NIPPING!

[Lily]

My two mini lops nip someties and you guys know what a bunny bites like, it hurts like crazy and bruises! I bruise easy….But do you guys have any good ways of discoraging it? I know you hold a dogs muzzle and say no but you cant do that to a bunny..

[Steve Parker]

This helped me. When I get a nip, I give a loud, rather high pitched squeal or cry sound. My bun gets upset and gives me some licks to make up. Doing this just a couple of times stopped the biting.

[iriswarrior1]

That only works on kindhearted bunnies.  Try it, anyway.  Didn’t work at all with Fang, though.  If I squealed after he bit me, he looked at me Iike I was insane, tensed up, and exploded into movement and pellets.  After the inital shock died away, he just nipped me again for being a sissy.

In my case, it’s rather ridiculous, and terribly funny.  The only thing that works with Fang is giving him a very gentle SHOVE.  He’ll be sitting with me, and if he climbs on me and bites, I cup my hand over his tooshie and nudge him gently away from the body part he’s knawing on.  He usually gets annoyed, and comes right back to bite again.  If he does, the shove is a little bit firmer, but still very gentle.  You should see the looks he gives me, you can just hear him thinking, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

I haven’t perfected this method, Fang is stubborn–the record is ten whole minutes of shoving followed by biting.  You also have to be sure that while you’re ’pushing your rabbit around’, he doesn’t circle back on you and get your hand anyway.  When all else fails, I resort to the one thing that makes him flee as though his life depended on it….kisses on his forehead!

Seriously though, watching your bunnies is the best way to learn WHEN they’re going to nip.  Fang gets a certain look when he thirsts for human blood, or t-shirts, and I’ve gotten pretty good at telling when he comes near me if it’s just a social visit, or if I should go get the first aid kit.

 

[Lily]

Thanks ill defently try the squealing sound! If that doesnt work ill try the shoving thing to. Im not sure if my bunnys are kind hearted enough to fall for the squealing sound. Fluff proboly is but not Puff……My new bunny, Bella nipped me this morning cuz she didnt want to be picked up XD

Aha! Fang the bunny, thats so cool!!!!!

[kralspace]

The squeak worked on 2 of my buns, but I have a rex who has biting down to a science.

I’ve learned to put on a heavy denim longsleeve shirt when I pick up Lola because she will immediately go for the inside of my elbow or worse, a boob bite! Once she realizes she’s not getting through the shirt she’ll put up with whatever I had the nerve to think I’m going to do with her but boy do I get the stink eye!

[luna]

Henry has never bitten but twice in the last week he has bitten my bum when i was crouched down on the floor cleaning their litter boxes. Luckily it didnt hurt coz i had clothes on (obviously) but it really hurt my feelings because he has never done this before. I still have the problem with Poppy biting my feet and knees. she hasnt been as bad lately and no amount of screaming seems to deter her. I gave Henry a gentle shove when he bit me as i do when he is biting Poppys bum when they are in the living room. Between the two of them i have a bun who is anally fixated and another that has a foot fetish.

[skibunny8503]

I never really experienced the nipping with my other bun; he’d nip a little but wasn’t that hurtful.  I hadn’t gotten bitten by Archie until I read about it on here.  I was sitting down and petting him and I stopped for only a second and he nipped my knee, hurt a bit but no mark.  Today he did the same thing, no holes in my jeans but a big red mark and bruise!    I never experienced that..it hurt like a mother too!  I think he was mad that he didn’t get his 12 o’clock lettuce yet and it was nearly 1:30pm.  (I hadn’t washed off the lettuce we had just bought that morning).  Now I know never to be late with his lunch….and to say “here is your lunch master, how may I serve you better?”    

[Cassi&Charlie]

My Layla bites me and I tend to give her a gentle shove. Nothiing else works and she does what Fang does, looks at me and comes back to bite again. Usually the second time I shove her she goes away.
As for detering her, nothing works. I have built up a sort of psychic link with her evil mind and I usually know about a second in advance if she’s going to bite me and I gently push her away.

[Elrohwen]

I’m still in my researching bunnies phase (don’t have one yet) but I thought I’d throw this out there as I have years of experience with gerbils. Has anyone tried blowing on their faces when they’re in the process of biting? I know this is frequently done with gerbils and other small pets (and it works great on mine; they hate the puff of air and don’t bite again) but I’ve never seen it mentioned related to bunnies.

[Cassi&Charlie]

I’d be worried for my nose! I’ve done it to my other bunny once as a joke and he foot flicked me so I would hazard a guess that Layla would take my nose right off!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

We have two biters at our shelter-well one in foster care now; Anyways with both of them its aggressive biting so the squeak won’t work. We’re still working on what will work. I know sometimes pushing their head down (to dominate-if they are biting to dominate) will work

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