Biting rabbit

[Lindie Naude]

Recently my 9 month old female mini lop is rubbing her chin on everything. I’ve heard thats how they mark their territory, and she does it on everything, including me. Now she is moving on to biting me. She’ll rub her chin me, the arm closest to her more times than none, and then bite me extremely hard. She has a bit of a temperament sometimes but I have noticed that the times she has done this, she’s been very active and cuddly. When I gently push her away to tell her no, she immediately turns her back to me and ignores me for a while. Any idea why she’s doing this and how to help her stop?

[litheandgraphic]

She is definitely marking you as “hers”! Is she spayed? She can be, at this age, and it’s highly recommended that you do so if you haven’t already, both for behavioral reasons and also for health reasons.

You can also try using her own language against her; when she bites you, emit a high-pitched squeak, loud enough to jostle her. This is how rabbits express pain. Some rabbits will also bite because they don’t want you (or the subordinate rabbit) to stop grooming them, which would make sense if she’s being cuddly right before she turns aggressive and bites.

Turn your back on her, too! Let her know you don’t like the behavior when it happens.

[LBJ10]

Yeah, I would let her know she is hurting you by squealing loudly right at the moment she bites you. As FLR said, you can reinforce it by turning your back to her and ignoring her.

[JackRabbit]

I agree with the others on squealing and turning your back when she bites. The chinning part is normal bunny behavior and, in my experience, unaffected by spay/neuter but is completely harmless. I actually feel very loved and get excited when one of mine chins me!

[Lindie Naude]

Thanks for all the advice. I’ve tried squealing, but it only makes her stop for a few seconds and try to bite me again, and I am planning to neuter her but her poo has been wet and quite big for the past few weeks, and the vet told me to wait until those types of poos stop before I can get her neutered. I’m the only one in my family she’s biting, so I’m not sure what else to do from here

[LBJ10]

Has she adjusted her bite at all after being squealed at? It isn’t unusual for hormonal bunnies to bite. Like FLR said, she may be trying to tell you that she doesn’t want you to stop petting/paying attention to her. Another reason could simply be she wants you to move out of her way. I’ve been nipped in the butt before because my Leopold wanted me to move out of his way. How dare I sit there when he wants to get through!

What tends to happen with the squealing is that they learn not to bite so hard. Wooly, for example, still puts his teeth on me when his is displeased with what I’m doing (usually grooming him). He knows not to bite down hard though. Leopold is a little bit different because he is deaf. He still bites! LOL We’ve been working with him though and he is slowly realizing that biting will not get him what he wants. So if he hops up in my lap and bites my leg, he is immediately returned to the floor. I have also been getting him used to being handled by picking him up for short periods of time and giving him a treat. This is so he isn’t completely freaked out if I need to pick him up for nail cutting, etc. If he bites, I resist the urge to give him what he wants (which is down!). LOL Now that he is seeing that biting does not get him what he wants, he tends to do it less. Hopefully some of this will be of help to you.

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