Bun only likes me & husband-mean to others

[Alexis & Stringbean]

Hi all
I’m new to the forum and I’ve come seeking advice on my mean little bunny.
My husband and I have a Netherlands dwarf mix. She is neutered and we’ve had her since 3 months (she’s now 4 yrs old)
She is not caged. Although we do have a cage for her-but we leave the door open and she litter trained herself to hop back in to do her business.
She was very skittish as a baby and at first only liked me and slowly warmed up to my husband.
But now she’s our little snuggle bean. She loves being held by us, snuggles up in my armpit in bed, gives me kisses on my nose and nudges my feet to get attention.
Sounds great, right?

But in recent months I have been noticing more and more that while she is our ‘little snuggle bean’, to others she’s mean, aggressive, lunges, snorts and scratches
And all 4 lbs of her scares the living daylights out of people.
When we left her with my inlaws while we went on our honeymoon last year they gave us a very bad report on our little bun.
We chalked it up to her being in an unfamiliar place and being scared.

But last month my mother stayed at our house while we were away for a night and she said that our little bun was completely unapproachable
She walked over to her and said “hi Stringbean” in a soft voice and started to kneel down to her level and she lunged and scratched at her.

Ok, we weren’t home-maybe she was confused and upset wondering who we had left her with

But lastnight I witnessed it myself with my girlfriend.
I was right there with her and my little bun actually jumped at her snorting and showing teeth.

When Stringbean misbehaves with me (which is rare), I pick her up and calm her down.
It helps that I’m also not afraid of this 4lb fur ball. I guess that reminds her of who’s boss. Whereas friends and family who are met with her aggression jump back in fear of her-which seems to let her know that what she’s doing is working and she’s maintaining her dominance.
That doesn’t work with me, and she knows it.

I guess my question is-what can I do?
She only lives with my husband and I, but eventually we’d like to add a dog to our home. I can imagine it now-getting a dog twice her size and she’ll end up being the dominant mean one.
We also have a vacation planned for mid June and plan to leave her with my inlaws again…who are actually scared of her at this point.

No one wants to be around her when they come over bc they all think she’s some blood thirsty Cujo rabbit.

She’s 4 lbs! How anything that weighs so little can be such a big fright to others is beyond me.
I guess it’s easy for me to say though since I don’t put up with her crap

Anyways, I’d appreciate any suggestions and input from everyone.
I’m open to anything at this point. I want others to see that she really is a sweet little bun-she just needs some time to warm up. But after the first lunge, everyone is in fear of her

[tanlover14]

Oh no! I’m EXTREMELY happy to hear she has a wonderful relationship with you both! This type of behavior is almost ALWAYS a fear response to something. Maybe she was dropped by someone? Someone hurt her when she was younger & the fear has never gone away? It really strikes me as that as you said she was very skittish with you as a baby.

I, personally, think you should try clicker training. And have others begin using this as a way to interact with her. Your goal is to get her to realize that other individuals can be associated with positive things, rather than negative which is probably what her fear response is telling her. Rabbits catch on REALLY quickly to clicker training. And once you have mastered it with her (it typically only takes a week or two for them to learn new things – it took my guy less than a week to learn he would be rewarded for hopping in his litter box when he had to go to the bathroom), you can have your mother-in-law or someone who doesn’t hate her yet try it with her.

I will say, your visitors should STOP reacting to her advances. I have the SWEETEST boy named Simba. He snuggles, gives kisses, everything, But if you respond to his first response (which is a lunge), he will not stop doing it to you. LOL. Which just emphasizes more their fear response. He gets scared but realized that the lunging will keep the “scary people” away, so he continues to do it. He responds to their responses. I hope that makes sense! Let me know if you need more clarification!

[kinggoblin]

When we go away my fiances grandmother or mother watches my bunny. He knows both of them, he HATES both of them. The only time he isn’t mean to people is if I’m in the room then he plays nice, but if I’m gone all bets are off.

He tolerates my fiancé but I found out after being hospitalized recently that if I’m not home then my rabbit is also nasty to him…. I’ve had my boy ever since he was young and he’s never been abused in my care. He is a momma’s boy only. I’ve tried getting him use to people, them giving him treats & petting him, but every time I leave he turns into a demon bunny. Luckily for them he doesn’t have incisors anymore so it’s grunts & nails.

When they watch him he has to stay in a closed off room with his pen. He won’t let them near his litter to change it or try to clean his area at all, it only makes him angry. They can only give him water, leave his veggies & pellets, and back away slowly lol. I don’t think it’s the stress of the location because we travel often and he’s there often and treats it as his second home & has all his regular. He’s perfectly happy there when I’m with him and binkies/flops around.

I just don’t know what else to say other than I raised a brat lol

[Sarita]

I don’t think she’s being mean, she just doesn’t know these other people – rabbits have to build trust.

Usually this behavior is fear aggression because they just don’t know the other person.

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