raising a literal psychobunny

[sister]

We have the cutest little almost 2 year old Dwarf Lionhead/Dutch mix bunny and have had her now about 1.5 years.  When we got her, she would tolerate being petted and held, and my 16 year old was even able to litterbox train her, as well as get her to walk on a leash in a harness. She’s never been what I would call “overly friendly”.  Actually, until we got her, I never new rabbits growled.  She will come and sit next to us and allow us to reach down and pet her, but she hates being picked up.  If I happen to be sitting up late reading or watching tv, she will come and let me set her on the couch by me and pet her.  If she doesn’t think she’s being petted enough, she will smack your hand (or foot), and occasionally bite at them.  She does like to play with people.  Her ears will perk up and she’ll bink often if you put your hand on the floor on her blanket and thump in her direction.  She also likes to jump on my son if he’s laying on the floor.  Last summer she would wake me up about 5am every morning by jumping on the bed and pawing my hand until i’d pet her.  I also found out I would get bit if I fell asleep while petting her.  I don’t know what happened during that time period, but she also took to peeing on my pillow (and me once) if she wasn’t getting attention. Now she doesn’t even come near the bed unless she’s going under it.

I’m open to suggestions.  She has her own “house” box and two litter boxes, and free run of our home.  We’d just like to interact more with her.  Thanks bunches.

[LoveChaCha]

It sounds like she needs to be spayed.

Female rabbits are extremely territorial and grumpy if left unspayed. Have you established an exotic rabbit vet yet?

[Sarita]

Really she sounds like a normal rabbit to me. I have a free roam rabbit as well and he only wants attention when he wants it – sometimes he runs away from me. Nowadays if it’s just me at home (and not my husband) he will come downstairs and jump on the ottoman to be petted – my husband cannot pet him, but he lets me pet him. This took a few years though for him to feel comfortable doing this.

Peeing on the pillow, bed, couch, that is very common for rabbits as these places smell the most like their humans and they may mark.

I would definitely get her spayed if she is not – spaying will eliminate the risk of uterine cancer and unspayed rabbits have a very high chance (85%) of getting uterine cancer…by the time they are four, if unaltered.

[BaileyBunny]

Yeah, my baby boy has peed on my pillows- yet, not on my boyfriends. She’s probably just marking. c: I need to find a bun vet in the area, soon. Mine needs to be altered. >____<

[sister]

Thanks greatly. We do have a local vet that deals with “exotics”, so I know what I’ll be doing very soon. Bunny is wonderful to watch and keeps us laughing. She has even managed to beat out Basset Hound into submission (she jumps on the poor dog whenever she’s asleep). She does make a great guard bunny though.
Thank you again for the info.

[Deleted User]

Even though the local vet deals in exotics I would make sure that they are rabbit savvy. Just because they say they deal in exotics doesn’t mean that they are truly knowledeable about rabbits. Case in point, the local exotic vet near me where we took my bf’s ferret is great with ferrets. But she does not know much about rabbits. So I would just make sure that the vet is rabbit savvy.

[Author]

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