MM,
That’s a good description of the power of bunny teeth. I think their teeth are designed to cut stalks of food, so can sever plastic pretty easily. Their intention is not to harm, but like most of us, they don’t always know their own strength. It is well to be warned and prepared.

Last night I watched Samantha with amazement as she pulled out the biggest, toughest stalks of oat hay, by passing the sweet green orchard grass, and chewed a few down in one long unending chew. She also was pulling apart a seagrass matte, and when she couldn’t pull out the strands, I saw her figure out that she should chomp a strand at the base so it got free, and then pull it. Really good example of brains using sharp teeth.

Fiver is a lovely bunny, and with your constant care and the company of all those sockbunnies he will live a very happy life – being understood for exactly who he is and well loved.

Bunny teeth are strong! We left Otto with friends while we went on vacation. One night they were playing with him and he got ahold of a book they were looking at and took a few nibbles. They were amazed that his nibbles were perfect, precision cuts into the paper. Haha. He has little hole puncher teeth! Definitely sharp.

Moose is quite the chomper as well.. he chews bits off of his willow cube in one bite, the teeth, after all, we designed for getting rid of roots when making burrows!

I forget who I got the phrase from, but I agree – “BUNNIES BITE BECAUSE THEY CAN’T BARK”

It’s their way of getting your attention.  They have fur so what to them is a little nip can draw blood on a tender pink human.  If you can develop a trusting relationship with them (which will take time) you can work out with them exactly how far they can go.  They are smart and can figure it out.

I used the techniques in The Language of Lagomorphs with my Pepper.  She was pretty nibbly when I first got her, and until we worked out who is in charge she got me some good ones.  Now she will still nip but unless she’s actively panicked she never even leaves a bruise.

I do have a couple of scars – she required a lot of daily medication for a while and fought me about it.  But I can’t blame her – she was totally freaked out and didn’t know what she was doing.  She even bit a friend of mine who has a LOT of bunny experieince hard enough to leave a scar on her as well.  But she also hops up on my bed nearly every night for bedtime pettins before settling down under the bed to sleep.

It took me almost 3 years to get to that place with Pepper – she was a park dump so she probably never associated human hands with anything nice.  I’m not a patient person but I’ve had to learn to be with her.  It’s worth it.

That’s true about their learning how far they can set their teeth on you without doing real harm.
I’m actually very surprised to find Sammykins was much, much faster at controlling her bites – I haven’t had a single bruise or blood drawn that I recall since I got her – because she is a bitey, boxing bunny. So she really learned fast to use it for attention and communication only. Part of growing up.

That’s true, RabbitPam, about how hard they bite. Lola doesn’t clamp all the way down to where she rips open the skin (despite my pet name for her), but man, once she gets a grip she doesn’t turn loose. She’ll even try to stand on her back feet and shake her head like a dog. Believe me THAT hurts.

At the same time she’s mauling me, I’m laughing because it’s so funny to have a shy, soft, cuddly, timid little creature biting the crap out of you 😉

This is so interesting and timely – I was actually pondering the fact that for Rabbits, as prey animals, they must a definitive part of their brain reserved for Remembering situations, differently from a dog or a cat – as their survival depends on recall and response. Therefore , you have to triple the amount of time to re-mediate the behaviors.

I remember the first time Coco Growled at me. Really growled. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that this little sweet looking thing was growling and lunging. I think that it was the first time I thought “If you weren’t the worlds dinner, you would have taken over Long away because you are fierce and SMART”

Coco doesn’t really bite, but she will kick the crap out of me when I try to trance her. I have had lovely long scratch marks down my arm. Jackson has bitten me much more frequently – He is also very hand shy – so I suspect before he was abandoned that he did not have good encounters with Humans.

I was telling my mom about my experience at the bunny shelter yesterday and how a few of the more aggressive buns were too tough for me to clean their cage and I had to leave them for the shelter owner to clean. My mom was shocked that cute little bunnies could ever be aggressive 😉

*giggled*  I remember the first time Pepper growled!  (it was at that little dutch boy we tried bonding her to).

The first thing I did was jump about a foot!

The second thing I did was completely crack up laughing!  “Who’s de feerse little bunbun?”  It’s hilarious!

What good reads      I am afraid to leave Cotton to my neighbor to feed when I am gone.    He allows no one NO ONE but me to touch him.   Well at the vets he does soso.

If I go away and can’t take him I have to leave him with my friend she has and knows rabbit.    I am afraid he would scare Mary when she went to feed him.