behavior change

[dainerra]

I'm posting this for my Sis-in-law. They have a female lionhead, approx 5 months old. She has gone from being sweet and loveable, to snarky and nippy.

she will bite anyone, for apparently no reason. she scratches people to pieces who try to pick her up. It's to the point that the kids are terrified of her. They asked me and my first guess was hormones?

any tips to get her over this? She is ok and happy for the first 10 mins or more. but they can tell a bite is coming; she will start getting a little antsy and irriated. I told them to play happy with her, but to put her away before the grouchyness starts. Could it be that she has learned that biting gets her what she wants (people leaving her alone)?

I doubt that they will get her spayed. $$$

She is an indoor rabbit, not sure of their sit-up and food. They live in GA, Im in AR.

 

[JadeIcing]

Screams hormones. Can't think of much they can do other than to try not holding her.

 

[dainerra]

well, I didn't know if it would be bad to completely stop handling her. she can be fine (according to them) for (sometimes) 30 mins before she gets upset. Others, she gets nippy the second you go to pick her up.

Im glad to hear that my hormone guess was right. Was my first thought with her age...

 

[woahlookitsme]

i had bought a dutch one time that acted the same way. she would be fine for about ten minutes then start to dig in my shirt and try to nip. She would even get into these moods where she would cry/grunt when we tried to take her out of the cage. i told my rabbit breeder this and she said it was all her hormones. i guess thats why she likes boy bunnies better. I would just leave my dutch alone whenever she would have her moods and let her run around the house. that seemed to help a little bit.

 

[Maureen Las]

Behavior like this at this particular age is probably the #1 reason that rabbits are given up as pets.
please try to encourage them to think seriously about getting her spayed both for her health and so that she can once again be a good pet
she cannot help herself it is all hormones andadolescent behavior

 

[l.lai]

I agree with the above.

My friends saw my pet bunny and went and bought one themselves, after finding that not all rabbits are cuddly from the beginning, and not easily toilet trained, they're giving up and trying to get rid of it. So sad.

I dont understand why people dont get their bunnies desexed, esp. if they're girls. They definately need it for good health unless you're breeding, in which case you dont really need to breed as theres too many breeders already!

But yeah, your problem sounds hormonal, get her fixed!

 

[dainerra]

all of our bunnies are fixed. they are balking at the cost. they live in Atlanta and "don't even want to think about the $$"

 

[bunniekrissy]

It is very possible that she will calm down once she gets older, so if they are not willing to get her spayed, then they should just hang in there until the phase hopefully passes. Though one of my buns I did not get spayed until she was a year old and she still had not calmed down (which she did after the spay.)

Many buns also simply are scared of being held or picked up, which explains the scratching from struggling to get away. Also unfixed buns tend to be more nippy in their own territory, so maybe avoid having the kids be the ones to take her out of her cage. Try letting her run around in a room where the people can sit on the floor and play with her rather than just trying to hold her.

 

[dainerra]

I don't think she's scared of being picked up, since the problem is very recent. plus, she doesn't do it all the time. They told me if she is loose on the floor, just sitting beside them, she will just reach out and bite someone. So it makes me wonder why she is doing it. It seems to be when she gets bored and wants to go back into her cage.
They've told me they've started thumping her nose when she bites. Needless to say, that's made her worse with the scratching and not wanting to be picked up. *sigh*

sadly, it was the same with their sheltie. They kept her shaved bald because she had too much hair. Plus hated the fact that she barked.