Urgent advice needed

[Laurab]

We are having real issues with our rabbit.

hes unneutered, 5 months old, a boy, from a pet shop and we’ve had him just over a week.

He hasn’t been handled at all hardly, I have been working with him and he’s a lot more confident and will tolerate and enjoy small amounts of petting and is okay with being picked up.

The problem is with my four year son.

when he runs round the rabbit appeared to run with him and he said he was tugging on his trousers, I came on here for advice and was told the running probably scared him so I got him to stop.

one day, the rabbit was pulling the carpet, my son said no and put his hand under the rabbits chin, the rabbit bit him very hard.

we assumed he had frightened or hurt him accidentally and thought that would be the end of it.

since then the rabbit will occasionally charge at him and bite him. 

It appears to be unprovoked, like this morning, my son got up after eating breakfast, sat on the floor to play with his cars and the rabbit bit his foot. 

It’s not territorial, the rabbit only goes in a cage upstairs at bedtime.

he charges and bites when he has full run of the house.

I need urgent advice on what to do, I’m so upset and have cried non stop.

all the rescues are full and although my son loves him and wants to keep him the bites are hard, they bleed and bruise and I’m really worried about how bad it’s going to get. 

[jerseygirl]

Hi there, I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. It could very much be a learnt behaviour your rabbit has picked up. Using it as a defense but perhaps also to seek attention.
The spot right in front of the nose is a blind spot for rabbits. If I put my hand there, most of my rabbits will grunt and pounce at my hand. It’s just a defensive move. If a rabbit uses biting or boxing in defense and it works (ie. the perceived threat disappears) then they can use it again to get desired result -> learnt behaviour.

Absolutely you do need to curb this habit of biting to protect your son, visitors and to be able to enjoy your rabbit.
A simple way to start its to let out a sharp shriek when it bites like another rabbit would do.
Also getting your son to tone down the energy levels around the rabbit. Probably difficult to do I know!

Mostly, I would advise a vet check up with a rabbit savvy vet to 1) rule out the aggression doesn’t stem from a health problem and 2) to discuss getting him neutered. That should help a lot!

[jerseygirl]

These articles might help.
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bunnybites.shtml
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/agressive.shtml

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree with Jersey. Getting him neutered asap will most likely help. Bunnies that are full of hormones, especially that age are often more prone to aggressive behavior.

Is your bunny free-roam? If yes, I would suggest he be caged with supervised out time until after the neuter. Keep in mind that hormones will take about a month to die down after he is desexed.

My guess is that this bunny is not being mean but feels threatened by your little boy. Like Jersey mentions, they have a blind spot directly in front. Agree with Jersey, try to teach your son to be calm around the bunny. And ditto, the shrieking sound when the bunny bites. This will let bunny know he is hurting you/your son and it’s also unpleasant for them so hopefully will deter.

[Laurab]

He is free roam, I thought caging him would maybe make him territorial?

My son is calm around him!
That’s what’s so upsetting.
To begin with he ran round then I stopped him doing that after posters here suggested the running was upsetting the rabbit.
He doesn’t chase, run at or frighten the rabbit in any way, the rabbit attacks him for no reason.
My son walks round and he charges at and bites him.
Today, my son was sat quietly playing with his toy cars and he bit his foot!

He does shriek and scream when the rabbit bites him, the rabbit knows he’s hurt him

[Amys Animals]

Rabbits are territorial animals, period. If they see something that they want to be theirs…it’s theirs. I agree that getting him neutered will help a ton! Your rabbit is already territorial. If he is free roam, he owns your house. He’s already made it his. I just adopted my third rabbit from a rescue. He is neutered but he was frightened, and territorial. He would lunge and try to get me but that has calmed down. He is okay now. I had him on my bed yesterday and he was making it his. When I tried to pick him up and take him back to his condo he growled at me and lunged. I don’t necessarily think he was trying to hurt me but just warning me that that is his bed now. =P Him being neutered I think helps with the aggression. He doesn’t bite me, just warns. I think being in the pet store probably wasn’t the best ideal for him. Who knows what went on there before you bought him. Get him neutered, work with him. I think he’ll be okay.

I think what they mean by shrieking at the rabbit is not your son doing it because then if he does it the rabbit is getting a desired reaction but if your son stays calm (I know he’s only 4 and that would be hard to do) and you make a loud noise it might startle the bunny and make him realize he is not supposed to bite. I’ve never dealt with a biting bunny before. I have only heard this advice given to others.

[jerseygirl]

Posted By Laurab on 02/17/2013 07:55 AM

My son is calm around him!
That’s what’s so upsetting.
To begin with he ran round then I stopped him doing that after posters here suggested the running was upsetting the rabbit.

My apologies. I didn’t take that in from your earlier post.
We’re you planning to get him neutered? He’s the right age and I believe it will help.

It sort of reminds me of the foster rabbits I had when they reached this age. I could not let the males together because they’d just fight instantly. It was like they had too much energy zinging in the body and the aggression was an outlet. Desexing would tone this down significantly.

Keeping him caged for now when your son has play time might be best. Rabbits like a safe place of their own to go.
Maybe the bunny can have roam time when your son is asleep? And they can have shorter, supervised times to spend together. Getting your son to hand feed him some greens would be good bonding between the two.

[Laurab]

We are planning to get him neutered, the pet shop didn’t vaccinate him and myxi is rampant in our area so that needs doing first then neutering asap (within the next few weeks) but if he keeps biting I doubt we can keep him, these are proper serious bites and I don’t want my son to end up scared of animals or scarred!
We aren’t great for money and don’t want spend £40 or more neutering him if we maybe can’t keep him.
We can’t cope with maybe a month of this after neutering either, the biting needs to stop now.

[Laurab]

Also, my son does hand feed him carrots and salad leaves
The rabbit always seems very comfortable and happy to take them and eat them near him then the next minute he’s trying to bite him!

I will keep him caged for a while if you think it would help.

[jerseygirl]

The rabbit being 5 months old, do you know if he was surrendered to the pet shop?
I just wonder if it was someone’s pet that was not handled correctly.

Also, a silly question but you’re certain it is a male? The testicles are already visible?

Don’t feel too badly about caging him more at the moment. Teenage bunnies can be a challenge and limiting their roam time is often a necessary step to take.

[Laurab]

He was bought by someone from the pet shop long after his litter mates had been sold, he was then returned. The previous owners said it was due to not settling in.

He remained in the pet shop a while then we bought him, I know his previous owners haven’t handled him much, if at all.

I’m as sure I can be, the pet shop woman checked and said the was no mistaking and he was definitely a boy.

[jerseygirl]

If due to have his shots, the vet will be able to confirm the sex too. I only asked because the sex of rabbits is so commonly mistaken. So if the bun was female,there’d be some other possibilities for the behaviour.

[LBJ10]

I was wondering the same thing as Jersey. Are you sure he’s a boy? Does he have very obvious jewels poking out?

For now, I am going to assume he is a boy so I can give some advice. From what you have described, his behavior sounds like it is territorial in nature. I know you are concerned about the cost of neutering him, but neutering really would help tone things down for him. At 5 months, he is swimming in hormones. This is the period when everyone’s “loving baby bunny” turns into a little monster. So I am going to echo the others in suggesting he is neutered ASAP.

In the short term, I think he would do better if he was confined to a smaller area. It will give him a sense of security. A big wide open house may be too overwhelming for him at this stage. Most people tend to do this at this stage anyway because their bun is a little too happy marking their territory all over the house. He doesn’t need to be in a cage necessarily. You can put up some baby gates or use an exercise pen. Then let him have supervised out time.

As for the biting, it really isn’t that unusual. From what I understand, sometimes buns will pick a target. Sometimes it is the spouse, sometimes it is a small child. Like the others have suggested, he could be frightened by your son’s presence. Or he could be feeling territorial toward your son. Now I am curious how your son reacts to being bitten. I understand that he is only 4, so I know it is hard. Does your son scream? Cry? This may not be a high enough pitch. When a rabbit is hurt, they let out a high pitched shriek. A single high pitched shriek right when the rabbit is doing the biting is usually enough to deter them. I only had to do this a couple times with Wooly. Now he knows to only put his teeth on me when he wants something. He doesn’t bite down hard. My other rabbit is different because he is deaf. He will still bite hard sometimes, but we have made a lot of progress by finding other ways to disrupt his behavior. Obviously the process has been a lot slower.

I urge you not to give up on your rabbit yet. This is a difficult period a lot of bunny owners go through.

[kinggoblin]

Neutering will calm him down. My boy was very territorial and would charge and try to bite my boyfriend all the time before he was whenever he entered a room that we were in because he is a very jealous boy. He still gets jealous sometimes if he sees my boyfriend sit with me on the couch or something. He jumps between us and nudges him hard with his nose but doesn’t bite.

[Hazel]

As everyone else has said, his hormones are in full swing and most likely the cause of this behavior. I don’t think he’s a mean bunny, but he might also have had some bad experiences in his first home.

Please don’t give up on him, most rabbits get very naughty at this age, it’s not his fault. After the neuter you have to give him a month or so for his hormones to calm down. Neutering isn’t a magic fix where he’ll come home from the vet and be perfect. It takes time, that’s just how it is.
Keeping your son and the bunny separate until a month after the neuter is the only way to make sure he won’t get nipped. As has been said, a little more confinement will be good for the bunny right now anyway.

[MoveDiagonally]

You’ve already received a lot of great advice I just wanted to pop into this thread and give you a link that may be helpful:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/aggression.html

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