Behavior change my bunny no longer loves me!

I hope someone might have some advice for this strange situation...

I have 2 dear house bunnies. The bunny in question is Red. We've had Red nearly a year now since he was somewhere around 2 weeks old and we found the poor baby lost and scared in our estate. We rescued him and hand reared, despite being told he probably was too young to make it. As a baby he grew up with us, graduating from cage to room, to couple rooms and finally to the whole house. He was always a little nervey but loved us, sleeping on me as a baby and sitting with me when getting older. Because of the other male though we decided to get him neutered as he turned out to be stronger we thought he'd handle it better (and he had spraying issues). After he recovered we gave him back run of the house and he still loved us but a few traits were gone (like the running around our legs honking which i miss). The problem only started a couple weeks ago now all of a sudden he'd stopped letting us pet him, after we put so much effort into convincing him that we would not harm him when he was a few months old and he first became nervy. It developed from there to running away at our approaches and then complete fear of us. I really don't understand though he's been with us so long and yes he was always a bit twitchy but he was a very happy jumping bunny now he won't even come downstairs I have to catch him and close him in the room.

Please help!

Hmmm im no expert and im sure others will give you better, more experienced advice + suggestions as to what is going on.
But here are some thoughts to see if any of these help.

Maybe you need to re bond with him ? Start by lying on the floor and reading a book basically ignoring him. See if he comes to you, if he does give him a treat so that he associates nice things with you. He may need to learn to trust you again if for some reason this has been broken. If you dont know already google bonding with your rabbit and lots of advice will come up.

Also, could he be in pain/ill ? Rabbits hide this well but maybe that is influencing his behaviour ?

I know others will give you much more detailed advice. Ive been struggling to bond with my buck although we never had a bond to break. However with some help from vegan bunny, we are coming along nicely now. Bunny behaviour is very complex. I hope someone can help you out soon. Dont fret, im sure it will work out eventually...

Has anything changed recently? New furniture, new smells, new member of the household, etc.

Has anything, even something that may appear completely insignificant to you, changed in his world?

Have any new animals been added to the house hould? Have you been near other animals? Has anything new been added/removed to/from his environment?

If the answer to everything above is 'no; then i'd seriously consider a veterinary health check by a rabbit savvy vet to rule out any health issues.

Rabbits are scarily good at hiding pain and discomfort, and often will stop you seeing it, as a prey creature.

That would be how i'd be thinking right now, in your position, going on only the information you have provided us with.

i have to agree with the others that such a complete change in behaviour that cannot be attributed to anything might indicate he is unwell - i would take my bun to the vet for a check up. good luck hope it works out for you and that he's ok

Actually I had thought that it was change because we got a new sofa and rearranged the sitting room and I added more furniture to the room he likes the most so I could use it as a studio now and all this might be a lot for a bunny but then I remembered he started acting strange before all that began, that just seemed to push him over the edge to not coming down the stairs but I was ok thinking some time to adjust was needed. It seems so strange also that with these changes the other bunny is the same happy, spending time with us as always even though he used to be the more fragile one.

And now I'm also thinking it's me because it turns out he doesn't run and hide from my boyfriend, it's just me but i'm not even the one who shouts when he's bold. I've never done anything bad to him at all. I keep trying to re-bond with him too, lying on the floor, chatting with him and just bringing him into the room with me but he avoids me so much and hides but when I leave him alone he runs around and does binki's which makes me sure he's not in pain (also he's quite verbal if he hurts himself he tends to squeak or grunt angrily). I always worry about his fearful attitude he gets so frightened sometimes and nothing relaxes him, we thought neutering him would settle this but it now it's even worse.

Hmm, I wonder if your clothes smell differently? Have you been handling another animal that he doesn't like maybe?
Fiver sometimes runs from me and starts acting strange when his teeth are hurting him, gets very aggressive and generally on edge. I hope it's not health related.

The "honking" and running around your legs is a sexual behaviour. :lol: Fiver used to do this to me before he got neutered and then would hump my slippers, but only when I was wearing them! So he shouldn't do that any more and that's a good thing because it means he won't be feeling frustrated

I hope you manage to find out why he is acting so scared.

Is he a wildie?

I don't generally be in contact with other animals but my boyfriend does and he still likes my boyfriend...

I knew that the honking was sexual behavior but I liked the amount of attention he gave me and all the happy binki's XD though he still likes to binki in his own space now. My old bun Chiko was a slipper lover too! :lol:

On the wild thing, though I found him outside as a lost baby bunny he's not wild coloured he's jet black but I had heard that wild bunnies were more nervous and smaller than domestic bunnies so I wondered if he might be half wild but I really have no way of knowing.

Ah ok, yes wildies can be black but it's not very common so it's probably that he's either got some wildie in him or is just a domestic. Wildies have a distinctive look about them, being smaller and "leaner". They are generally naturally skitty and nervous and don't like to be handled as much. The rescue I volunteer at have a wildie and he is lovely but won't let you stroke him for long and you can never pick him up lol! He will come over and nudge me and chin me though and is quite happy to hop on your back while your trying to do something. :lol:

Is he usually very bonded to you? It sounds like he is from what you were saying but I mean is he bonded to your partner as well? Fiver is very close to me, even though I didn't hand rear him or anything but I'm "his" if you know what I mean. He generally only shows aggression towards me when he is feeling unwell, he will act differently if my parents go in his room, usually just ignoring them (which is unlike him). I'm wondering if he is actually annoyed/scared from the change of furniture and layout but is only showing it around you?

It could be because he has been neutered. Some boys lose their confidence and become less friendly after being neutered. Is he bonded with your other bunny? This could help him get his confidence back.