Is she scared?

[JB]

Hi everyone! I was looking for advice or to just possibly hear that someone has gone through the same thing?

I adopted a rescue bun about 2 months ago. She had no medical history, but I noticed that she had bite marks in her ear and poor grooming, nail trimming, etc. When she first came home she was sweet, but has always been a little bit on edge. My partner and I have spent hours sitting beside her on the floor, giving her lots of pets, grooming her/trimming nails, took her to the vet for an annual and to get fixed. She spends all day free roaming and in a 4 x 6 ex pen at night. She has 24/7 access to hay in her litter box, plenty of toys, fresh veggies and pellet twice a day. She can be sweet as can be and has even “chinned” my partner and I multiple times.

HOWEVER, once one of us stands and begins walking she lunges at us and chases us. Once she catches us she bites and bites hard. Every single time that she has bit one of us she has drawn blood and it is a daily occurrence. Even when we are sitting on the couch, sometimes she will jump up and bite one of us. I am covered in bruises from bites and I am wondering how to make this better.

She is our first bun and while I would like to think we prepared for her arrival throughly– I am afraid that I have missed something? We try not to pick her up, we respect any behavioral cues (thumping, tail up, we back off when she lunges at us…). Has anyone gone through something similar and how did you handle it? We are in love with her and are willing to spend time working with her. We just want to eventually get her a bunny friend, but we are worried that she must still be scared of us and do not want to further scare her? Help?

[DanaNM]

Hmmmm, does it seems like she is startled when you stand up? Does she behave this way if you move slowly and make a noise to let her know you are going to move?

I wonder if based on her history, she might do better with a smaller area of access, and less 100% free-roam hours a day at first. This is just a guess, but I’m wondering if she sees the whole house as “hers”, and so is behaving “cage aggressive” because of that?

Also how long ago was she spayed? Females can go through a “post-spay craze” 4-6 weeks after spaying that can make them very aggressive and territorial.

I’ve alerted the other forum mods because I know some of them have had to deal with similar situations.

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[JB]

Thank you, this is super helpful to me! Its given me insight to some things that I have not yet considered!

She does not appear startled when we stand, just very alert to it and already moving at us quickly before we have a chance to notice. We have tried to move slowly, but she still lunges just as fast! We recently noticed that she responds well to her name, so we have tried to call her name when we enter the room to let her know that we are coming. However, she still lunges at us when we do this 🙁

I have not considered limiting her space and in fact, the moment that we brought her back from the shelter we allowed her to free roam immediately. I am wondering if this could be “cage aggressive” behavior? My partner and I are going to try to cut back on her free roam time for a bit and see if we note a change and hopefully this may give us some more insight!

She was spayed exactly 6 weeks ago yesterday, however I had never heard of post-spay craze, so I am going to do some more research into this (:

Again, I really appreciate your comment. With this being my first bun, I have been really stressed talking to her vet and taking to online research to find a solution. Some days, it felt like I was doing everything wrong and I just want her to be safe, healthy and happy with us (: So, I really could use the help and appreciate you reaching out to the other forum mods!!

[DanaNM]

You’re welcome! The timing with her spay makes me think it could very well be related to that!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[DanaNM]

Here are some other threads on aggressive buns that might be helpful, although the situations are slightly different:

How to Deal with an Aggressive Rabbit

These article might be helpful too :

https://rabbit.org/faq-aggression/  (esp the very bottom section)

https://rabbit.org/journal/2-2/mean-rabbit.html

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[JB]

Perfect! I will check out those threads and articles (: thanks for the resources!!!

[LBJ10]

This does sound like a case of “cage” aggression. I agree with Dana, this may be a too much too soon situation. I would work on establishing a home base for her.

[JB]

Thank you everyone! Although it has only been a day, I am seeing some improvement. I mostly interacted with her beside her cage yesterday and she was super sweet all day. To test the waters, I let her out a bit today and she is no longer chasing me–just coming up for pets and strangely enough acting like she wants to be held in my lap! haha!

It is still new, but she is still lunging at my partner and has her tail up any time he is near, as well as releasing a “coffee-like” scent when he is around. She lets me walk around near her without chasing me after just a day, though, so I am hoping with time their relationship improves as well!!! (:

[BinkyBunny]

Just seeing this thread now.  I have had aggressive bunnies before. Sometimes it’s fear, sometimes it’s habit based on what worked before, territorial issues etc.    And so it can be approached differently for different reasons.   So far though, it looks like what you have been advised and are doing is working!  So I won’t add any further advice at the moment.   I can add that the amazing white bunny in my avatar, who is our BinkyBunny mascot (See the white bunny image on upper left of our website) used to be a scary charger and would bite HARD when we first adopted him. He became a loving sweet bunny.  (Though he’d still bite Vet Techs so I had to warn them).

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