Growls and attacks hands when we try to give treats-

[Jolaedana]

I honestly can’t figure out what started this, but it’s only getting worse.

Bella’s about two years old, and is spayed. She has never been a terribly nice bunny (she was abused her first year of life before we adopted her), and was territorial at first, but has warmed up to us a lot. She’s had some health issues (a cyst on her ankle that has come back three times) since we got her that are hopefully over after eight weeks of antibiotics and a very careful vet staff. She growls a lot, and while we were nervous about that at first, she’ll mostly just growl and never act past that. She never bites.

When she took treats at first, she would simply come to our hand, bite the treat, and pull it from our hands firmly. However lately, when we put her favorite hay into her cage, or come to her with a favorite treat, she growls and charges and claws our hands while taking the treat away from us, and is very posessive, taking it to the far corner of her cage.

This makes my husband, who’s a dog lover, very upset, and he doesn’t want to give her the treat when she acts that way. So he’ll place a hand over her head and pet her and say “calm down” and then try again until she doesn’t attack him to take the treat.

This worked for a while, but now she’s not changing her mind about attacking. She’s just getting more aggressive. She won’t even take her papaya tablet from me in the morning without clawing my hands up.

My husband’s of a mind to try the water bottle (which has been effective with her carpet digging) but I don’t think mixing that signal with treats is a good idea.

We’ve never deprived her, she gets everything she needs every day, and then some!!

Anyone have any ideas as to what we can try? We’re sad!

[RabbitPam]

Boy, do I understand your sadness. I wish I could help in this instance, but I am having a similar problem with my fairly new bunny, Samantha. She is a growler and a boxer. She won’t let me pick her up at all (squirmy to boot) but lavishes me with kisses on my feet and arms if I am on the floor with her.

I do know that a bunny perceives their cage as their territory, and many become hostile when the see you approach with your hands in their space. I find it’s better to arrange the food and do some cleaning after I’ve let her out. She’ll sometimes watch me, but it seems to be better than reaching in.
Our hands do resemble claws, so if you and your husband both have handled dogs, then reach for her, you look like a bird claw that smells like a dog. Double threat. Try being aware if you have just touched a dog at all and if she is less aggressive if you were to change into a clean shirt, just to see if that is a trigger. Also, keep your fingers together more like a paw than open like a claw.

Is she otherwise eating and pooping OK? The will get aggressive if they are hiding an illness, so it may indicate somethings bothering her. When did she last see a vet?

I agree that you don’t want a reward association for this behavior. Perhaps one of the other leaders has more experience with growler/boxer/nippers and can give us both more tips.

[Jolaedana]

Thanks for the reply! 

 

Well, we don’t have dogs, and are fairly careful about reaching on her level instead of from above, if we can avoid it. I will pass along the keeping the fingers together tip to my husband, see if that helps any.

She doesn’t seem to mind me messing around in her cage otherwise at this point- it’s really only the treats and her favorite hay she gets this way about.

She’s eating and pooping like a champ- she’s seen a vet every week for the last seven weeks, and has been for a regular checkup and two rounds of visits for her ankle before this round started. At this point though, the ankle’s closed up completely, and it’s healing beautifully, and she wasn’t this way when she was in pain. She is on a weekly injection of penecilin (she had been on another oral antibiotic, but it wasn’t conquering the cyst). She seems healthy as can be, and the vet actually recently cared for her for a week and said other than her aggression, she’s a wonderful bun and in great shape.

She is on a bit of a diet, as her previous owners had her on unlimited baby rabbit food (yipe!) so she’s had a lot of weight to lose. About four weeks ago, we stepped her down to a bit less food over a week period. Do you think it could just be she’s hungry?

So maybe this is just going to be a patience and time thing- if anyone else has tips, I’d love to hear them.

 

[MooBunnay]

I haven’t ever experienced a bunny being territorial about food, but not you putting your hands in her cage to re-arrange stuff. I have the opposite, where my bunnies will allow me to put my hand in their cage for treats but not if I’m going to move anything around.

Does she seem really excited and hyped up when she knows her treat is coming? One of my bunnies is blind, and when she knows that treats are coming she gets really excited, but the act of me actually putting the food in her cage startles her and so she grunts at me because she gets spooked.

If she is getting transitioned to a more healthy diet, she definitely could just be really excited about the treats because she wants more of them than the other stuff that she doesn’t like. How exactly do you give her the treat? I give my bunnies treats through the cage usually, of I hold them up and make them stand up on their back feet to get the treat. Either of those techniques would make it harder for her to lunge at you, and maybe eventually would calm her down a bit.

[RabbitPam]

Moo makes a good point about having her stand up to get her treat.
I also think she could be hungry and want to protect every morsel if she’s been dieting. (I”m dieting- I’m ready to growl too!)

Maybe she’s a little angry at all the vet visits. She may think that when you reach for her now, it means going to THAT place again. Or more meds.
Does she like any toys in particular that you could give her as a new treat, kind of a present to win her over? (ball, diggy box, phone book)

[Jolaedana]

She loves unpeeled willow, and she’s costing me a fortune in it. lol. I could try presenting those with more ceremony, perhaps. She’s also a big fan of the fruit soaked balsa toys they sell in the shop here.

She still loves us to pet her and etc- she’s a lover so long as we’re not picking her up. She’ll even come and push her head under my feet when I’m sitting at my desk to tell me she wants pet.

She is extremely agitated when we’re getting the treats out. She knows where they’re kept, and will toss her head and go in circles. I will try making her stand up for the treats. That may be a great solution. Thank you guys for the thoughts, I will let you know if we make any progress with her.

[jerseygirl]

Hi Jolaedana – long time no hear! I had thought similar to RabbitPam, that you may not be forgiven yet from the vet visits and meds. Did you give treats during this time to make amends? i.e. give treat after arriving at the vet or getting home? She may be associating them somewhat with this if so. Like the treat comes with strings attached. It may be a case of regaining trust with her.

[Jolaedana]

Hey Jersey! It has indeed been a while- longer than intended, but as usual the computer and I don’t mix after work.

It could be, I’ll admit. We used a treat to reward her for getting into her vet carry cage, which may have been the wrong thing to do- but she was difficult to get in there without a struggle any other way. I will definitely keep this in mind- and start correcting it.

In the meantime, I have tried making her reach for her treats- and that seems to be a help! She can’t be aggressive when it’s not easy for her to get to. So we’ll try both these things, and see if we can’t get her manners back. Thank you guys!

[KytKattin]

That’s what I do with Nova, make her stand up to get a treat. She is still kind of aggressive with pellets though, and lunges only to put her mouth on my hand.

Maybe you could have the vet carry cage out all the time and practice her going in it once a day so she doesn’t associate it with going to the vets. Then you can reward the behavior of just going into the cage.

[babybunsmum]

my pinky poo is *very* enthusiastic about her food and it took me a while to get used to her exuberance. she runs in an excited circle hopping from mid-level to upper-level when she knows i`m getting ready to feed her until i open the top lid of her enclosure. and i`ve felt her teeth on many occasions when reaching down into her enclosure scoop-of-pellets-or-handful-of-greens-in-hand. she also grunts like a piggy when she first digs in. lol. so rude!

i`ve had success staying away from her teeth by making her stand on tippy toes to grab out of my hand first, like the others have suggested. i am careful to make sure that i let the greens or pellet scoop dangle several inches lower than my fingers!

[jerseygirl]

I don’t think it’s a wrong thing to do. You need to get them in there somehow! Just that she may still have the association is all. So you can jjust as easily have her associating it with other more positive experiences again. What your doing now is great – it’s a form of play i.m.o. and forms a bond between you.

[Jolaedana]

Hey All! I wanted to give you an update.

A couple of weeks later, and we’ve started to see this behaviour changing. She’s actually off the meds now, and her foot is healed up- and while she’s becoming a climbing and running terror, we’re not seeing as much aggression.

Now, it’s actually seeming like she grunts/growls when she’s overly excited. It’s like she just can’t contain herself and has to let it out somehow. We’re seeing it when we come to open her cage in the morning, that kind of thing. lol. She is taking papaya tablets, treats, and hay in a much more mannerly manner- in fact, when she sees me getting one out, she stands up on her hind legs and waits for it! It’s adorable.

So while she’s still occasionally growly, we’ve decided it’s just her way of being overly excited. The claws seem to have stopped, and that was my main concern. Thanks all to the suggestions!

[SirThumpsey]

Is she otherwise eating and pooping OK? The will get aggressive if they are hiding an illness, so it may indicate somethings bothering her. When did she last see a vet?

My unspayed female rabbit is pretty agressive and now I am wondering if she is trying to hide an illness. I’m a little worried now. Perhaps taking her to the vet would be a good plan, just in case.

[SirThumpsey]

She is extremely agitated when we’re getting the treats out. She knows where they’re kept, and will toss her head and go in circles. I will try making her stand up for the treats. That may be a great solution. Thank you guys for the thoughts, I will let you know if we make any progress with her.

I completely understand. Sir Thumps A lot is in the back room because my parents aren’t fond of having rabbits in the kitchen. Everytime I go in there, he starts jumping around going crazy because he wants out to play. He’ll run back and forth in the front of the cage saying “let me out let me out! Please? I’ll be the cutest thing you’ll ever see if you just let me out.” He’s a begger and he usually gets his way. O:-) I guess I spoil him a bit but I can’t see how people wouldn’t spoil their pets.

I am having a simular problem with aggression although she doesn’t often take treats from my hand, she prefers that I just drop them in her cage. I’m working on this.

[BinkyBunny]

It sounds like with things calming down, and her healing, she’s doing better aggressive wise, so that’s good. I wanted to let you know too that when i had to put Rucy on a diet to lose a little weight, she would get more food aggressive. It was hard because she was missing quite a bit of molars and an incisor and so she couldn’t eat alot of hays, but when I found some very soft 2nd cut hay that she was able to eat, she filled up on that, and became less feisty. So my point is, you don’t want to mess with a hungry woman!

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