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Lindsey

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Mar 9, 2005
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Location
, Illinois, USA
I have a pretty aggressive rabbit at home. He'sbeen neutered and whatnot, but he scratches and bites all the time. Ican hardly touch him let alone pick him up (not that holding him is ahuge deal, but its a nice convenience to get him in and out of places.)Panda, my other rabbit (also neutered), is a sweet little angel. Iunderstand that they all have different personalities, but does anyonehave suggestions to sort of gentle him? Both my rabbits get the sametreatment, but they're so different! Luckily they love each other todeath. :)

At work I was told that it could just be that they are bonding witheach other so I don't really feel needed. But like I said, Panda isgreat with me. I would much rather him be aggressive than lonely, whichis one of the many reasons I have two rabbits, but it would sure benice is he was a good little bunny. :|

And I'm NOT the kind of person who would get rid of an animal for areason like that, but I doubt any of you would suggest that anyway.

As a small little update... it seems that he knows what I am thinking!Today, for the first time EVER, he gave me tons of little bunny kissesall over my face for a while! Too bad he's still kind of... "don'ttouch my personal bubble."
 
try to hold him more. Before you hold him see ifyou want to wear gloves so he doesn't bite you or scratch you bad. Myother suggestion is to wear long sleeved shirt, with long pants so youdon't get all scratched up. Just if yuo hold him more he'll probablycalm down.

Cleo
 
Thats not alwaysgoing to help , I for the most part wear longsleeves when i handle myrabbits , I still have a 6 inch cutrunning from my wrist down,
I am also having an issue withan overly aggressive male but minehasnt been neutered yet ,and Where i cant seem to beable to go near him it doesntlook plausable for the time being.You may have to resign tothe fact that thisparticular Rabbit isnt going tobe the cuddle bunnytype and have to work around it, How does he act whenyour on the floorwith him , at playtime , etc is he aggressivethen or just when you try andhandle him ?
 
You may need to assert your dominance over him,to show him that you are the "top bun" of the herd and not him. Buckhas had good experience with this, I hope he sees this thread andresponds.

From what I remember him saying, when the offender nips/scratches, holdhim down firmly with both hands on his shoulder with a firm "No". Notto hurt him, but to show him that you are in charge.
 
Would this dominance thing work with a younggirl bunny who is a spit fire. Because she is young she doeslet me hold her (its as if she is tolerating it) but her bro is alovely dovey. My concern is when I let them run around in theyard and they scamper away from me. right now I don't have aproblem catching them, I just worry about when they are bigger and older


 
As for holding him more, I've definatly tried,it seems to just get worse and worse with him (opposite of Panda). Irealize I may not be able to have a little cuddle bunny, asIstated in my first post. It would just be nice if I didn't get "beatup" either. And as for the dominance thing, that is also failing. I'vetried it on several occassions but it seems tojust always make himangrier. On the floor during playtime he isn't always so bad, I canoccassionally get a nice pet (and the kisses like yesterday, boy thatwas weird) but overall he is pretty mean.



And like I said, it isn't a huge issure. If he is going to remainaggressive, that's fine. I just wanted to try and see how muchI canhelp, thanks.
 
Lindsay, I hope he quits attackingyou. Have you tried bribing him? Maybe he'dassociate (an occational) treat with you and that being good.Are you able to pet him? Mybe if he's sitting on the floornawing on his treat associated with you being a good thing to havearound and you do those long strokes from his head to his rump (thelonger the better) he'll come around. Slightly offsubject (but to prove pets can change) I had a kitty that was a totalfreak, didn't like be held or much of anything (she was very pretty tolook at and that was about it) then...I brought home Dave matthews andLavender (my baby bunnies) and this totally new cat emerged.She suddenely wanted to go outside to be with the bunnies (hated theoutdoors prior) and is affectionate with the buns and get this, withme. Totally new cat. Bunnies are kinda like catswith longer ears and shorter tails. Anywho, don't know if anyofthis helps, but I do hopehe comes around for you in some way oranother. Naomi
 
Yes it does help, that seems to be the onlything that really works with him! The progress isn't a whole lot, butsignificant enough to help. I'm thinking of buying a little smallanimal pen (the one they have now they can just hop right over!) andsetting it up somewhere, and just sitting with him for a few hours tosee what happens, not giving him the chance to run away.



As for bribing, oh I've sure tried that! I use dried papaya as little"training treats" for them, thats actually how I get them into theircage at night. He seems to have learned that and occassionally willlook at me and the treats, but then remember that he has to go in hiscage if he wants one. It's better than nothing, though.



Thanks for your help! :)
 
I think if you stopped trying to hold him, hemay ease up. My doe Abby did not like being held - at all. It actuallytook us a couple of months to regain her trust and not have her runaway from us whenever we approached.

Valuran went through an aggressive stage with us, but getting him fixedand doing the "dominance" thing with him really helped. You could alsouse a spray bottle on him, everytime he nips/scratches, squirt him. Itdoesn't hurt and they really get the hint.
 
Oh the spray bottle doesn't work for either of them XD



As for holding, I tried the no-holding thing for a few weeks and heactually seemed to get worse, so I'm going to try the long sleeveshirt/glove suggestion and see how that works.

And like I said in the first post, holding him isn't a big deal forme,i understand by nature they don't really like it. Justlooking for a way to ease him up.

Thanks for the help :)
 
Thanks, that's Valuran, my Mini Rex. Here's the whole group:

Abby is the black, Valuran the grey and Chompers the Lop.

Btw, I'm a huge DMB fan too. New CD out soon!
 
He's the little black one, Camper

They're both dwarf lops, and I've had them since they were quite youngand they've had a lot of attention. He does seem to making progress,which is nice. I think I spoke too soon when I made this topic, hedoesn't stop kissing me! He's still not liking being held, which isfine, but he seems to be enjoying being pet.
 
Oh, the bad one's the black one?? I waswondering the same thing as I was reading all the posts. I was assumingit was the white one...the white one looks exactly like my bunny Calvin(except Calvin has black smudges on both sides of his nose), and Calvincan be lil butt head sometimes.

Good luck!!
 
lol, nope that one is Panda... he was namelessfor about a week and a finally decided that he looked like a Pandabear. Creative, I know. XD

Thanks for the luck, things are actually going very swimmingly today! :)
 
Lindsay I think I have spoken too soon as wellbefore, thinking the end was near for me and my buns and then 5 min to5 hours later its a different story. Think how much we changedaily, monthly (ha!) yearly, all part of growing and figuring eachother out. Keep us posted, your progess is ourencouragement. Naomi
 
He's licking your hand to tenderize it. ;) J/k

We got the name Valura from a book both my husband and I read, andchanged it to Valuran when we realized "she" was a "he". Just added an"n" to make it masculine.
 
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