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my bunny loves me! no he doesnt, he bit me again :(

obicat

Young Bun
Chicken has been here for 3 weeks or so, and its been pretty hideous :( He went from being a soppy friendly little bunny to being terrified. He bit me twice and drew blood both times :roll: so i did what my gut instinct said and other than feeding (aka bribing :lol:) him with food didnt bother him at all.

2 days ago i decided enough was enough. Chicken is a house rabbit and i refuse to keep him cooped up in his cage, which isnt IMHO big enough (it as only meant to be a base while i was out) so long story short, i shooed him into a box and left him out on the kitchen floor while i was in the front room. bearing in mind the kitchen is the place i want him to 'live' while i'm out. its bunny proofed and easy to keep clean.

He was transformed! leaping about binking, running over to me as soon as i came in and giving me bunny snogs :love: completely stopped doing the wall of death thing he used to do when he was caged and frightened, maybe cos he has more room now? and he has his cage and a big cardboard box to hide in??

I've now given him the run of the flat while i'm here and i have a little bunny stalker! :love: he keeps sitting on my feet in between bouts of bouncing and rolling about. he goes to explore but keeps coming back. I've just been to the loo and he came and sat on my feet :lol: god knows how I'm gonna get him back in the kitchen!!

i think we've turned a corner! i was really miserable about how unhappy he was before, but to see him bounding about happy has made my day :love:

is it normal to go from being terrifed to overly confident? (hes chewing my bed and doesnt seem remotely bothered when i stamp my feet at him :roll:)
 
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Aww - that's lovely. It's lovely when you realise your buns are happy to see you.

Just wait til he starts getting up to real mischief - and you'll love him even more :love: :love:

I just love mine racing round knocking things over and chewing things - and when Tarquin does a happy flop next to me I go completely gooey.

There's nothing quite like having a bunny in the house :D
 
I find buns can be very stubborn sometimes, if I ignore mine they come over for attention :lol: funny buns
 
awww how lovly, i had a bun who i resued cos she was so vicious, she came in quite a big hutch. but must of hated cos when i took the whole wire door off, as she was in an enclosed walk in run of 12ft, by 12 ft. and that was only at nite, she had free run of garden all day. she was sooooo happy and became very friendly, i think she hated being cooped up, and loved her freedome. some buns just cant cope with it, and i dont blame them.
 
ok, so now i'm really confused! he just bit me again :( hes still got the free run of the house and he was in the front room with me. i shouted him over and he came bounding over, so i gave him a rub behind his ears. he wanted to sniff my hand, which i let him do, and then went back to gently rubbing behind his head/ears, and all of a sudden he just turned round and bit me!!

nothing had changed, he choose to come and see me, i had 1 finger stroking him, he could have left at any time and he still bit me :( (hard enough to draw blood again)

i understand biting me when he was nervous and i was stupid enough to stick my hand in the cage, but why bite me when he has chosen to come and see me and has the option to leave?? :|
 
He's probably still settling in and finding his feet. I got Bella last year when she was four months old and she was an absolute terror. Biting, scratching, kicking and very territorial. She's now just over a year old and having her spayed made a huge difference - her hormones have all settled down - but she is still a feisty madam and if she wants me out of the way because I'm standing where she wants to be or go, then she will try and grab hold of my trousers and drag me away. I haven't been bitten for a while, but I know what I need to do to avoid that.

How old is your bunny? Maybe he's got some hormones rushing round?
 
hes 4 months old. hes going for his vaccinations in 3 weeks and then hes going for the snip!

i'm just very cross with him the little :censored: i would never 'bother' him as i know rabbits dont like to be mauled about, but when he comes bounding up to me when i call him i dont see why he feels the need to bite me :( esp when the little dear has just spent 4 hours trashing my flat and my enitre life seems to revolve around him :lol:

honestly, i got chicken when i split with my OH, but i'm starting to think men might be less hassle :lol:
 
just a random thought, but i got chicken from a pet shop, a reputable one who get 'reject' breeding bunnies, I wonder if hes been grabbed by the ears or neck before? maybe he thought i was going to grab him and put him to bed when he didnt want to go? hes just quite happily followed, (yes followed, so he clearly doesnt dislike me that much :roll: ) to bed without any probs. or maybe i'm just a soft git who is making excuses for a delinquent bunny :oops:
 
hes 4 months old. hes going for his vaccinations in 3 weeks and then hes going for the snip!

i'm just very cross with him the little :censored: i would never 'bother' him as i know rabbits dont like to be mauled about, but when he comes bounding up to me when i call him i dont see why he feels the need to bite me :( esp when the little dear has just spent 4 hours trashing my flat and my enitre life seems to revolve around him :lol:

honestly, i got chicken when i split with my OH, but i'm starting to think men might be less hassle :lol:

I think his age has a lot to do with it. Bella was a nightmare at four months old (I know she's a girl, but even so I think their hormones must start playing havoc at around that age). Luckily she's quite a big bunny and they were able to spay her at around five months, which is earlier than some vets will do girls, and it made a huge difference within days.

I think you need to get used to the idea that rabbits will rule your life - my house has never been messier, or things that can be got at destroyed, than since I've had these two bunnies, but what I get back from them outweighs any of the mess :oops:

Having said that, I've lived on my own for a very long time and I'm not sure many people would put up with what my two little angels have done to the house :lol: :lol:

I think in another couple of months you'll look back on this time and it'll be like a dream - I honestly was in despair at times with Bella, but by the time she got to six months, although still a little madam, I wouldn't change anything.
 
just a random thought, but i got chicken from a pet shop, a reputable one who get 'reject' breeding bunnies, I wonder if hes been grabbed by the ears or neck before? maybe he thought i was going to grab him and put him to bed when he didnt want to go? hes just quite happily followed, (yes followed, so he clearly doesnt dislike me that much :roll: ) to bed without any probs. or maybe i'm just a soft git who is making excuses for a delinquent bunny :oops:

You also need to bear in mind that rabbits' eyesight isn't that good - so although he came up to you and was being very friendly, if you moved too quickly and it startled him, it may well have been enough for him to bite as he didn't know what was happening.
 
thats the thing, i didnt move at all :( he came over i gave him a rub behind the ears (bunnies like that dont they??) and then he wanted to sniff me, hes big time into sniffing and scent marking (hormones again??) and then went back to rubbing and he just turned round and bit me :roll:
 
was it an aggressive bite? or more of a nip? mine was a nippy baby, if he wasn't me to do something, i'd get nipped!

he hasn't been with you long, he's still settling in and learning to trust you and his surroundings.

i despaired a little when mine, nipping and weeing on the sofa! i wouldn't change him for the world though.
 
Maybe after sniffing you he thought you were going to taste nice :shock:

I know how painful it is being bitten - I used to cry lots when I first got Bella (also not helped by having lost a very soft, very cuddly, very affectionate bunny not long before) - she was such a handful and all I wanted was for her to even like me, I wasn't expecting her to love me :roll: but all she wanted was for me to leave her alone.

At the beginning of July I'll have had her a year and honestly can't imagine life without her now, even with all she put me through. I even rang up the Rabbit Welfare Association one night in tears because I couldn't understand why she was being so horrible - I know now that she was just being a normal hormonal bunny. Take away those hormones and it's amazing the difference.

Don't lose heart with Chicken - I'm sure that when he's been done he'll settle down - and just the fact that he's happy and feels safe enough to come and be near you is really good - Bella didn't want to know me at all :(
 
It was IMHO opinion an aggressive bite :( I'm more used to horses, not bunnies :lol: ) and if he was a horse i wouldnt even be asking about this, but thats why i'm so shocked, i thought things were getting better. he came over when i called him, seemed to be enjoying the stroking, asked to sniff me which i let him do, enjoyed the stroking for a few seconds then bit me fairly hard (i'm still bleeding now :roll:) but didnt move away afterwards??

surely if he was frightened he would have moved away? hes got very confident (in the space of 1 night!?!) and doesnt even bat an eyelid when i do the stamping thing when hes doing something naughty (like eating my bed :roll: :lol:) but even to my non bunny expert eyes he seems to have gone from very nervy to very very confident in a nano second. He did respond to the stamping intially, and now just looks at me as if to say, er yeah WHATEVER!

On sat he wouldnt leave his hutch even though the door was open 24/7, so i turfed him out into the kitchen and he loved it! tonight was his first time with the whole flat, he did creep in slowly, but that lasted about 30 secs before he as binking, rolling over and snuggling on my feet when i went for a wee :lol:
 
dont worry, hes not going anywhere! the stroppy little teenager he is :lol: i still think hes :love: i just want to know why hes doing it so i know how to deal with it!

I'm a horse riding instructor and thats how i deal with clients who are having problems with their ponies, find out WHY first then work out the solution :)
 
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