Since rabbits can’t speak, the number of ways they can communicate with us is extremely limited. A rabbit nipping you is a call for attention, and the reason for that attention can vary greatly.

Some possibilities include:
– Get out of my way.
– Give me treats/food.
– Give me attention.
– Stop giving me attention.

… or, as you mention, an ineffective attempt at grooming you.

Rabbits do not respond well to physical discipline, so I would make sure not to reinforce the nipping by providing her with what she seemingly wants. If hypothetically a nip is asking “pet me”, and you pet her, that reinforces that she needs to ask you that way in order to get that. I would walk away, gently push her head away, redirect the nip energy to a toy, and/or do a high pitch squeal to indicate it hurts (even if it doesn’t very much). All of these are in various ways providing feedback that “This is not going to accomplish what you want.” in a gentle, not-threatening way.

Also note that human bodies are huge and confusing, considering all the different textures, smells, clothes, etc., so it also very possible, especially for young rabbits, that nips are “testing” to learn about “What the heck is this thing?”. You can imagine it may take a while for a small rabbit with different sensory perceptions of the world to understand our lanky human bodies.

I have done overly dramatic squeal of pain… it seemed to work. I have noticed the nips now are a lot more gentle…. though there’s some relearning when I warmer weather means bare ankles.

I second that the squeal works! Young bunnies especially are still learning and tend to explore the world by nibbling, so it helps them realize “hey, that hurts!”.

Yes, I squeal softly too. Our little girl Molly is finding her confidence and sometimes she has a bit too much rabbittude.

If I sit on the floor and she thinks I’m in the way she tries to nudge or nip me away. If she nudges me I move a couple of centimetres.

If she immediately nips me I give a soft squeal and don’t move. If she persists I give her “bunny butt” by turning my back to her for a couple of seconds. That’s how rabbits tell each other that it offended them.

This website helped me a lot with bunny body language:

language.rabbitspeak.com

It’s a real treasure trove of information, and shows you just how much sass and rabbittude rabbits can have ^_^

Hope this helps!

If they persist, I turn my back to them and look over my shoulder after a couple of seconds.

Yes, a lot of bunnies respond to squealing. The realize they are hurting you, so they learn to adjust their bite pressure.

Bunnies tend to be very sensitive to the reactions of those around them since they are extremely social animals and prey animals on top of that. This is even more true when you “speak bunny” to them, so yeah, dramatic squeals of pain is probably your best bet. As you bond more with your bunny, you’ll learn each other’s cues. My bunny likes to wake me up in the morning by biting my ear, and he broke skin once. He has speech buttons (the dog ones that you can set to your own voice) and he uses “all done” to tell me when he’s mad about something or wants me to stop doing something, so I turned around and told him “all done” when he bit my ear too hard. Since then, he either gives me super gentle nibbles, or just licks my face in the morning to get me up.

One other thing to add to this thread is the importance of responding to their nudges. If your rabbit knows nudging works, they won’t bite anymore.

Kotton bit like nobody’s business. She would bite when we were in her way (even though there is plenty of space) or if she wanted attention, or if she was just excited because she just aggressively dug something. She used to chase me away from her hay bin when I tried to clean it. But as we got familiar with each other and she mellows out a little, she starts nudging us.

It started off with bin cleaning. She bit and I yelped. Then she came back and push, and I yes’ed her but persisted in cleaning. Then she started nudging me instead and I would always pet her gently and talk to her during the time I clean up – but only when she nudges instead of bites. She now learns that I would respond when she nudges and there is no need to bite. But my husband would always ignore her until she bit him. So he only got rabbit stare, or bites. I told him to try responding to her as soon as she nudges, and he does now, so he doesn’t get bitten until she felt ignored.