Questions about problem behaviors

[Audrey]

This will probably be a long post so bear with me but I wanted to lay out the full spectrum of behaviors so you can get a good idea of everything I see going on with my two bunnies. I have two Holland Lops and they are complete opposites. Tyrion is my boy, he’s friendly, even fine with being held, and loves food….loves it. My other bunny, Harley, seems to hate everything so far, she’s very territorial and terrified every time I take her out of her bunny condo. I got Tyrion when he was very young and he’s been bonded with me and my boyfriend, he definitely likes us, even likes the dogs. He loves throwing his hay all over his litterbox and then burying it with poop, because of this it’s hard to tell how much hay he actually eats and how much he spreads around, but I have to refill his hay every day with at least a couple handfuls and there will won’t be any in the corner when I check later. He also loves his condo I built. My bunnies are house separately because they are not fixed yet, they are both fairly young but have definitely hit puberty, I will be getting them fixed soon and then try to bond them after that. So I have a bunny condo I built that actually houses both bunnies but with a floor separating the two sections. Tyrion has three levels to jump around and play on, Harley has two. Tyrion loves his setup and Harley can barely be bothered ever even looking at the second level. 

They’re fed greens daily, it’s varied up. I also have a tortoise so I usually buy things they can all eat on, fruit probably once a week, a very small piece. They are fed pellets twice a day, probably a tablespoon and a half each time. Now I also feed them both timothy hay pellets with their regular pellets, on top of everything else. The main reason I do that is because Harley rarely touches her hay. I had it in her litterbox but she started digging in her litterbox and throws it everywhere. She has a large cat litterbox with high walls so mostly it just ends up in a little hill up against one side so any hay put in there gets mixed in very quickly. Because of this I feed her hay in a separate container near her litter box, it’s in another natural wood box that she can hop into. I usually put a lot in there to and she seems to eat some of it every now and then, eventually after awhile I take it out and replace it but it’s never empty, or even close but since I’ve been giving her the timothy pellets she does eat those and she seems healthy. At her last vet visit I was told she was a little underweight(can’t remember her weight at the time) but looked fine other than that and has good poops.

I’ve tried interacting with Harley but that doesn’t go well, since she’s in the top half of the bunny condo I have to pick her up to get her out which she doesn’t like. When I do get her out she shakes and huffs at me. I let her run around the bedroom for a bit of exercise but she seems way more stressed than happy about it. I’m afraid to let her in the rest of the apartment because of how anxious she is, though it’s pretty bunny proofed with most wire out of reach and those that are in reach have shielding around them there is furniture she can squeeze behind and get under and I don’t want to end up with a stuck, stressed bun. When I take her back to her cage she practically leaps out of my arms two feet away toward the cage trying to get back in, as soon as she’s back in it’s several thumps to let me know that she hated everything that just happened. The most pleasant experience I seem to get with her outside of the cage is if I put her on my couch and let her burrow under a blanket and hide next to me where she’ll stay until I decide to put her back. I have had her for probably about six months now and have made absolutely no progress. I try to hand feed her treats and fruit when she gets it to associate myself with good things but as soon as it’s gone if I try to touch her she runs and thumps. I’ve tried barely touching her at all to see if may she’ll come to me eventually, I’m running out of ideas on how to get her to have a less stressed life were interacting with me does terrify her, it makes things like getting exercise or nail clipping very unpleasant for her.

Basically with all the information I can think of any suggestions on getting her anxiety levels down and what I could be doing differently? Also should I be worried about the lack of hay consumption? I use timothy hay and I can only find really small amounts of other types of hay at the pet store and online, but that gets expensive. I have a small compressed bale of timothy that I bought that was way cheaper so any idea on alternatives for the Dallas Texas area that don’t up my food costs a ton would be helpful too.

[Mikey]

Spaying. Its very common for female rabbits to become moody and territorial when they are hormonal. You wont know either bunnys “true” self until you have them spayed/neutered because of how hormones can mess with their personality

[Author]

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