Bunny Mood Swings

[Little Stella]

Hello! 

I apologize for the lengthy post, but I really appreciate all of your input 

When I first got Stella, she was a very sweet and mellow bunny. But in the last month and a half, I have noticed some pretty major changes in her behaviors and I’m assuming they’re all hormone related since she is too young to be spayed (5 months). So I’m just wondering if you guys have some tips for how to handle these behaviors in the mean time. For the first month or so that I had Stella, I would sit down on the floor and play with her, she would jump in my lap and try to climb up my chest and arms. She would occasionally nibble on my hoodie strings, but she never showed any signs of aggression. I even took her to visit some of the residents at the nursing home I work at! They absolutely adored her!  

Anyways, in the last month and a half or so, Stella has started biting around my knees and hips when I sit on the floor to play with her. I don’t do anything to provoke her, she just hops up to me, sniffs around, bites me and then runs away. There are also days where she lunges and growls when I stand up or move my hand towards her. She also digs and chews on my clothes when she isn’t trying to bite me. I’ve tried making high pitched noises or clapping at her when she does this, but it doesn’t seem to stop her at all. Usually after behaviors like this occur, she’ll come up to me 10 or 15 minutes later, sprawl out on the floor and let me pet her for 20 or 30 minutes straight. So every day during play time, she is in a constant cycle of biting and being aggressive and then being a super sweet, mellow bunny. It makes it hard to play with her sometimes because when she approaches me, I never know what side of her I’m going to get.  Also, she gets aggressive when I try to brush her. Since she is a lionhead, I really need to brush her, but the sight of the brush at this point causes her to lunge and bite. 

So if you all have some tips on how to keep her from biting/chewing on my clothes or how to brush her, that would be great! Thanks 

[Sirius&Luna]

Honestly, I’m afraid it is all hormonal behaviour, and likely won’t reduce significantly until she’s spayed. Most experienced rabbit vets will spay female rabbits from 5 months (provided they’re over a kilo), so it might be worth starting to look into spaying options.

She’s likely feeling territorial, and is biting to get you out of her space. The only thing I can recommend for brushing is to give her a pile of food while you brush her! The biting and chewing is probably just something that will keep happening till she’s spayed. Some rabbits will remain chewers all their lives though!

[Azerane]

It sounds like she is starting to become hormonal as she goes through puberty and matures. Different buns act in different ways but if it’s a new thing and given her age it’s probably the hormones from puberty. It will likely settle down within a few weeks of having her spayed. Not long now

I’m afraid I don’t have any tips on brushing an aggressive bunny, mine are both so calm when I brush them, I’m not sure how I would handle one that was trying to nip me at the same time.

[Author]

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