New & Strange behavior

[babymommy]

OK, Baby is right at the right age to getspayed. She's been a little more aggressive lately.I wish I had a video of what I'm about to discribe, but maybe I can getmy point across without it.

Ok, Baby has always like to play chase with either a wash rag or myhand. When she's chasing my hand, she usually smells it firstthen proceeds to chase it around. It's always been quitecute. Well, last night she was doing that but the entire timeshe was chasing my hand or arm, her nose and mouth were right againstmy hand or arm and occassionally she would barely nip my arm.If I stopped my arm, she would stand up and almost try to hunchit.

So my question is.....is she trying to get fresh with my arm or is she trying to show me who's the boss??????:?

PS, I'll be posting some new pictures in a little while of Baby and her new cage.

 

[Carolyn]

babymommy wrote:

So my question is.....is she trying to get fresh with my arm or is she trying to show me who's the boss??????:?

Hi babymommy,

All of the above, I'd say.

-Carolyn

 

[babymommy]

So I guess it's definately time for a little surgery.

 

[Carolyn]

It's certainly may help calm her down a bit as far as her desire to mate and be aggressive.

-Carolyn

 

[showrabbits]

Hello,

Is Baby a english lop? So kind of looks like it by the picture. I raiseenglish lops and one of my lines the does and the bucks go through thatforaboutone or twomonths when they getabout the age where they are ready to breed. The surgery may help BUTonly if she has not picked this up as a habit. My suggestion is to stopletting her chase your hand. Get something like a cat toy for her tochase that doesnt put her hand right in danger and will signal to herthat when you have that that is the only time that she can play thatgame and dont let her relate thegame with your hands. Mine likes to chase around a feather duster but dont get onethat they cant rip appart or eat.

The game that you are describing is actualy a way to establishdomanance in the rabbit world. You will see this in thesummer( usauly fromjanuary to august)with wildrabbits when all of the babies from the nests start to come out intothe world and get to breeding age. I have a book that talks about thisand shows great pictures. You can probably find it at barnes and noblesIt is called The Encyclopedia of Mammals by David Macdonald. Be wellworth it to check it out. The part about rabbits is on page 710. Theway wild rabbits do it is a little more exstreme than our pet rabbitsdo but it is pretty much the same deal. Your doe is trying to say thatshe is ready to show that she is dominate. If you give her the chancethan she will mount your hand. First off do not let her do this, youneed to be dominate. This is what I do and it has always worked for me.When ever I approach a rabbit I alway approach the rabbit from abovethe head, never level to the face or below the face. Then you shouldput your hand on top of the rabbits head. The rabbit will usauly lowerits head. Sometimes at first they will agrue with you so if they dothen just stay with it untill they lower they head to thefloor. Once they pick this up (after a couple of days to acouple of weeks at least) when the rabbit greets you or wants yourattention when you are not giving them attentionthey willatomatically lower their head, and all you have to do then is pet theirhead and then go on with giving them the other attention they mightwant like playing with them ect. They seem to like to have their headpetted like a cat does. Alot of rabbits do this naturally. I started todo this after watching my rabbits when they get to the age where theyare more independant. If you watch a litter of rabbits or bondedrabbits interact they will greet each other by lowering their headbelow the dominate rabbits head, and then the dominate rabbit willusauly groom the other rabbits head before doing anything else.

I hope that this helps. You were right with guessing what was going on. Good luck.