Are rabbits bitey/mouthy?

[buncurious]

I do not own any rabbits; I’m here mainly for research reasons.

Obviously, every bun is an individual, but generally speaking how bitey/mouthy would you say they are from your own personal  experiences with your bun(s)? I’m asking mainly because I am thinking about potentially adopting a rabbit in the future but I have a bit of a phobia of animals with ever-growing teeth biting me even if they’re not being mean about it. It’s mainly from when I was a small child and had cage aggressive hamsters (yeah, it was because their cages sucked most likely.)

I am able to get over it and I have many times when I had guinea pigs and rats, but it’s always there somewhat whenever I adopt someone new and I’m just wondering what to expect from a rabbit because knowing what to expect is what helps me get over it in the first place lol. For example when I first got rats, I learned about their body language and in what situations they were likely to nip before I got them and it helped me to not freak out when they were exploring my skin/being affectionate or to avoid doing things in the first place that would cause them to be putting their teeth on me.

Then we learned to trust each other and now I don’t have much apprehension with that species and I trust rats much more easily now once I get to know them. Same with piggies.

So, yeah. How bitey/mouthy are your buns? In what situations do they tend to nip or scrape their teeth on you? I just wanna hear about your stories I guess. Sorry if this isn’t in the right section!

[Bam]

I’d say rabbits are pretty nippy. Since they cant talk or vocalize much, they often communicate with their mouths via biting, nipping and licking. Especially young buns (teenagers) can be bitey, until they understand how to get their point across without actually drawing blood.

Some buns are cage aggressive and will defend their home base with their teeth. In rabbits this doesnt mean that their cage/home base sucks, it’s simply about territory. Rabbits are highly territorial as a  species.

Rabbits communicate with other rabbits with their mouths, but since rabbits have protective fur, a nip is less painful for rabbits than for humans.

If a rabbit eats plenty of hay it will greatly help preventing its teeth from growing too long.

 

 

[LBJ10]

It definitely depends on the rabbit. But yes, they can be pretty bitey sometimes. LOL  They aren’t doing to the be mean or aggressive, necessarily. As Bam said, they communicate with their mouths. Young bunnies, especially, will nip when they want sometime or when testing their boundaries. Many will grow out of it though and become less bitey with age. They can also learn that they are hurting you and will adjust their bite pressure when giving a communication nip.

[Azerane]

I agree that young rabbits are certainly more mouthy than adult buns. They’re still learning, exploring and figuring things out. Rabbits also use their mouths for play (shredding/throwing/rearranging). Mostly a nip is pretty gentle force like a light pinch but if you ignore them they might nip harder. Recently one of mine has been getting daily medication and at times he has nipped me quite hard and given me a couple small bruises, but hasn’t broken the skin.

My pair are seniors and aren’t nippers anymore (apart from Apollo with his medication time), it is a rare occassion that I might be sitting in their pen and my foot might be in the way so they’ll give it a gentle nip/nudge to let me know they want me to move it.

I’ve never had a territorial biter so I can’t speak about that, but as a general rule the average rabbit nip can feel like a sudden sharp pinch but doesn’t break the skin and usually doesn’t bruise unless they’re trying to hurt you.

[prince dorian the bun]

Can confirm the teenage nips for sure, Dorian could be quite bad when he was little but I would be overly dramatic about it so he knew he had bitten too hardand he eventually learned to not do it or just grew outofit. Miu never was much of a nipper, she will nudge you with her nose and dig at you if that didn’t work.  She was also a couple months older than Dorian was when we got her.

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