Bunny lunging

[DroyD]

My Rex is neutered and about 3 years old and he’s not aggressive towards people but if you move something back and forth relatively close to him he will begin to grunt and if you continue will lunge at you. Is this something you can train out of bunnies or it’s just his personality?

 

[Hazel]

Rabbits have a blind spot in front of their face, because of this they can easily get startled if something moves around in front of them and can cause them to get defensive. Also, if a rabbit wants to “start trouble” with another rabbit, they will sometimes dash around in front of them, which will also cause a defensive reaction.

So no, it’s nothing that can be trained out of them, it’s normal behavior and to avoid him doing this you should just stop moving things around in his blind spot.

Some people unfortunately think this is funny and try to trigger this behavior (not saying that’s what you’re doing). For the rabbit it’s not a game though, it’s a stressful situation for them and over time can cause them to become aggressive towards people in general.

[DroyD]

Thank you for the reply, how far is their blind spot? I don’t try to trigger it. For example if I have him on my bed and I would try to dust off hay bits maybe like 2 or 3 feet away he will come over and start grunting at me as I bushed stuff off. I’m guessing this is still the defensive behavior and should avoid doing that until he’s off the bed.

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