Bunny suddenly aggressive when being fed

[JainaLeigh]

Hello everyone. I’ve tried many online searches but haven’t been able to find advice that fits my situation, given the age of my bunny. I’m hoping someone reading this may have an idea.

I’ll start with my bunny’s story. Fancy is 9 years old. I adopted her and her sister from a friend who found himself with an accidental litter when his male and female bunny got familiar with each other when they weren’t supposed to. I do not know her breed. My friend’s bunnies looked like they were two different breeds, but he didn’t know much about bunnies when he got them. 

When I adopted them, I was in university and since then, we have moved around a lot. I have had many roommates and pets and people in and out of our lives. My family currently has 3 cats, two bunnies, and our 2.5 year old son. My bunnies have been through their fair share of stressful situations and as such, for the last 3 or so years, neither one likes coming out of their cages, aside from the occasional walk in the yard outside in the summertime. They each have a separate cage. They were each spayed as soon as they were old enough.

Fancy has never been a very social bunny. She prefers to keep to herself. She doesn’t like her cage to be too clean, she likes to keep her smell instead of a fresher, cleaner smell. For cage cleaning time, my husband cleans the cage while I hold her. Fancy gets greens, hay, and pellets daily and always has fresh water available to her. There have been times when she has gotten a little over excited about feeding time and has lunged for the food, missed, and nipped my hand. She normally doesn’t break the skin and it only happened rarely. This morning, however, she had hay in her cage and I had given her some lettuce, as I normally do in the morning. I went to give her some pellets, again, as usual, and she growled, lunged, using her paws in the process, and intentionally bit me. She broke the skin for the first time in many years. I’ve been noticing her behaviour has changed somewhat in the last couple of months. She seems cranky a lot more often lately. 

Nothing in my household has changed (same laundry detergent, I don’t wear perfume, same brands of soaps being used, etc). We’ve been living here for a year and a half, our son is 2.5, and our youngest cat is almost 7. She has never been sick before and does not have any health problems. Fancy is eating, drinking, and using the litter box normally. 

Does anyone have any ideas of things I could/should be looking for?

[Beka27]

When was her last vet checkup? Sudden food aggression can indicate a health issue, so I would suggest having a full exam first to rule anything out, especially with her older age.

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