My bunny is changing

[amcaronia1]

We got our baby bunny Penelope 2 weeks ago when she was 6 weeks old. She warmed up very quickly with us especially me (mom), she would snuggle and flop out on my chest and take naps on me. She was using the litter box almost perfectly within 4 days. She had been in a pet store cage until I did more research and gave her an area of the house with a play pen, she is free roam except for while we’re sleeping or out of the house. Now she is so moody, she refuses to be held. If I hold her she pees on me, I brought her up to my piano the other day and she jumped up and peed on the piano, she peed on the couch (which has never happened even though she’s always on the couch). She’s always flicking her feet at me now and just seems like she hates me. What the heck happened? I miss my snuggly sweet bunny.

 

[Bribunny77]

Some rabbits have trouble with transitioning. I went through a similar phase with my rabbit when I decided to rearrange the things in his living space. For your bunny, moving from a cage to a pen may have been very overwhelming. It may help to try to keep certain things familiar to her. Do you still have the cage? If so, maybe you could add it to her pen as an open access "safe area" since it's what she was used to before. To help with her behavior towards you, it would help to start slow. Try to avoid suddenly trying to pick her up, and instead, try to regain her trust with more subtle interaction, for example, petting, giving treats, or talking to her calmly. This should help her regain some of her trust in you.

Did you end up moving the location of the litter box when you moved her out of the cage? Rabbits naturally gravitate to a certain corner of their living areas to do their business, so if it was moved, it may be helpful to try to find this area and "retrain" her to use a litter box again. Also, she is still very young, which is something to think about when it comes to her behavior around using the litter box. If the area she is in is large, she may have trouble getting to it in time at this age. If it is a larger space, it may help to use multiple litter boxes for easier access.

 

[amcaronia1]

I do still have the cage, she did seem to like it when we used it, she would jump back in of her own accord quite frequently but of course everybody says how terrible they are. I’ll put it back in the area and see what she does. She doesn’t seem to have an issue with the litter box, her main litter box hasn’t changed locations. (She had a small Cotner one in the cage). She pees exclusively in the litter box except for the past 2 days while she’s been naughty, and she hasn’t even been dropping territorial markings. It almost feels like she’s peeing on purpose to spite me but that’s probably silly. All I know is she seems to be very annoyed with me. She does come up if I sit down on the ground and she does still follow me around some, so I guess not all hope is lost.

 

[Blue eyes]

Even free roam rabbits should have a cage for use as a "home base," a place to call their own in which they know they will not be disturbed. So, yes, it's a good idea to give her that security.

She (assuming she's a girl -- hard to tell that young) may also just be growing up. Baby rabbits behave completely differently from adult rabbits or hormonal rabbits. Hormonal rabbits can turn aggressive, have potty accidents, lunge, growl, get grumpy.... Each rabbit is affected differently by hormones.

If she's having pee accidents, it is time to reign her in. Limit her space. Give her the cage and surround it with an ex-pen so she has access to that area only. You don't want her to start peeing everywhere because it can establish naughty habits that could be very difficult to break.

Once she's (or he) is fixed, things should settle down. Then you'll finally be able to see what her true personality will be.