welcome to binky bunny elle.em.gee! Nope they don’t hate you and you’re not a bad bunny mom.

It sounds like your lil hellions are acting up! That kind of marking is most common when bunnies are staking their claim, which can be when they first claim a space – but also when things change or people, other pets, come into their territory. Has anything changed in the last week or so around your house?

I’d recommend limiting their roaming space and adding some more litter boxes to their house. Once they improve and master boxiing in that area you can slowly start to let them have more space. You might also add some hay to the box to entice them to use it.

Now, as much as I hate to admit it – the flicking of the back paws is the rabbit equivalent of flipping someone off. Are you doing anything prior to when it happens? He does not approve!

To help you bond with them, you may want to try hand feeding them greens, holding one end of the toy or paper towel core while they chomp the other end or simply lay on the floor ignoring them until they can’t resist to come over and poke you.

Hi Elle….I can tell you some bunnies love to climb. I have to use 2 baby gates stacked to keep my guy from climbing over a 3 foot gate. I have to watch where I put things cause he uses them as springboards to get on other things. There is no end to his testing the laws of gravity. And with buns, once they know it can be done, they are very single minded in doing it again.

I have cats, and even though there is a litter box in that area for Shadow that is uses, he surrounds the area with poops as a warning to all the others this is his space. It sounds like your 2 are trying to out out do(do) each other.

The feet flicks are probably because you have undone all his efforts with your cleaning up.

The lying on the floor ignoring them trick works wonders. They will have you trained in no time.

Forgot to add, they are gorgeous!  Love the tricolors in the first picture.

I whole heartedly second the laying/sitting on the ground! Grab a book and some tea or a magezine and some coffee (or you know any combo ) and hang out on the floor. You will soon become in object of interest if not a bunny jungle gym!

The important part about the ignoring/sitting thing is that when they come over and do begin to investigate you, do not pet them. That gets them even MORE interested. “What so engrossing that this human is ignoring my incredible cuteness?!!!”

oh my … they’re so cute

baby bun also ‘flips me off’ after i hold her for a long-ish period of time.  she’s gotten quite a bit better over time (7yrs!) but,  like you with virgil, i totally think it’s her personality since none of my previous buns did this.  it seems baby has bonded more with me very recently (since her surgery last month) and she started grooming me by licking my hand.  i soon realized that she does this when she wants head pets from me and if i’m too slow to respond she’ll start nipping, getting harder the longer i take.  or depending on her mood.   lol.  she hasn’t drawn blood yet but me thinks it’s only because i indulge her before it gets to that.  does beulah nip during times when she might want snuggles / pets?  or more food maybe?  just a thought.

good luck trying to ignore them… lol… its so hard to do to cute bunny-buns. it really does work tho!

You’ve received some great advice. I have a couple of questions –

You said: "Are they just getting settled now and "owning" the place?"

1. That could absolutely be the case. How are they acting with each other? Have you seen any signs (even subtle) of extra bossy behavior or ? Sometimes bunnies when they get settled into a new place start to re-establish their roles. This could make them show territorial behaviors like marking and even lunging and nipping.

2. How often does Beulah bite you? And can you describe what is usually happening before she bites. Are you cleaning, petting, etc? Does she only bite your hands?….or feet? ?

The "Pay attention to me" nips can totally be worked with.  My Pepper was VERY nibbly at first.  What I needed to do was explain things to her in terms she could understand.  Rabbits have fur and often don;t realize that the kind of nipping that feels ok to another bunny hurts the funny-looking pink naked bunnies they live with.

I highly recommend hitting the Language of Lagomorphs site – it’s in the links section.  It can tell you a lot about rabbit body language and figure out what they mean when they do stuff.

The screeching/yelping when they nip is a great first start.  A high pitched loud sound is rabbit for "ow/no/bad"!.  You can also THUMP your foot in disapproval.

If these aren’t getting through, try immediatly pressing down gently on their head, towards the floor.  This is dominant rabbit behavior and reinforces the message.  Just for a few seconds to get your point across.

The final straw is the human equivalent of the dreaded "Bunny Butt"!  You make sure they can see you, and then deliberately turn your back on them.  You are allowed to peek back over your shoulder to be SURE they can see how you are ignoring them.  This may escalate into some mutial sulking for a while, but it does let them know they have stepped over the line.  You should wait a suitable time before allowing friendship again.  Craisins help.

I got Pepper to snop nipping in just over a week.  I’ll never forget the look on her little face when I did the Bunny-Butt thing.  She just STARED at me.  She will  still nip on occasion, but not hard enough to bruise or break the skin –  even when I was having to wrestle her 3x/day for ear drops!

ooo I’m glad to hear that things are calming down, using their boxes and it sounds like they’re getting settled in. It can take some time for bunnies to get settled in. Timid bunnies can take longer to feel safe, with our bunny Pandora I lay on the floor with her a lot. When I want to pet her I try to come at her head so she knows i am not going to pick her up. Generally this works, but she still often gets skittish and leaps away. It’s been over a year since she moved in, but it’s just an ongoing process.

Good news! And Wendy – that advice was great!

I sometimes feel like the Bunny Whisperer – I end up posting the same info over and over.  Maybe we should come up with a summary for the files section?