Aggressive with food

[Ashley K.]

Normly my bun is very sweet, I rescued her a few years ago and she was agreesive, then slowly she started trusting me and now she’s sweet to every one. She’s still a little timid about being lifted out of the cage but once she see’s its safe shes happy and follows me around. But suddenly tonight she lunged at me and used her ffont paws to try to get me to knock to hay out of my hands, and she made a grunting sound. I simply let the hay go, said no, and left my hand there so she wouldnt freak out if a pulled it back to fast. She never really had a food agression problem untill now. She isnt spayed but she’s older and we dont have another bunny. Normaly chloe is so sweet when it comes to food! She’s fine with people giving her pellets and treats, but not with hay. She’ll go as far as to sit on it when she eats and lunge at you when you walk by her cage. Whats the problem?? Im worried!

[jerseygirl]

When there’s a change in behaviour like this, it is wise to get her checked out to see she is not suffering any discomfort. Dental pain, gas pain etc. Sometimes when a rabbit is molting they can become more feisty. Just to clarify… she isn’t spayed? Your profile lists her as spayed. If she isn’t, it could be that she’s experiencing a false pregnancy which can cause them to become aggressive. Other behaviours that can indicate this is  total dislike of being picked up or touched, territorial of the cage, carrying things in their mouths (especially bunches of hay) and pulling fur from the dewlap. Basically, as if they’re building a nest.

[Ashley K.]

Hmmm,  i need to change that on my profile then, no she isnt spayed. She hasnt been around my friends male bunny since the summer, and they never mated. Suddenly she’s agrrisive to everyone now. Once I got her to trust me (because she was rescued and afraid of people at first) she was the nicest bunny ever! Now she’s become agrrisve towards people, cage territoraly, dosnt want to be picked up, stuff like that. I tried moving her cage back to were it normaly is and that hasnt helped. She gets the same food… But I will get her to a vet if this continues durring the day.

[Sarita]

Are you considering spaying her? I would totally recommend this and I would never ever let 2 unaltered rabbits out together – you are asking for trouble (unwanted pregnancy).

Definitely consider getting her to a vet because aggressive behavior can be the result of pain. My rabbit Pepe is very food aggressive but he’s also more aggressive when his teeth hurt.

[Ashley K.]

We dont have 2 bunny’s but then again she plays with my friends bunny who is a male. She’s older, about 5 or 6. Would spaying her at this age  still help?

[Sarita]

Well, she can still get pregnant with that male rabbit. Spaying will keep her from getting uterine cancer – it’s recommended for health reasons. At this age you would want to do a blood test prior to surgery and make sure you have a vet who has experience with rabbits.

[Beka27]

Please look into spaying. It is very important. Females have an 85% risk of developing cancer by the age of 3 if not spayed… you’ve already had her a few years, so it’s a very real possibility that there could be something wrong with her right now. Fortunately, if it is caught soon enough, the cancer can usually be removed with the spay. I’m not even going to address the “food aggression” issue because my guess is that this is not the case. Do you have a rabbit savvy vet?

[Ashley K.]

No, we just have a normal vet, he’s real good with small animals though. I called him and he said he’d look at her and if we needed he would suggest a few vets that he thinks would be good. I really hope if it is serious its caught in time.

[Beka27]

Okay, I’m glad he’s willing to refer you out. I hope he recognizes the connection with cancer… Please let us know what he says.

[Balefulregards]

Its good to have a rabbit savvy vet look at her – she could be having tooth pain too….

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