• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Maia behaves like an unspayed doe

KoShiatar

Mama Doe
Here's my problem.
I had her spayed last August at 6 months of age, but apart from the occasional sniff or tooth purr, she doesn't seem to have benefited from it. She grunts (a lot!), lunges, boxes, and she is always very nervous and scared of every noise. She is also food aggressive, and yesterday she bit me hard after a long time.
But what worries me the most is that sometimes she even boxes poor Mango, and I'm afraid she'll hurt him. I even hypotizes that she could have sight problems as she's so easily frightened, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
What can I do?
 
Bella and Evie both have times like this and Evie has bitten me a couple of times recently. I think it is partly the time of year.

that said it could also be a sign of pain or as you say sight problems. Have you had her vet checked?
 
Yes, but Maia doesn't seem to have sight problems nor to be in pain.
Incisors were OK, a genuine love for food and hay especially, poos everywhere, no strange lumps anywhere, lots of flops and activity when she is left to herself, dominant behavior galore.
She also brings lots of hay downstairs in their cage, a behavior I can't explain because she leaves it uneaten and doesn't make nests.
 
That all sounds anxiety based; all that behaviour.

So therefore its then a case of working out what causes her to be anxious. It could be nature, it could be smells, as you said she could be blind, potentially she could be deaf, or something else.

What had you done, or who had you touched beforeshe bit you yesterday? Do you have 'predators' in your house? cats? dogs?
 
We have no other pets other than the rabbits and no children, and the house is pretty quiet. We do have train tracks nearby but Maia doesn't seem to be bothered by trains passing. For the rest the neighborhood isn't noisy at all and me and OH are both quiet people who will only listen to music on a low volume.
I think she's not deaf because she responds to vocal callings and will also invariably come to the sound of food being distributed.
Yesterday she bit me because I was putting new hay and treats in the digging box and she wanted to jump in at all costs before I had finished - in other words, it was food aggression.
I wonder if me and OH did anything wrong. We had to catch her to give her medicines when she was little, but we did the same with Mango and he took it much better. I have to say she was always like this, thumping her foot and hiding. When we boarded her at Mango's breeders during the Christmas holidays the girl told us that in her experience that's typical Nethie behavior, but I don't even think Maia is purebred, more likely a Dutch x Nethie.
She also doesn't seem to like hands much. If I sit or lie on the floor she will come, sniff and even jump all over me, give me head bumps or nose bumps, but she doesn't want to be touched. It I talk to her gently she appears to listen, but if I sneeze, she runs...:lol:
What can I do to find the cause of her anxiety and eliminate it? I would really love her to be a happy rabbit.
 
I find it odd when people talk about 'typical' nethie behaviour. Having had predominantly nethies (but also a few lops), I have had two aggressive rabbits, one nethie, one lop. There's nothing typical about it in my experience. what's far more typical is their cheekiness and energy.

It might be that hands are her issue. I have a very hand shy bunny but he just freezes, a different kind of personality may cause agression as opposed to freezing.

I would suspect its nothing you've done. It is either likely to be nature, or potentially, something that happened before she came to you. Maybe she was handled roughly (or worse), or maybe she never knew what hands were if she was just never handled.

I would work with changing your routines to minimise the stress of her and hands. A good example would be yesterday, instead of making those adjustments in her area, remove the tray, make the adjustments and then put it back.

I would also work on hands being an enjoyable experience, and work on touching her when she eats.

It could be something else, but that might be a good place to start :)
 
What do you think I should do? She used to let me stroke her while she was having food but this changed when she was spayed and I had to syringe feed her. Now gven the chance she pinches the food and runs.
I'm especially at a loss on how to make it so that she doesn't hurt Mango. If I should need to separate them I wouldn't know what to do, because I don't have space for more rabbits.
 
Back
Top