Is he being aggressive? Or does he want attention?

[DorothyTheMiniSatinBun]

I posted a few weeks ago about a himalayan mix, buck, that I am fostering and trying to bond with my mini Satin doe. I am not sure if we are going to keep him. His previous fosters have always said he is a very gentle and calm bunny, but I do not find that this is the case with us. When we first got him, for about a week we were probably rushing him a bit with our Satin and also with getting acclimated to our apartment. Since then, we have backed off and let him go at his own pace. He has since gotten more confident and active. We keep him away from our doe at all times, but we change out their litterboxes and enclosures.

He is NOT calm and gentle though, he has bit (or nipped hard) my boyfriend when he showed him his hand to pet him. He has lunged at me when I approached his enclosure. He has also bit me (nipped hard) twice on the foot when I was watching TV on the floor, and he was running around playing. He lets us pet him sometimes when he is very calm, but most of the time he will duck out of the way of our hands. He grunts at us quite a bit when we transfer him to the other enclosure. I am really not used to this because Dorothy was always gregarious and affectionate, never showing any signs of aggression towards us or even making any sounds. I know every rabbit is different, but my boyfriend is getting discouraged, thinking this rabbit is just aggressive. I believe he mostly nips for attention, if he really wanted to hurt us, I would think he would break skin. Just wanted to see what everyone else’s thoughts were.

[Dface]

I cant say for certain, but I know myself that Im notorious for acting like the rabbit knows me and has a wonderful bond with me even though that is not the case.

Perhaps you are doing this too?-assuming the rabbit is already a ‘friend’ and treating it and handling it similarly to dorothy when in reality he isnt sure of you at all, where maybe you gave Dorothy a whole bunch of time toget used to you, you’ve forced this little dude into a very overwhelming situation. New home, new rabbit, new people, getting handled and his home isnt even his own because it smells like another rabbit.

Not to sound harsh, but it might be possible that this rabbit is simply afraid of you.

[ThorBunny]

Yes rabbits who nip are tough! I agree though that he is not a truly aggressive rabbit, it sounds like he has a few bad habits and is also nervous in his new environment.

When I adopted Thor she had a terrible nipping problem, although she is friendly and loves to be pet, she would nip both with and without provocation. Don’t loose hope! He can almost certainly learn to be less nippy.

In relation to him being calm, a few weeks isn’t really that long so I would let him settle down, also perhaps all the moving around and the scent of a strange rabbit has him on edge. Hopefully bonding will go well and these problems will settle down with time

For nipping, Thor personally HATES it when we wave our hands in her face, like when asking for pets. She will lunge and grunt if hands start hovering near her head, even when she can see them well. I think it might be a reflex from her previous owner mistreating her, or perhaps she is just strange that way. I would pay attention to how you approach him and see if there is a specific trigger for grunting and nipping. I feel you on the TV watching thing, for a while when we first adopted her we had to keep our feet off the floor when Thor was wandering about, it was like having our own little pet land shark. After a while she grew more comfortable in her territory and does not object to feet on the ground anymore. In addition to that, you probably know to yelp high pitched when he nips to let him know he hurt you. We thought this was not working at first, but over time Thor got softer and softer with nips and now doesn’t do it at all!

Long story short: Annoying, but he is not evil, and I’m sure there is a loving wonderful bunny inside him It takes some patience, but we were able to deal well with a really terrible nipping problem. Thor is so calm and chill now, getting more snuggly every day <3

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