Territorial bunny…

[sevyn]

Since the first day in my new apartment, I’ve allowed my bunny freedom to roam my own room, but no further. She was pretty good about it in the beginning, and there were points where I was very seriously considering expanding her range to some other rooms. However, the last few days, she’s been going WAY downhill! She’s started getting more aggressive and frantic about the whole room being ‘her’ space and she is always trying to wrestle herself directly in my way. She’s not violent, but she’s frequently underfoot, grunting and thumping about how MAD she is to have me in her territory… 
Anyways, I’ve decided it’s time to, so to speak, tone her down and try to make her respect the room she gets to play in. I bought a new pack of NIC cubes to expand her cage with last night, but I’m now thinking it might be better to instead pen off an area she can play in. Which would be easier for her to cope with, a limited amont of floor space or a bigger cage? Please help!

[MooBunnay]

Hi! Its pretty normal for bunnies to start misbehaving when they are getting a lot more freedom – so going slowly with expanding their area is definitely a good idea. I use the ex-pens for my bunnies which are nice because they are easier to move around, but these are definitely usually more expensive than the NIC cubes, and if you zip tie those together, then they are usually pretty easy to move around as well. I think its a good idea to pen off a play area for her – that way you can also be sure she won’t be chewing on anything you had missed in your bunny proofing or anything like that. Then you can let her have her free run when you are available to supervise, so you can also monitor her behavior when she’s running around and make sure she doesn’t completely take over your apartment

[Gravehearted]

I’d recommend the same thing Moobunnay did, to slowly expand her territory. i also think that a play area for her would be a good idea , but it’d be great if it could be opened to connect with her house so she has access to hay, food, water during playtime. i’d add at least one box to the play space, maybe even two.

[Deleted User]

Having an ex-pen is a great idea.

I have two ex-pens for Luey.  In one he generally has his food, littertray, water etc and he stays in that one during the daytime when I am at work.  In the evening, I open up the other adjoining pen to give him more freedom so he has access to both pens and allows him to have a run about.  I have also put in another littertray in the other pen, together with play stuff and boxes.

I sometimes let him have free run of both pens, but he generally is a bit of a messy boy and poops everywhere (those night poopy ones) which are squashed and makes it more cleaning up for me lol.

Good Luck!

Dawn xx

[Hedi]

You can use the NIC cubes and make a play area attached to the cube condo.This is what we did for my buns. Pookie & Cooper have a total of 20 sq ft (buns have their own room) and then they have three different shelves to sit on.

Carrera has three floors of shelves and about 15 sq ft of living space and most of that is more of a pen attached to the shelving unit.

I keep an X-pen at the shelter but I paid $70 for it. Much cheaper to just make a pen out of the cubes but really reinforce them so then bun doesnt push it over or some how escape. If there is a potential of jumping over it just lay a sheet across the top of the pen so it appears that there is a roof. Your bun shouldnt be able to tell that it isnt a real roof.

Attaching a pic so you can hopefully understand what I mean. This isnt their current set up. Its an old one from last year but you can see how they have "pens" attached to their "condo."

Hope this helps!

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[BinkyBunny]

Everyone has given you great advice. I wanted to ask what age is she?  In  your profile you marked she was not spayed. Depending on how old she is, she might be getting into that age where territory is beginning to be VERY important for her, and she’ll fight everyone for it!

[sevyn]

Binkybunny – I’m not exactly sure how old she is, but my best guess is somewhere between a year and a year and a half. I’m still hunting for a vet to spay her, too, but it’s gonna be at least another month or so before funds permit it anyways. Do you suppose it’s really urgent? If so I’ll have to try to work something out.

[BinkyBunny]

Sorry for my delay in answering.  I’ve been MIA.    FYI: nonspayed females have a higher risk of cancer of their reproductive organs (especially after two years old)  So for that reason alone, I would want to schedule.

But other than that if her behavior is due to being unspayed, then just from the behavioral level, the urgency is up to you, how much of it you can deal with.

How is she doing today?

[sevyn]

For the time being, I am kind of gritting my teeth and dealing with her frustrations, to be entirely honest. I am giving her the run of part of my living room and while she occasionally does the angry charge at me still, she seems to have gotten a bit less aggressive and frequent about it. Maybe she’s getting used to the area and feels no need to mark as much anymore? I’m not sure. (She’s been in this setup for about two weeks now, so I’m still hoping her anger will subside a bit more with time.)

Oh, it’s TWO years?! I kept hearing that FOUR was the landmark. Either way, I guess I’ll have to try to get a fairly hefty loan from a friend or something. It’s certainly not worth her being at risk, and I think I’ve finally found a reliable vet, so I should get that out of the way ASAP.

[BinkyBunny]

I know it certain parts of the U.S. there are spay and neuter clinics that are also rabbit savvy.  The clinics are usually much cheaper like around $50 US dollars.     I’m not sure if where you live in Ontario, if there are any options like that.  It might be worth it to check around.  Just have to make sure they are extremely experienced with rabbits.   As there are a many spay and nueter clinics around her but only a handful are rabbit savvy. 

Regarding the cancer, (for unspayed UNBRED) after you said that I had to double check my facts to be sure.  I have that written, and though usually have notes to back my facts up, I couldn’t find any. RATS!  So I had to start from square one, and just quickly googling, I came up with these tidbits of info:

QUOTE FROM  WISCONSIN HRS:  "Unspayed female rabbits are especially prone to health problems. Their permanent “on” state is something humans have bred into them, and it gives them an extraordinary risk for uterine cancer. It was shown as far back as the early 1950s that by the time female rabbits reach age five, 80% have uterine cancer. We have seen uterine cancer in rabbits as young as six months." Source; http://www.wisconsinhrs.org/Articles/Spay%20and%20Neuter.htm

QUOTE FROM BUNNY BUNCH:  "Approximately 80% of unspayed rabbits get uterine cancer at an early age." Source: http://www.bunnybunch.org/spayneuter2.html 

QUOTE FROM ONTARIO RABBIT EDUCATION "Unspayed female rabbits have a very high chance of developing uterine, mammary or ovarian cancer during their lives. Unofficial statistics indicate that between 50% to 80% of all unspayed females will be affected by cancer, by age 5."

So, it was good for me to get reacquanted with some notes about it.  I had read in another place (http://www.geocities.com/heartland/valley/1155/UC.html)   where the cancerrates were lower, but still signifigant enough, but it was was dealing with breeder rabbits.  But sadly many times breeder rabbits are not kept when they get older.

So I don’t even know where I got my "two year" fact from.  I’ll have to research more, but at least this gives you an informed start regarding the risks.

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