aggresion after spay?

[Audrey]

I adopted a 1 and a half year old dwarf bunny from a local rescue late last week, and she was spayed exactly one week ago. When I went to meet her she was sweet and sat on my lap the whole time ( I was also told that she loves to cuddle and is very friendly) Now that she is home with me, she lunges and bites when I stick my hand in her cage. When I let her run around she comes over to me and nudges me and then bites me, won’t let me pet her, and chews through anything i’m wearing, but she is also very curious and will climb all over me to sniff. I’m not sure if her hormones are still settling down? 

I want to give her as much time as she needs to go back to the bunny I met the first time. Just want to see if anyone knows why she is like this now and if it can/will change.

[Sirius&Luna]

After spays, rabbits have a hormone surge as their body readjusts. For female bunnies, it takes between 1 – 6 months for their hormones to balance out. Most will be back to normal after a month or so, but some do go on for longer. So it’s totally normal for them to become more aggressive and difficult after a spay.

Secondly, she’s moved to a brand new environment and is getting used to you and establishing her territory. Most rabbits don’t like humans being in ‘their’ space of their cage, so try and avoid invading her space when you can. If you need to refresh hay and water, try and do it when she’s out of the hutch. Same goes for cleaning. Rabbits nip to communicate, so she might be trying to communicate with you and not know she’s biting too hard. Give a high pitched squeal when she bites and hopefully she’ll learn that its hurting you. It’s great that you’re spending time on the floor with her. Keep doing that and I’m sure she’ll start to calm down once she’s more used to you and more recovered from the spay

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