Extreme Aggression

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kmanalo04

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Hi everyone, I received a flemish giant rabbit on April 9th of this year and he was almost 5 months old. As he was nearing 8 months he started spraying, pooping all over my room, and chasing/growling at me aggressively, but nobody else in my family. He is fine with both my parents and other visitors and actually runs up to greet them. He has left some pretty bad scars and wounds on me from always trying to attack my legs. I thought he just needed to be neutered as he was maturing, so we got him neutered. Neutering is supposed to calm hormones down, but his behavior remained the same towards me. The only bad behaviors that subsided was the spraying, and he now rubs his chin on objects less. He still has the urge to attack me and also poops all over my room still to mark his territory, but nowhere else in the house. Now I’m thinking that this may be more personal instead of hormone induced, and that he just doesn’t like me for whatever reason. I’m the main person who takes care of him, and my parents are wanting me to find a new home for him since I can’t even feed him or walk by him without him trying to aggressively attack my legs. Any opinions or tips, and is there a way to save my relationship with my rabbit? Thanks for any input.
 
It can take up to 6-8 weeks for the hormones to dissipate, it is said that sometimes behaviour can get even worse during the change. Can't tell about why he does that, never met an aggressive rabbit myself.
 
It is good that the neuter stopped the spraying, so that is a victory indeed!

Re: the biting/attacking of legs and you in general, I encourage you to go "back to basics" with bonding with your rabbit. You are the one taking care of him most, meaning you are the one "invading" his space the most. This means feeling a secure sense of trust and security around you is important, and for a giant human to establish that with a rabbit, it can be an art.

My observation with rabbit care in general has solidified for me the hypothesis that human bodies are just.... very big for rabbits to wrap their heads around. The relationship my rabbits have with my feet vs. my hands vs. my face are different. Rabbits attacking feet is a common phenomena because it's often what they see as owners go into our rabbits' space to clean and fuss with their stuff. Hands gives treat, but feet seem to have a will of their own and just trample in their space, ah! Passive exposure (i.e. you being there and not doing anything) may be a good way to help your rabbit learn that all parts of you mean no harm to him.

There are some tips here on how to better understand each instance of "aggression" you're experiencing and ways to gently shape the behavior: Aggressive rabbits - WabbitWiki
 

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