In recent years, there has been an increasing trend in the pet rabbit community of cohabitating rabbits. 'Bonding' is a long, complex process of gradually exposing two rabbits to each other while mitigating fights and injuries. While the idea of rabbits having conspecific "friends" is certainly endearing from a human perspective, it is important to consider whether a rabbit's species-specific needs truly align with anthropomorphic social structures. While humans and dogs, for example, require ????? social structures for their welfare, the social behaviors of wild and domestic rabbits are markedly ????. Here, we examine current literature on ?????? and the ethics of cohabitating rabbits.
Dominance/territorial behavior
Establish that rabbits are territorial
Owner interpretation
????% of owners aren't good at understanding body language
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927936.2025.2469400
Wild rabbits:
Rabbits in the wild: spacing apart
Fighting/injuries/stress levels/best ethical practices - current literature
In the case of bred does, cohabitation has been demonstrated to
"Indeed, the reproductive performance of collectively housed females decreased due to pseudo-pregnancy, competition among females for nests and aggressive behaviour towards kits when two or three females shared the same nest box (Mirabito et al., 2005; Szendrö et al., 2019)."
" Compared to permanent group housing, part-time group housing avoids pseudo-pregnancy and competition for the nest or collective littering (Szendrö et al., 2016)."
So this may improve reproductive performance
"However, aggressive behaviours, and injuries to rabbits after grouping, remain problematic (Andrist et al., 2013; Buijs et al., 2015). "
In a comparison of individual versus part-time group housing, 25% of does demonstrated injuries within two days of group housing (Huang et al, 2021). By the tenth day, 62.5% of cohabitated rabbits were injured, and the animals were separated earlier than intended due to ethical concerns. Most injuries were to the face and hindquarter, and three cohabitated animals were culled due to poor health. In contrast, none of the individually housed does demonstrated injuries. By the end of the 10-day period, cohabitated does had 10% lower body weight than the individually housed does, and a reduced daily feed intake of 20%. The authors note that while providing enrichment was attractive for the rabbits, it did not prevent aggression or injuries.
Most common injuries:
Anecdotally, owners report ??????, and castration of bucks
Bonding not 100%:
Reports of fighting long after 'bonding'
My thoughts:
Intuitively, I struggle with justifying how a bonding process that is long, risky, and incredibly challenging is truly in the best interests of the animals.
Dominance/territorial behavior
Establish that rabbits are territorial
Owner interpretation
????% of owners aren't good at understanding body language
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927936.2025.2469400
Wild rabbits:
Rabbits in the wild: spacing apart
Fighting/injuries/stress levels/best ethical practices - current literature
In the case of bred does, cohabitation has been demonstrated to
"Indeed, the reproductive performance of collectively housed females decreased due to pseudo-pregnancy, competition among females for nests and aggressive behaviour towards kits when two or three females shared the same nest box (Mirabito et al., 2005; Szendrö et al., 2019)."
" Compared to permanent group housing, part-time group housing avoids pseudo-pregnancy and competition for the nest or collective littering (Szendrö et al., 2016)."
So this may improve reproductive performance
"However, aggressive behaviours, and injuries to rabbits after grouping, remain problematic (Andrist et al., 2013; Buijs et al., 2015). "
In a comparison of individual versus part-time group housing, 25% of does demonstrated injuries within two days of group housing (Huang et al, 2021). By the tenth day, 62.5% of cohabitated rabbits were injured, and the animals were separated earlier than intended due to ethical concerns. Most injuries were to the face and hindquarter, and three cohabitated animals were culled due to poor health. In contrast, none of the individually housed does demonstrated injuries. By the end of the 10-day period, cohabitated does had 10% lower body weight than the individually housed does, and a reduced daily feed intake of 20%. The authors note that while providing enrichment was attractive for the rabbits, it did not prevent aggression or injuries.
Most common injuries:
Anecdotally, owners report ??????, and castration of bucks
Bonding not 100%:
Reports of fighting long after 'bonding'
My thoughts:
Intuitively, I struggle with justifying how a bonding process that is long, risky, and incredibly challenging is truly in the best interests of the animals.
References:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751731121002330