Jekyll and Hyde

[Deleted User]

Hey everybody!! I really hope someone can help me with my most recent bunny problem……….

Okay so a few days ago I had a friend over. She owns a rabbit and naturally wanted to visit my bonded pair, who live in a 5 by 8 foot shed/hutch thing outside. We went inside and started hanging out with the buns. I had, like I always do, a few toys in there for the buns to play with: a willow ball, a pinecone, a braid of timothy hay, and a large grass ball with a bell inside. My friend picked up the hay braid and held it in front of my male, Beethoven’s, face, blocking his path. The braid wasn’t touching him, but Beethoven freaked and clawed and bit the braid until it was just a few strands of hay all over the shed. My friend and I got really freaked out and thought there was something wrong with him. He had never shown the slightest interest in that hay braid anyways! What was that about?????

We calmed down when Beethoven returned to his normal cheerful self, hopping around, jumping on boxes, and cuddling with my other rabbit, Eliza. Then my friend accidentally nudged the grass ball into his path. Again, the ball didn’t touch him, and he was just sitting there, but Beethoven attacked the ball. The ball is pretty big, so he didn’t kill it like he did to the braid, but he did shred and eat a bunch of grass from off of it. My friend and I got kind of scared again. 

Not ten minutes later, he did the same thing to the poor pinecone! This time, he hopped out of the litter box and landed with the pinecone just a few inches away from his face. The pinecone held up better than the grass toys, but it did gain lots of teeth marks. 

So my question is WHAT IS GOING ON WITH MY RABBIT??????????????? This isn’t him playing! When he plays, he quietly chews or tosses a ball or something. This was different! It was like… he really HATED those toys! And he’s normally very sweet and docile; climbing onto my lap, interacting with visitors, etc. I’ve never seen this behavior from him. He’s been fixed for about a year, and so is my female obviously, so it’s not hormones or anything. Should I not worry? I just think that maybe Beethoven will attack something else like that, say, his mate. For what it’s worth, it doesn’t sound anything like him to hurt Eliza, but it also didn’t sound like him to destroy those toys so vengefully. 

Another thing: I’m not very worried about Eliza getting hurt, which is good because I don’t have another cage so I can separate them. Will he only attack his toys or what? 

I’d appreciate any help and/or ideas. Thanks guys!

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Helloworld!!

[BunnyBun14]

Maybe he just didn’t see the toys very well? You probably know that a rabbit’s eyes are on either side of his/her head, so he maybe didn’t see the toys very well. When he noticed something blocking his path, he went in for the attack. As long as he doesn’t hurt his little friend or a human, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Good luck!

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