Sudden aggression

[Willowambs]

I am not sure what happened to willow, but she is grunting and lunging at me! I just came home from the beach and a house with a cat, and she started running from me while slamming her feet and was in a defensive position. I didn’t chase her, but walked around my room normally, but she was not happy. I went to shower thinking it maybe was the smell, but no luck. When I go near her she tenses up and would grunt and lunge at my hand. She lets me pet her but lunges at me when I move my hand away, all while she is tense. She hasn’t tried to bite. She is spayed and has never acted like this before. She is normally cage free but I put her in time out for the time being. She is usually very friendly and affectionate and I’m worried.

[Deleted User]

With a sudden behavior change like that, a vet visit might be in order. Just to check that she’s alright and healthy overall. Has anything about her environment changed at all?

[Mikey]

You came home smelling completely different (beach and cat smells replacing your normal smells for the time being). Its possible she thought/thinks youre an intruder trying to cause her harm.

[Deleted User]

It may just be that you smell dramatically different. She’s reacting the only way she knows how, to asses if you are a threat or not.

In my opinion though, it’s not fair to cage her up if she’s normally free range. She’s just confused, and that’s not deserving of punishment. Also I don’t know how well she will register that she’s being reprimanded. She may just be more upset that you’ve cooped her up.

[sarahthegemini]

She’s a rabbit. She’s not going to understand why you’ve put her ‘in a time out’ It’s also incredibly cruel to do so seeing as she is obviously just frightened, probably because you smell different.

[joea64]

Speaking in general terms, and not necessarily related to the specific incident – I’m not sure that any discipline is actually warranted if Willow is indeed acting normally in response to a stimulus – I’ve heard that thumping your foot and/or turning your back on a misbehaving bunny can work as a means of discipline, but I don’t know if it’ll work or is appropriate in this case. However, I’m told that it’s a form of communication that rabbits understand because it emulates a couple of the ways they communicate displeasure/disapproval, so maybe?

[Deleted User]

If I stomp my foot because buns are digging at something or chewing the carpet up, they stop immediately and look at me. Then I give them a disapproving “no” and that is usually enough to have them hop away and forget what they were doing.

The thing is, rabbits are not like children. They’re not going to understand that they are being disciplined. They’re going to be confused, because in their mind they did nothing wrong.

I don’t mean to detract from the subject of the OP, but I do want to point out that I don’t think she should be punished. As I said earlier, you came back smelling strange and she hadn’t seen you, so she needed to determine if you were a threat.

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