where I received a deep gouge from one of the does
powerful back legs. Overall, however, disaster was avoided, and no
animal or owner appears to have suffered any permanent damage from
this first and hopefully only 'Bunny Fight Club' experience.
If you are new to
raising rabbits and you have several does who are 16 weeks or older,
or they have began to start fighting among themselves, it is time to
separate them from the grow out cages and place them in their own
cage. In addition, I encourage you to not place them in the same
rabbit tractor even for a few minutes as you may not be as fortunate
as I was. Had my rabbit tractor not been placed in an area in which I
could observe the rabbits behavior, they may have actually inflicted
mortal wounds upon one another, or simply died from an adrenaline
overdose related to the prolonged stress of such an encounter.
Update (March 14,
2016): It has been two years since I wrote this original article, but
we never got around to starting this blog until now. We currently
have over 16 adult New Zealand Whites and Reds in our rabbitry and 18
kits under 10 weeks. I have since learned to keep at least a minimum
of 2 cages in reserve for those time when I need to perform cage
maintenance. Believe me it helps keep the stress level way down when
performing needed work to the rabbitry.
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