How to discourage biting?

[Aniqa]

My 1 1/2 year old neutered holland lop recently became veeeery cuddly. It’s been great, except when I stop petting him he gets upset. Sometimes he shoves his head under my hand to make me continue, which is fine, but sometimes he bites. I obviously know why this is happening, I’m just wondering how best to discourage it. Thus far I’ve just been refusing to pet him when he bites and hoping he’ll pick up on the pattern, but he hasn’t yet.

[ThorBunny]

Aw, that is great that he wants to cuddle more! Hopefully you can stop the biting so you can both enjoy each other more

My first suggestion is what you’re already doing, as soon as he bites, stand up and walk away. Don’t come back for at least 5 minutes to pet him. It may seem like it is taking a while to get through to him, but eventually he will recognize the pattern! Secondly, when he bites try yelping loudly. This tells him that he is actually hurting you (it is how a rabbit would respond to a nip that was too hard). Last, if none of these things work you can try giving him “the bunny butt”: when rabbits are mad you might notice he turns his butt on you. You can do this back to a rabbit, stand up and turn away pointedly. Keep turning away if he tries to get in front of you again. When we did this to Thor, the poor dear was so confused, kept trying to make up afterwards.

Overall, just be patient and NEVER use physical punishment on your rabbit, they wont understand and will just start holding a grudge. When we got Thor she was very nippy, but over months of having her, and doing the things I mentioned above, she has almost completely stopped (and when she does nip now it is super soft, so I’m not sure if she might just be grooming me).

[Jellie]

My bun also nips sometimes. He try’s to groom my clothes and nips at my jeans, he also likes to lick my toes lol.

What worked for me was what thorbunny mentioned about yelping. Every time Sterling nips I go “ooowwww” as high pitched and squeaky as I can. He definitely knows it means he hurt me because he stops and then licks me to say sorry. My boyfriend has a hard time making the sound, so if you’re a guy I’m sorry and I hope you can make your voice go high lol.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

This is a bit of dominance indeed, rabbits are strong-willed and will communicate their wishes to group members. The nip is a natural signal they use among other rabbits, but it doesn’t hurt rabbits as much as humans because if their thick fur. He may not even know he’s hurting you, because he doesn’t get feedback. Great tips on feedback here already, and if you want to learn more about rabbit behaviour and body language, I found this website extremely helpful: http://language.rabbitspeak.com/

Best of luck and I hope you’ll enjoy many long cuddle sessions together!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Bunnies can be such little stinkers!!!!!

[Author]

Messages