Vicious Bunny

[Sophie, Lola, and Bailey]

Hello everyone,

I just took in a new rabbit named Lola from a friend of a friend who couldn’t take care of her anymore.  At first everything was fine; she got along with my other bunny Bailey, she was sweet and cuddly, and she was very timid.  All of a sudden, her behaviour switched.  It’s like she’s been possessed by a demon or something.  I’ve isolated her to one room in the apartment because we (humans and bunny) can’t go anywhere near her without being attacked.  When I go into the room to feed her or visit, I have to wear boots and oven mitts for protection because she just lunges at me, biting, kicking, scratching, grunting.  She is getting spayed next week, and I am hoping that it will calm her down quite a bit.  In the meantime, I don’t want to “reward” this behaviour by giving her food, but I also don’t want to starve her.  Do you guys have any advice?

I go in the room every day to talk to her, and I sit in the room doing work (on a chair as the floor is a danger zone), but it doesn’t seem to be helping.  I never had any of these issues with Bailey, even before she was spayed.  She can sometimes be territorial, but not aggressive about it, so I have no idea what to do with Lola.  I appreciate any input.  Thanks!

Sophie

[Sarita]

She needs to be spayed. I think too she is in a new environment and just needs to know she is okay and she can trust you. She will calm down in time.

NEVER EVER deprive a rabbit of food – food is not a reward, it is a necessity :~)

[LBJ10]

Don’t deprive her of food, but it is okay to wait until she is calm and/or ignoring you before you put the food down. You say you go in there to work. Maybe put her food in a bowl before you enter the room. Then sit down and go about your business. Then put the food down.

My guess is that she was really scared when she first got there, so she acted timid and sweet. Then she started to feel it little less scared, but still scared enough that she doesn’t feel she can trust you. So I guess she’s not scared stiff anymore and is more willing the defend herself. Definitely get her spayed since some of this is likely caused by being hormonal. Getting her to warm up to you is probably going to take some time though. Perhaps once she’s spayed, she will be open to taking pellets from your hand? If that happens, then you can work on gaining her trust by hand-feeding her.

[Bam]

I agree with the others, she was probably kind of stunned when she first came to you and now she’s still not feeling safe but her capacity for self-defence has returned.

What I want to say is that bunnies can be a longer time than you’d perhaps think before they warm up to you. My Bam just sat under the coffea-table for a whole year before he let us pet him. Then he became very cuddly and still is.

I know I googled rabbit-aggression and found good advice on how to deal with this problem, it’s highly treatable.

[Deleted User]

Please don’t deprive her of food – I know your intentions are good, and I haven’t had this experience with a bunny, but I did with a disabled lorikeet. Even though he has passed since, I still remember like it was yesterday (I adored/loved him so much). He was fed the wrong food, was housed in a budgie cage  and wasn’t given any fruit. We corrected all of this and he still wasn’t friendly, so scared! lost his trust with humans by the time he came to us. We persisted and by the end we could put our hand in the cage to feed him (not touch him – I wore a garden glove if I had to handle him – he ‘bit’ big time!) and he seemed to appreciate our distant company (us outside of his cage). Food should be a right of life. Sorry, I don’t mean to make you feel bad – I can’t help but feel awful that my lorikeet was fed seed, he must have been starving? I hate that anything is hungry. Feed her normally like any other bunny and maybe make friends with her with treats – banana slices, craisins, etc., no bunny can resist that,  lol!

PS – I think having her spayed and you helping her to recover will make a huge difference to her attitude towards you.

[Linette]

This is the maddest time of year for unspayed females, they are territorial to begin with and have Spring Fever, wanting to get pregnant more than usual. That causes a great deal of aggression and too much pent up energy.

Spaying should help a great deal, but it takes time for all the hormones to get out of their system and it might take a bit more time for her to feel safe and trustful again.

I once had a female who would never stop this behavior but that is only one out of at least one hundred rabbits

[Sophie, Lola, and Bailey]

Just to be clear, I’m not depriving her of food. I give it to her regardless of how she behaves. I was just wondering if there was a better way to approach her with the food. Bringing it into the room and sitting there for a while before giving it to her seems like a good idea. Thanks, LBJ10.

Thanks for all of your advice. I try to spend as much time in the room with her as possible, but on some days (like today) it’s just not possible. I’m worried that she’ll hurt herself when she’s trying to attack my ankles. I’m wearing boots when I go in there, so I’m fine. But she throws herself around so much, banging into things. I just don’t want her to land the wrong way and break something.

She also needs eyedrops right now, so I think she is associating me with getting the eyedrops as well. But that is usually the part of the day where she is the most calm. She sits still and just lets me put the eyedrops in, but I think it might just be that she’s frozen in fear.

I feel so bad for her! She’s constantly scratching at the door of the room I have her in, wanting to get out to run around. I’m just worried about Bailey (my other bunny) because Lola has tried to hurt her several times, otherwise I would let her out more. I’ve let Lola out while Bailey is in her pen so that they can’t get to each other, but Lola just charges at the side of the pen. It breaks my heart to see how upset Lola is.

[Deleted User]

I thought I must have read your post wrong – my ‘apologies’ Sophie! I knew you wouldn’t not feed your beautiful Lola properly. I really think having her spayed will make a difference. And yes I agree, giving her eyedrop’s wouldn’t be helping…. poor girl (and poor YOU!). In the meantime, take care and be super patient (and try those treats? lol!). Cheers. Andi.

[Sophie, Lola, and Bailey]

Thanks! I’ve been having trouble getting her to take treats from me. She just doesn’t trust me, but I’m not going to give up!

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