Being a Brat...What to Do?

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 4sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 1 month ago by Hokankai.

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- 02/24/2013 at 7:52 PM
  Hokankai
  Participant
  252 posts
  Ariadne has been a brat all day today. She chases and nips Theodore when she hears me preparing their food, lunges at him when he wants to go into their box and she’s in there, lunges at me whenever I am fiddling around with the cage, grunting and growling, exaggerated breathing (kind of like huffing before she lunges)…basically being a brat.
  
  Before you ask, YES she is spayed. The only thing that’s changed since yesterday is their feeding situation (I wanted to see how they did sharing a bowl instead of being fed separately). Could that be causing her to be in a bad mood? She is very food anxious and will corral Theodore away from me whenever treats or food are involved.
  
  What do you do about the naughty behavior? The last time she lunged at Theodore from the box I took her out and put her in the tub for a few minutes. That seems to have chilled her out a bit.Their food will be separated again tomorrow to see if that was the cause.
- 02/24/2013 at 8:54 PM
  LBJ10
  Moderator
  17232 posts
  I can certainly see how it could be the shared bowl. If she is possessive of her food, then sharing a bowl is probably making her fret and she thinks she needs to ensure Theodore knows his place.
- 02/24/2013 at 10:12 PM
  Hokankai
  Participant
  252 posts
  She just lunged at Theodore again and I think she knew she was in trouble because she instantly hid in their tunnel afterwards. I grabbed her and put her in the tub anyway. Hopefully the food thing fixes it. I’m not sure how to work with a food possessive bunny, but I’ll just keep giving her treats first and see if that helps.
- 02/25/2013 at 12:05 PM
  Elrohwen
  Participant
  7318 posts
  Sometimes I wonder if something is just in the air. Hannah won’t torture Otto for weeks, and then all of a sudden she’ll chase him around every night. The food thing will probably help, but she might just need to simmer down for a couple days and get back to normal.
  
  When Hannah does it, I yell to break her out of it, and push her away from Otto a bit so he can hide and she can settle down. I have used the spray bottle on her, because I know it’s effective with her personally. Also, Otto doesn’t care one bit about being sprayed with water, so I know if I miss her and hit him it won’t stress him out.
- 02/25/2013 at 12:14 PM
  Hokankai
  Participant
  252 posts
  Yeah she is in a MUCH better mood today. She isn’t lunging and she didn’t chase Theo around too bad. She knows she’s not supposed to do it, and when she goes I’ll squirt her or shake something to make a loud noise (Theodore is deaf, ha!) to snap her out of it.
  
  I put a larger box in there for them and put her food back on top of the box today. She seems more relaxed in general though so I wonder if she was just having a really bad day yesterday :\
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