nips that won’t quit

[kendall]

I have one rabbit that will not stop nipping me. She isn’t spayed yet and her hormones are raging a bit at the moment (I can’t wait for September 1 when she will no longer have these raging hormones 😯 ). Anyways, I have yelped, I have scolded, and nothing. All of my other rabbits stopped way before this point but she does not care. I love her big bunny self to pieces, but it has been going on for weeks. She doesn’t bite me, it doesn’t hurt most of the time, but it is very annoying. I guess I am wondering, is it hormones? Will this stop or are there other methods I can try to get her to stop?

[DanaNM]

Sounds like hormones to me! I would just hold on and wait for those hormones to settle down!

. . . 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.  

[Wick & Fable]

I will mention that scolding or trying to “punish” a rabbit (not saying you’re doing anything abusive; just using the word!) don’t really work with rabbits. For her, it is probably very much hormone driven, and also remember it’s a way rabbits communicate with each other.

I have a spayed female who, when we first adopted her, was very nippy…. and her nips hurt. She’s a very “efficient chewer”, I like to call her, haha.
Since she’s spayed, there’s no guarantee this would work, but what we did was simply use the back of the hand to guide/push her head away from where she was nipping me (typically my leg while sitting down). I used the back of my hand with fingers straight and together because it’s a larger surface so it’s not as tempting to try and nip on something there. I also always do the guiding from the side of her face; I don’t put the hand in between her nose and my leg… that’d be a disaster nip waiting to happen, haha. I’ve had her for close to a year now and the nips are definitely reduced. But again, she’s spayed, so it may have been a result of her just getting older.

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.

[kendall]

Thank you guys! I will definitely try that hand tip! I know she is just trying to communicate it is just frustrating. I will be more understanding with her though because she isn’t hurting me and I just have to remind myself again that it’s her way of communicating.

[Wick & Fable]

Just adding from my past post, last evening I noticed it’s more so starting to push her from her shoulder blade/side of face than just the side of her face.

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.

[kendall]

Ok! Thank you, hopefully it helps!

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