Bunny Untrainable?

[picchick13]

I have a bit of an unusual Bun. He is neither a he, nor a she… though in the early months we established him as a boy so we still refer to him as such. He’s an 8 month old holland lop.

Thinking it would be neutering, I took him in to be fixed about a month ago, and ended up causing quite the stir at the vet’s office. To the docs surprise, and mine, there was no identifiable genitalia. They “took out” what parts they thought would be causing any hormonal imbalance and, not even joking, sent him home and told me to ask him how he “identifies”  haha.

Anyway, the reason I bring all this up is… post surgery, my bunny’s behavior has gotten worse. 

He used to be cuddly, would let me and my husband pick him up and carry him around. I’d come home form work and my husband would have him slung over his shoulder while making dinner, and he’s just chill out and lick his ears every once in awhile. He was also really good about letting us flip him over into “bunny trance” for nail clippings. His litter habits weren’t perfect but they were SO much better than what they are now. 

Now, I cannot pick him up at all. The second I lay hands on him he scrambles away like I’m about to murder him. 

He pees and poops with, like, a vengeance.  I swear sometimes he stops and looks at me so he can make sure I know that he knows what he’s doing. He’s decided the couch and the floor in front of the couch are now his litter box. 

Did I mention he never chewed on anything? Well, those days are gone. We’re now the house with all of our shoes up on the kitchen table.

I don’t know what to do. I had a bun previously who behaved like this one does now, but that was PRE-fixing. Once we did the deed, he calmed down significantly. The litter habits especially, became basically a non-issue.

I was under the impression that that was kind of the point … but I suddenly have a little monster on my hands. 

Does anyone out there have any similar experience or tips for a post-surgery, ambiguous, Tasmanian devil? 

 

[Bam]

This sounds like a classic case of “post-neuter-craze”. It’s actually quite common even if it doesn’t happen with all bunnies. It has to do with fluctuating hormones levels after de-sesexing. All or most hormonally driven behaviors become enhanced and much worse than before the neuter/spay. Territoriality, aggression, skittishness, pee-and poop-marking, even mating behavior can simply explode. The bunny becomes a monster, but it’s temporary. It seems the vet did get his “parts” out, his reaction is consistent.

In a boy this generally subsides after a few weeks. Everything up to 8 weeks is considered normal. In a girl, it can take longer, even 6 months. Since we don’t really know how he identifies, you’ll just have to wait and see, I think.

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