Angry Bunny

[LB&Me]

Literally what the title says, LB just seems to be full of territorial rage. Half of the time he’s sweet and inquisitive but sometimes he just snaps for no reason.

Some behaviours I’ve already worked out, like lunging when I’m cleaning because he’s scared of the brush or my hand and it’s directly in front of him (with distance, but that doesn’t seem to matter to LB.)

He’s started treating the cats like vermin, if they dare set foot upstairs while he’s free roaming, he makes them sorry they bothered (they’re all sweet and laid back toward him but he will chase them down until they flee downstairs. He’s even attacked my smallest, most timid cat with full on claws to the face, and she didn’t even lift a paw toward him. She’s now too scared to set foot in my room unless she’s sure he’s shut away.)

He’ll thump for no reason, even in the middle of the night, and if I close the door to his pen to keep him in, he’ll rattle the cage furiously.

Is there something that I can do to just calm him down?

[Deleted User]

Hi LB, welcome to the forum!

Is he neutered? This information will be helpful to me formulating some suggestions for you

[LB&Me]

Yes he is, he was done at the youngest possible age (around 3-4 months I think) and he’s almost 4 now.

[Deleted User]

Ah ok, the would have been my first suggestion! How is your relationship with him? Does he always lunge at you when you go into his cage? It sounds like he might benefit from spending some more time with you, which will help him becoming more trusting and secure. Hope you can get to the bottom of it, no one wants to be the victim of a frustrated bunny

[LB&Me]

We’re actually pretty close, whenever he comes out to free roam he comes up for cuddles. He doesn’t climb on me, just lays beside me. He doesn’t always lunge at me, only on occasions when I’m cleaning or just being too invasive I think. I’m trying to spend more time with him, today I’ve spent a half hour on the floor with him sharing an apple. I gave him one piece and he kept trying to steal mine!

I think he’s just nervous and wants to establish his territory!

I’m definitely going to spend as much time as possible with him, and I’ve been researching all the ways to bond with bunnies and am trying them to make him feel safer.

[LB&Me]

Quick update, I was researching bunny behaviour and saw a suggestion to lay flat on the floor, since it brings me down to his level. I tried it, and at first he ignored me altogether but when he came over he was very sweet! He used my legs as hurdles and licked my hair, but after about 10 minutes of being perfectly fine he just flipped out and ran back to the cage. I didn’t move a muscle. After that he just sat in line with my head and stared at me for several minutes. It was direct eye contact, and he didn’t move the whole time, just stared. It was a bit intimidating but after reading I found that it’s actually a companion thing?

Also for the last few nights he has started thumping for no reason, and it’s getting more frequent now with him also doing it several times during the day. At night, it’ll be late and dark, and I’ll be lying still in bed, and he’ll suddenly just thump for no reason. Just once, then he’s fine again. I don’t know if he wants attention or food or if something is scaring him. When he does it during the day I’m pretty sure it’s because he wants to show me something. About half an hour ago he did it then did loads of binkys around me so he just wanted to show off that time. He’s such a confusing bun!

I think the issue with the cleaning brush is solved too. Today he was just fine while I was doing it, just going about his business and checking up on what I was doing. I think it made him nervous but he’s realised that it’s not going to hurt him and now he’s just curious.

Now he’s napping all stretched out in front of me. He’s so sweet (if a little unpredictable)!

[Deleted User]

hmm. I wonder about the thumping. Do you live in the city? I do, and I am a SUPER light sleeper. When a car zooms by or an ambulance wails down the street, Ophelia will dart off the bed and start thumping. But even someone just walking down the patio makes her stop in her tracks and look around. I think some buns are just a bit more sensitive to stressors.

With the cleaning, the only thing that I can relate to is that a few times Ophelia has been ripping up the carpet and I will go over to shoo her and try to take the piece of carpet out of her mouth and she will grunt and swat at me. Probably her way of saying “get away from me and let me get on with it!” They can definitely be moody like that!

[joea64]

Panda and Fernando tend to be pretty even-tempered bunnies, especially as they’ve settled in at home over the past four-plus months. These days, when they hear a noise from outside, they generally don’t do much more than sit up with their ears perked to alert pose, and they hardly ever thump. As I remarked elsewhere, they’ve weathered two 800-round-mile car trips in the past month or two with perfect equanimity, so I think they’re pretty steady-nerved as bunnies go. They naturally don’t like the Dust Buster when I run it on the upper floor of their condo, so I try to run it for as short a period of time as I can to get the stray fur and hay off of there. I am going to have to do a thorough vacuuming of my apartment soon, so I’m going to try running it “backwards” (from the farthest possible point away, with my body between the vacuum cleaner and the buns) to minimize stress.

I do notice that they seem to be more enthusiastic about coming out to romp in the X-pen enclosure on some evenings than others, and also more affectionate/willing to interact with me, particularly Fernando, on some days than others. Panda let me pet her briefly on the forehead this morning, for instance, which she rarely has done to date, but she’s inching up on the sociability scale a little at a time. It’s pretty rare nowadays that Fernando doesn’t nip/paw at my clothes at least once during an evening floor session. They’ve never really gotten angry/lost their temper all the time they’ve lived with me, but they’re both very fond of giving me “bunny butt” when I annoy them for some reason!

[Deleted User]

Bombur doesn’t have an angry bone in his body. Asriel has permanent angry eyes (just because of his color pattern), so we can never tell if he’s ever truly angry or not. We’ve had them since the end of May, and he is still a nervous and shy bunny. When it’s his roam time, he usually spends most of it sitting in one spot. Sometimes he gets excited enough to hop around. When you approach him, he frequently stands on guard and watches everything you do. If you get down to pet him, he’ll let you give nose rubs, which he loves, but sometimes he’ll look like he doesn’t like it. Neither of my boys have ever been aggressive (thankfully!) but I always feel like if you push Asriel’s buttons he’d nip.

[LB&Me]

No, we’re at the quiet end of a small town, no outside noises whatsoever (and I have sensitive hearing too!) 

It’ll be absolutely silent and dark then he’ll suddenly thump for no reason (two nights ago he did it four times, each with a little break in between). Then he’ll just be quiet again. I’ve been thinking he might be trying to get my attention.

I’ve been working on my bunny body language and I think he might be starting to truly trust me. I’ve not been picking him up or chasing him (I used to have to if he started trying to destroy something!) and I think he’s realised I’m just trying to be friends.

He even seems to be working things out with the cats, mainly the little girl, who stood and let him have a good sniff even though she was scared, then he just carried on with what he was doing without giving her a second glance. Woo! 

Also, I deliberately avoid using the vacuum in his presence, I do virtually all cleaning with the dustpan and brush, then vacuum on the occasions when he gets mess on my carpet. He lives a pretty pampered life, I work around him with everything I do!

If I try to stop him doing something (like last night, he went into my parents’ bedroom and started trying to dig his way under their bed) he gets angry because I refuse to let him be naughty. All I did was block the area with my arm but he grunted at me. He’s very stubborn and persistent. 

[Cloversmom]

As far as cleaning the cage goes, he may just feel that that is his space and he doesn’t want it invaded when he’s in there. I personally clean my buns x pen (which is always open now she’s free roam) when she’s not in there. Although For different reasons. She’s not aggressive but she just loves the broom so much and thinks it’s her toy so it’s pretty much impossible to clean up with her in there haha.

And then the thumping could possibly just have to do with the fact that he doesn’t like being in his cage. Part of the reason why my bun is free range now was because she literally hated being locked in her x pen so much. Even though she was basically only in there at night as soon as she was locked in she would frantically start looking for a way out or shake the panels. I understand not everyone’s circumstances allow them to have free range bunnies I believe bunny’s can be happy with the cage life too as long as it’s big enough and they have enough play time. But he may just have that personality like mine that just hates cages. But as long as you continue giving him plenty of play time that should help him learn that even though he may be locked in his cage for a little while you will always come back and let him out again.

And as far as the getting spooked goes, bunnies pick up on things that we can’t. My clover will seem perfectly fine and then all of a sudden gets spooked and runs into the closet for no apparent reason. Everything seemed perfectly quiet. I just think their senses are more attuned than ours so what seems to be them being spooked over nothing is really just something small we may not have picked up on. Good luck!

[LB&Me]

Just a little update, as a few things have changed over the last couple of weeks. LB is now pretty much entirely free roam (only in my room) and he’s mellowed out considerably since doing this. He’s had full access for three days now, even overnight. I covered the floor in fleece blankets to stop the chewing, and besides a few incidents where he moved them, it’s worked very well.

A little over a week ago, he decided I was almost worthy of a grooming, and gave the cushion I had my head on a drenching in bunny saliva, and since then he’s been getting more and more affectionate. He has started licking my clothes while I’m wearing them, and sometimes gets my skin when he’s on the edge of a sleeve or something. He’ll now groom me every time I sit on the floor with him. Right now he’s tickling my leg like crazy by licking it! He also likes to rest his head on my leg and stare at me.

He still grunts a lot, but I think it’s more his way of communicating with me since he’ll do it whenever I come in, it’s like he’s telling me off for being out of the room for a while. He’ll also grunt when I sit down, but then he covers me with kisses so I don’t think it’s a bad thing with him, maybe excitement. He’s fallen in love with forehead strokes, and when he’s grooming me he’ll stop if I stroke his head because he loves it so much. We have a deal going on, I stroke his forehead for ages, then he grooms my legs.

We did have one accident though, he gets very aggressive over pellets still, to the point where he won’t let me pour them into the bowl so I removed it from the cage to fill it. As I was putting it back in he charged and bit my hand, for the first time ever, which drew blood and made my palm swell up (not fun!) but I’ve found that since being free roam he’s less intent on eating the pellets the moment they’re placed in the bowl, and I’ve been spending time working to adapt to his behaviour and personality to let us coexist better. So far nothing else has happened!

He loves having just above his eyes stroked, that gets me an immediate tooth chatter, and he’s starting to feel comfortable with climbing onto my lap (especially when I have apple! He’ll steal it straight off the plate if I’m not careful!).

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone here who offered advice and tips on how to befriend him. We’re so much happier now!

[sarahthegemini]

Aw, aside from the pellet incident, he sounds absolutely lovely! How sweet that he grooms you so much 

[sarahthegemini]

Aw, aside from the pellet incident, he sounds absolutely lovely! How sweet that he grooms you so much 

[Sirius&Luna]

Could you just scatter pellets on the floor instead? That way you can make it rain pellets and no risk to hands!

[LB&Me]

Sirius&Luna yes I could definitely try that! Thanks for the idea!

Okay, so we’re essentially yo-yoing at this point. One minute everything is going great, but the next we’re struggling. We have a major issue once again. LB is attacking my cats brutally now, the moment they set foot in the room. He’ll just charge and attack without hesitation.

When LB lived outdoors, he was good friends with our youngest cat, Harry (a pretty big fluffball but totally soft in personality). They have gotten along very well since day one (they are the same age and came home around the same time) and we’ve never had any issues. Since he’s been indoors, he’s turned on him. Harry, or either of the others for that matter, is now not allowed anywhere near him without being attacked.

A real example:
Tonight, Harry scratched on the door to be let in, and after spending about five minutes just sat in the doorway like a lemon he came in. The moment he touched down after jumping over my door guard grids, LB rushed him. Harry was terrified, and leaped back, hurting himself on a piece of furniture in the process. Even though Harry posed no threat, LB was being absolutely horrible to him, and as soon as Harry was back on his feet he was back out of the room and sitting shaking outside. I think LB also tried to nip him several times but just got fluff, so we’re lucky there. I think I also saw him scratching at him with his front paws. The whole thing took less than 30 seconds but there was a ridiculous amount of violence from LB, and Harry didn’t even raise a paw in response.

Harry was abused as a kitten and attacked by a dog that lived in the same household, and is still suffering mentally from the trauma almost four years later, so this has understandably affected him really badly, and he’s currently sitting absolutely terrified outside of my room 20 minutes later.

Wispa, the other cat who is allowed in my room (her brother is a rabbit chaser), sleeps on my loft bed with me every single night, and a lot of the time I find I can’t sleep without her beside me. LB’s behaviour has also been getting to her now, and she’s begun avoiding the room and not coming in at night simply because he’s here. If she tries to jump off of the bed in the night, even if it’s to get to the door and meow at me to open it, he’ll chase her. He’ll thump and grunt and essentially throw a tantrum if any cat sets foot on my bedroom floor.

It wasn’t so bad when he was confined to a pen, but he figured out how to escape and hasn’t been shut away since so there’s nothing I can do there. There’s no other room I can put him in, so I really need a way to make him stop terrorising my cats! It’s not fair to them! Does anyone have any tips?

[Author]

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