Bailey nips and lunges at me recently?

[BaileyBunny]

 I just enlarged his living space from a medium dog cage. I bought a large dog pen, and hooked it up so that he can have a better roaming space. And so he’s not cooped up all day when I’m at work. That’s his current space. He’s chilling at the open cage door. I did all of this this morning. I stepped in the pet him, and to lay down a few of those toys. He lunged and bit my heel. He’s usually not too aggressive with me even though he’s unaltered. (He’ll be altered by the end of this year. ) he also lunges and slaps my dog. My dog is too sweet to be mean in response, so he just backed down and looked sad. One pound rabbit scared off a twenty seven pound dog. Oh.  

 

 

[tanlover14]

How old is Bailey? Most likely those hormones are beginning to kick in…

[Beka27]

That’s such an awesome space! Great job! I think it’s a great idea to attach an xpen to an existing cage (or in this case, a dog crate). That was how Meadow was set up when she was younger (before we moved to xpens exclusively), and we called the xpen area her “front yard”. Lol…

This does sound like it’s hormonal behavior, although some buns are always possessive of their space. Best advice, other than getting him neutered as soon as possible, is to only go in there to clean when he is out playing.

[Treori]

Could you have walked too fast past him? Some rabbits take serious offence to being walked past quickly without the courtesy of touching noses in greeting (or a finger to the nose). If you walked fast towards him and then put your hand towards his head he might have reacted because he was startled too. I have taught my son to move slowly when going towards the buns, but he sometimes forgets and Freya has lunged at him before.

If I want to give them a pet while they are in their pens, I slowly move my hand towards them low down making sure they can see me. Watch their ears, if they are going to lunge their ears are usually held back, speak to them as well so you aren’t ‘sneaking up’ on them. You can scratch the floor gently in an ‘invite’ for a groom/pet. Basically, let them know you are there and ask their permission to come into their area and touch them lolz.

This behaviour might, or might not clear up with neutering because being territorial comes with being a rabbit, but it should lessen at the very least

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