Does anyone else have experience with their bun opening its mouth in a super wide yawnlike pose and exposing its teeth as a sign of feeling threatened?
Our rabbits exhibit totally friendly, snuggly and attention hog behavior of their own free will, often coming over to us and bumping for pets without having to be caught. In our house we have several young children so no one is allowed to pick up the rabbits besides myself. Ever. Because of this the bunnies are only picked up maybe once a month. When I check their nails or if I think there is some kind of issue that needs inspecting.

Our female thrashes a bit at first but then becomes very docile and when released will not instantly run away. (Oddly enough, she is the shyest and least friendly of the two)
Our neutered male on the other hand is super outgoing and my best buddy all over the house until I scoop him up. Then it is ears pinned, thrashing every chance he gets and opening his mouth in my face like he is going to bite my head off. Even if it’s only being held for less than a minute. It looks very scary but he has never actually bitten me.
Since I am super calm and gentle and do my best to make him feel safe when I need to hold him, I am a little confused as to why he gets so defensive? If I wrap him to ensure that he doesn’t rip me up with his claws he opens his mouth twice as often and I fear that he is going to have a stress induced heart attack because it looks a lot like gasping.
What is going on in his head? He isn’t afraid of me afterward. After kicking his feet a bit and running off he will flop down and let me love him up just like every other day.
Is this just a sign that I should pick him up more often for shorter bits of time when I don’t actually need to? I have avoided trying to condition him to being picked up because I don’t want him to start avoiding me or becoming less friendly over time for fear of being held.
Any thoughts?