Hi everyone.
I hope this is okay to post here, I’m new to this place and I’m not 100% on how this all works. I’ve had rabbits all my life, but I’ve never had a pair of rabbits (my mum wasn’t educated and this was back when I was a kid and didn’t know better myself). My rabbits have always been super loving and we’ve never had any problems like this.
In July this year, me and my partner got two baby Netherland dwarf rabbits (both male). I had a male Netherland when I was a kid and he was the sweetest rabbit I’ve ever come across. They were very friendly and confident as soon as we brought them home, they’d always come running up to us for attention and were very sweet in general.
As they started to get a bit older, probably after 2 months, they started humping and showing general hormonal behaviour. They had been very close up until this point, always cleaning each other and snuggling, but obviously this caused some tension between them so we took them to get neutered.
This was in September and they haven’t been the same since and I just don’t know what to do.
One of the rabbits, Lupin, is still very sweet and will come running up to us but doesn’t seem fond of being touched at all. He’ll move away from you but won’t show any signs of aggression, he just gets very uncomfortable. We can’t pick him up either but I’ve been okay with that because I’ve never felt the need to pick them up (I’m starting to realise they need to be comfortable being held for future vet visits, I’m trying to work on him getting more comfortable around us first).
The second rabbit, Ursa, is the one that is causing me a lot of concern. He was always the quieter one but now he is just very aggressive with everyone. They are both very close but if he thinks Lupin has food, he’ll crouch down and sniff his mouth to see if he has anything and then he’ll chase him (they don’t bite each other, they just chase.) But then two minutes later they’ll be cuddling again.
He’s also started biting us and lunging for us. If I reach into their run to remove something, he’ll lunge straight at us and has actually bitten my boyfriend so hard that he’s bled – he’s done the same with me. If we’re wanting to take anything out of the cage, or put anything in, we have to wear thick gloves in case he tries to bite. Earlier tonight, I walked past the cage and went to take off the water bottle and he lunged at me through the bars.
The aggression mainly seems to be focussed in the cage which leads me to think it’s territorial but I just don’t know how to handle it. There’s only been one instance where he’s bitten me outside of the cage/run and that’s when I was laid on the floor and he was sniffing my face and I kissed him (I’d done it several times and he’d been okay but this time he lunged for me).
We have, what I hope, is a nice set up for them. In the summer they have a huge outdoor cage with a large run attached which they have free roam of all day. We make sure to bring them inside for an hour or so every day in the summer. At the moment because it’s cold outside, we have them in an indoor cage with a run attached and also let them run around in our kitchen for at least an hour a night and we sit on the floor with them during that time.
My question is, is this aggression due to territorial behaviour? He started it as soon as we had him neutered so I’m also worried that maybe he was traumatised from the vet visit. I thought at first it could be a hormone spike but it has been three months and if anything it is getting worse.
We’re going home to my parents for Christmas tomorrow but when we come back home, I’d really like to have some ideas of how I can prevent this behaviour and make him comfortable around us again.
What we’re doing at the moment is bringing them both into a neutral room, the kitchen, and letting them run around for an hour or so with us sat on the floor. If they come up to us, we’ll pet them but we won’t lift them or pick them up (we transport them in a carrier that they willingly go into). We don’t introduce any food or treats into this time because it makes Ursa aggressive.
There hasn’t been any positive changes though, like I said above, it seems to be getting worse. Sorry for the essay, I’m just becoming really desperate! Does anyone have any ideas?