Bunny Agression

[EllaRose]

My bunny Ginger who’s almost 4 months started biting me and my boyfriend. My boyfriend always goes home with a hole in his shirt or bruised bites. She also jumps away from us most of the time when we try to pet her. She was bonded with my male bunny Bleu (3 months) who passed away 2 weeks ago due to some neighbor’s dog getting inside our backyard and chased/scared him to death. They were in seperate cages to prevent pregnancy but they would still meet sometimes to play and clean each other. Ginger also started grunting/honking at me and she would try to attack my hands with her front paws when i try to clean her house. Idk if she’s gotten aggressive due to not seeing Bleu anymore or she’s just going through puberty and all the hormones are kicking in. I wonder if her behavior will change after getting spayed. What else can I do to make her sweeter and less shy? Help

[BB8]

First I would like to say I’m so sorry to hear that Bleu passed away.
I think it’s probably hormones and getting her spayed would help with that. She’s probably territorial because of the hormones. Spaying is also great because it reduces the chance of them getting uterine cancer. After her spay she’ll probably go through a hormonal spike that can last for a while so be prepared for that!

When your bunny nips at you yelp so she knows she’s hurting you. Bunnies nip to tell you something like ‘move’ or ‘pet me’.
The lunging at your hands is because she doesn’t want you messing around her space! My bunny did this to me too. The best solution is to just clean the cage when she’s not in the cage. Also female bunnies are usually more territorial than male bunnies so even after her spay she might still be territorial over her house.

To help her be less shy you could just sit on the ground with her. Get down on her level and spend some time with her, you can ignore her and read a book or watch TV. Bunnies are curious and will usually go over to check you out. It’s a good way to bond with bunnies

I would also like to add that your bunnies weren’t bonded, baby bunnies cannot bond. If you’re thinking about getting another rabbit and bonding them with Ginger I highly recommend reading the Bunny Info tab on Binkybunny. They have a section on bonding that includes pre bonding and all that jazz
Best of luck EllaRose!!

[kurottabun]

Sorry about Bleu too. That’s horrible

As BB8 said, she wasn’t bonded with Bleu as 99% of unspayed/unneutered bunnies cannot be bonded due to territorial aggression etc. Considering that they were both below 4 months, they were still for the most part “babies” and baby bunnies get along with everyone/everybun because their hormones have not kicked in, which makes them accepting of sharing territories etc.

Since Ginger is approaching 4 months now, it sounds about the right time for her hormones to kick in, so her behaviour is most likely hormonal and should get better after being spayed. Since she wasn’t actually bonded to Bleu, it can’t be due to her missing her buddy. Bunnies don’t “make friends” when they meet another bunny. There is a proper and potentially long bonding process to bond them intentionally, and once they are bonded they must not be separated.

[Author]

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