Hi everyone!
We just brought home our first foster rabbit. His name is Toby and today is his third day with us. Prior to Toby we had our own rabbit, Titan, who we had no problems with whatsoever so while we have knowledge on rabbit care we are pretty unsure about aggression.
A little background on Toby: He’s two years old and was neutered the morning we brought him home. He spent most of his life outside living in a makeshift hutch, essentially a wooden frame with chicken wire floors, walls, and ceiling. He was described as very friendly and when we went to visit him he really was. He was fed pellets meant for “growing” rabbits (pregnant rabbits or bucks) and occasionally some dried corn and carrot tops. I don’t think he ate the hay that was provided to him, I didn’t see him eating it while I was there, but the hay he had waiting for him was yellow and had a bit of a foul smell to it.
We’ve been feeding him a mix of new pellets and the old pellets from the previous owner. He’s also been provided fresh, green hay and to avoid overloading him on fresh fruits and vegetables we’ve only been giving him a few sprigs of parsley throughout the day. Also, he gets a Craisin after taking his pain medication in the morning. He has two more mornings of pain medication. These last few days we could reach down and pet him, offer him his parsley, and place poops into the litter box to try and encourage it’s use without a problem.
This morning, his third day here with us, he changed suddenly. He had eaten all his old pellets, scattered the new ones into his litter box, and hadn’t touched the hay. He had also spilled some of his water out of his bowl. I reached down to start picking up his poops and he was immediately on the defense. He never really liked me doing this and would nudge at the tissue I was using,but otherwise did nothing. I was trying to clean out poop from one corner, his “relaxing” corner so it appears, and he laid down in my way. I gave him a little pet and tried to get to it anyway. He was determined, he pushed his body against my hand to keep me from getting his poop. So, I offered him a piece of hay to get him out of the corner. Unlike what I’ve seen before Toby lunged at my hand and went not for the hay but for my fingers. I jerked away and made a high pitched noise in pain (I’ve read this is a way to let him know what he did was bad) and he grabbed the hay and ate it.
My husband went to give him his medication and he took it without a problem. Same thing, my husband offered him a piece of hay and he went not for the hay but his fingers. Thankfully he was wearing gloves after my encounter with Toby. I decided to give him his Craisin, since he had been getting it after his pain medication, and again he went for fingers not food. I jerked away, dropped the Craisin, and while he ate that I tried to scoop up all the pellets he had spilled back into his bowl. As soon as he finished the Craisin he went for my hand again and then flung his bowl around, spilling all the pellets again.
We are so confused! He was just a peach these last few days! We’ve been loving him, feeding him well, talking to him! If this behavior continues I will have to tell the rabbit rescue, but I don’t want to hurt his chances of finding a forever home if the behavior can be fixed by us, his fosters. Anyone please help? Ideas? What should we do?