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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Aggressive bunny

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    • mamaduck3
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        Hi,

        Thanks for allowing me to join your group. We currently have one house bunny. We adopted her about 2 years ago. We already had 3 cats at the time. We rescued the bunny from a family that had found her. The bunny was abandoned at their apartment that they just moved to. I guess people saw the family walk their kittens outside on leads and decided they would make good bunny parents. Problem was, they had to convince their landlord to let them adopt two kittens, and they didn’t expect to have a bunny abandoned at their door. The family put out a call for help on an education forum I belonged to. No one replied for a couple of weeks and the family was desperate to rehome the bunny in fear they would get found out by landlord. Having some bunny experience (my two bunnies and my mom’s) in the past, we took her in. Her pictures did not do her justice. She was huge. She turned out to be a Flemish Giant mix. The bunny, though affectionate at times and sociable, was aggressive and very active. She would scratch, nip and be otherwise feisty at times. Other times she was chill.

        Fast forward two years, she has gotten more feisty and aggressive. She attacks me when I clean her cage, she bites, she scratches. I cannot have her out of cage all the time, as she is a bit destructive. She is so different from the other rabbits I have. It’s been a bit difficult to bond with her due to her aggressive nature, and I am nervous to have the children care for. 

        She’s been to the vet. We mentioned she was aggressive, but they didn’t have much suggestion as she was calm with them. Like I said, having gotten bitten and attacked in past, I am nervous to handle her much now. She is not yet spayed. She is approximately 4 years old (according to vet).

        Does anyone have suggestions for an aggressive bun?

        Thanks in advance.


      • Mikey
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        3186 posts Send Private Message

          Two possibilities, both leading to the same answer. Long story short, she needs to be spayed. Either she is hormonal and acting out because of that, or she is in pain. Around 80percent of females rabbits get uterine cancer around the age of 3. Spaying will fix/help both of these. But, before you can spay her, you need to find a vet who is actually trained to work with and is certified to work on rabbits. The vet you visited is obviously not trained in rabbits as they did not know basic rabbit information.


        • tobyluv
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          3310 posts Send Private Message

            I agree that finding a new rabbit savvy vet and getting your bunny checked out, then spayed, is the first step in dealing with her aggression.

            If the spay doesn’t completely eliminate the aggression, there are some articles that might be helpful for you.
            http://rabbit.org/faq-aggression/. That’s a good basic article on aggression. Here you will find several other articles on the topic.
            http://rabbit.org/category/behavior/aggression/


          • mamaduck3
            Participant
            4 posts Send Private Message

              Hi,

              Thank you for the replies. I’m sorry for the delays. I was helping to take care of my dad who was hospitalised. My vet seemed to be very familiar with rabbits. The day we took our bunny, she was very relaxed and/or scared, so she was extremely calm and allowed the vets to handle her very easily. They suggested that we have her spayed, which we plan after the new year (I can’t afford to right now). The vets physically examine was very routine and they didn’t seem concerned she had uterine tumours at this time.

              One thing that has worked is we have relocated her. I was hesitant to do this, because she is extremely sociable, however, she seemed more agitated than sociable in the living room, the liveliest room in the house. We relocated her to a room that is transition, going from my husband home office when he used to work/study from home, to what will eventually become my sons room. At that time, I’ll relocate her to another more quiet space. I miss seeing her within the most active, most occupied room, but she is much more relaxed and less destructive in the quieter location. The drawback is that she has less free hopping time, which will be temporary.

              One more recent concern is that we are very financially strapped. My previous rabbits ate way less than this big girl. She is nearly 11 pounds and it cost me about $70 monthly in feed, or more, if I feed her what she likes to eat. I cannot afford this. Any suggestion to where I can get orchard grass or hay at less cost. I love our girl, and want to right by her. I feel horrible for her rough start in life, and sad that she was abandoned. Feeding and bedding are huge cost, and I’m not seeing much of deal on the chewy site. Where do other in the northeast US get bunny hay less expensively?

              Thanks in advance!


            • ThorBunny
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                I’d suggest to try local farmers for a deal on hay Depending on where you live, you can often source hay directly by the bale or part of a bale and it is much cheaper.

                Another bunny hack is using equine stall pellets/wood stove pellets as bunny litter. I buy wood stove pellets at the cost of $5 per 40lb bag! You can find these at many local hardware stores such as Home Depot in the winter, and at farm feed stores, tractor supply stores, etc. year round. If you live in the US, Agway has these year round.

                Good luck with your bun, do let us know how it goes!


              • Fluffykins
                Participant
                239 posts Send Private Message

                  Definitely look into the spaying for the aggression. Google to see if you can find any vouchers online to help you with that.

                  As for bedding, I second the wood pellets idea. I’ve found it cheapest on Amazon but I’m in the UK.

                  For hay, I also wish I could find it cheaper but then I do get the fancy teeny little oxbow bags no point in me getting even half a bale with my one mini rabbit! I hate wastage so every morning, afternoon and before bed I’ll fluff up the remaining hay in the “rack” (I actually use a corner litter tray as a hay rack, placed about 2 inches off the ground), pick out the dry hard poops and leave the hay. It never lasts longer then a day (thank God I have a good hay eater) but he likes to poop (and pee but that’s another story) into his hay, so if it’s soiled with wee, it gets chucked out, but if it’s just poops in there I’ll pick out every single poop and leave the clean hay.

                  I used to chuck out whatever hay was left after a few hours when I first got him, but that was wasting so much hay.

                  You probably also need to work a lot with bonding and desensitization with him but the spaying should greatly help with the aggression.

                  Check out Animal Wonders Montana on YouTube, they work with rehabilitating abused animals and end up taking them on public presentations etc. They work through severely traumatised and highly anxious animals to get them to a point where they are very comfortable being held and able to present with the animal in public. The presenter is qualified in animal behaviour and psychology and all the vidoes are really focused on educating humans on animals by *understanding* them for what they are.

                  I sincerely believe almost every single animal can be rehabilitated to that point, you just have to know what you’re doing.


                • OverthinkingBun
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                  169 posts Send Private Message

                    For finding cheaper food – do you know anyone with horses? They could tell you where they get their hay, if you don’t mind buying in bulk. If there are farmer’s markets near you, you can check for free greens. They will often give scraps like carrot tops and the outside leaves that fell off of lettuce heads to animal owners, since they can’t sell these. It might be the wrong time of year for that where you live. I’ve heard a suggestion to do the same thing at a supermarket, but that didn’t go so great for me when I tried it Probably depends on the store.

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                Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Aggressive bunny