Bunny bitting

[Reneé Jordan]

Hey guys,
I
So I recently got two baby bunnies, Velvet and Bugs. And it’s only been a few days of them being at my house and my female (Velvet) is the curious one. She always wants to run around and look at things. I bought some wood chewables from a pet store and she’ll chew on it from my hand but she gets bored of it fast and she’ll start to sniff my finger tips then try to “nibble” on them. I’m afraid of her biting me so I never let her actually bite me. However I let her do what she normally does just to see if she would actually “bite” me and she did! She started sniffing my thumb then nibbles on it then bit my thumb nail bed. It hurt really bad.. Does this mean that she is being aggressive or is this normal?

[joea64]

I don’t believe that she was actually trying to attack you – if she were acting aggressive or angry, you’d certainly be able to tell it! It sounds more to me like she was either trying to get your attention, possibly to demand a treat (rabbits often nip as a form of communication, especially when trying to call someone’s attention to something) or trying to groom you and misjudged the force of her nip. Since she’s still a baby she may not have completely worked out the difference between the chewable wood toy and your hand.

[Deleted User]

She wasn’t trying to be aggressive. My bunny used to nip my fingers too when I first got her, and if I was laying on the floor I was nipped in the arm a few times- quite painfully! Most likely, she is just curious and trying to figure things out. “Oh what is this? *sniff sniff* hmmm I still don’t know, wonder if I can *bites*” human yelps, then she gets the idea “ohhh it’s not for biting!” When she does bite you, let out some kind of yelp to let her know that you don’t like it. She won’t like the noise and eventually she won’t try to bite. My bun knows better than to bite my fingers even if I have food.

Btw, if you have two baby bunnies, you’ll need to separate them at 3 months and get them each spayed/neutered. Not sure if you knew that going into this. But if you don’t separate them they will fight once they reach sexual matuirty (around 3 months).

[Reneé Jordan]

Do I have to get two different cages? Because right now they are both in the same cage. Velvet is my female and Bugs is my male. Bugs normally stays in his igloo where as velvet lays on top of it. She kept humping him when they first met but hasn’t really done it since.

[Mikey]

Rabbits can breed as early as 4 months old. It often times ends horribly for the female bun as her body is not yet grown enough to carry a litter successfully. Hormonal rabbits are also incredibly likely to fight. When hormonal rabbits fight, they fight to the death. If you dont want to risk these possibilities, yes, you need two different cages set up 10 inches apart to avoid fights and breeding between bars.

[Reneé Jordan]

Are there any places you would recommend to get them both fixed? I love beat Portland/Clackamas area and I’m having no luck finding anything

[Wick & Fable]

If the logic is the same as Wick’s, your rabbit doesn’t know it hurts you. Wick is bonded with me and one other person, and with the other person, Wick really “grooms” his finger nails. It apparently hurts a lot. We believe it’s because Wick thinks it’s something stuck on human “fur”, so it should be taken off. When Wick does this, he just lets him and pulls away when it’s too much.

Wick doesn’t do this to me because I made a high-pitch “ow” sound multiple times when he’d start getting more rough, so he’s learned for me that you shouldn’t bite nails hard. It was a necessity for me, because my pinky toe fits perfectly in Wick’s mouth, so when he got a hold of it while I’m washing dishes or something, it’d be really bad. Now, he’s especially gentle with grooming around the nails (more gently than just licking my skin), which is kind of adorable, haha.

You don’t need to wait for the major bite if it hurts — you can do the high-pitched ow! when it’s a more aggressive nibble to get the message across. Pull away when you do it too!

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[joea64]

Posted By Wick on 8/10/2017 3:23 PM

If the logic is the same as Wick’s, your rabbit doesn’t know it hurts you. Wick is bonded with me and one other person, and with the other person, Wick really “grooms” his finger nails. It apparently hurts a lot. We believe it’s because Wick thinks it’s something stuck on human “fur”, so it should be taken off. When Wick does this, he just lets him and pulls away when it’s too much.

Wick doesn’t do this to me because I made a high-pitch “ow” sound multiple times when he’d start getting more rough, so he’s learned for me that you shouldn’t bite nails hard. It was a necessity for me, because my pinky toe fits perfectly in Wick’s mouth, so when he got a hold of it while I’m washing dishes or something, it’d be really bad. Now, he’s especially gentle with grooming around the nails (more gently than just licking my skin), which is kind of adorable, haha.

You don’t need to wait for the major bite if it hurts — you can do the high-pitched ow! when it’s a more aggressive nibble to get the message across. Pull away when you do it too!

I’ll have to keep that in mind for when Panda and Fernando come home to live with me full-time. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Fernando has been exceptionally affectionate in our meetings so far, grooming me repeatedly. He’s used his teeth occasionally in so doing, but nothing painful, just light nibbles at the hair on my hands and legs. It’s no part of my intention to discourage him from grooming me but if he should ever misjudge when nipping/nibbling, a high-pitched little screech will be mighty useful to get the point across.

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