Young aggressive female

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, so I hope I am posting in the right area!

I was looking for a bit of advice really. This is my first rabbit and so I'm still fairly inexperienced with them!

I have a 4 month old female mini lop. She is a house rabbit and litter trained. She spends a lot of time out her cage, having the run of a few rooms with lots of toys. She has always been very sweet natured, calm and confident with people. She enjoys being handled and often falls asleep while being cuddled.

However, very recently within the last couple of days she has turned quite aggresive. I have been bitten 3 times in the past 24 hours and she has lunged at me once as well.
It is just so uncharacteristic and I'm wondering if it could have anything to do with the fact she is reaching maturity and is unspayed? Could it be due to hormones or maybe she is just feeling under the weather? She had a check up last week and the vet gave her a full bill of health then.

I keep thinking, maybe it's my own fault for entering her territory and trying to pet her when she is in a corner just relaxing. However, I've stroked her and offered her food before while she's been in her favourite corner and she has always been fine.

I will definitley get her spayed once she's a little older, I've heard this may calm does down a bit?

I just don't know what to do! My lovely little rabbit has become extremley grumpy and I want to be able to play and pet her again without fear of being bitten, I alwso want her to enjoy spending time with me

Any advice at all on how to handle the situation would be muchly appreciated!

Thank you very much in advance!

Emma

if it could have anything to do with the fact she is reaching maturity and is unspayed? Could it be due to hormones

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This exactly. Spaying will help with this.

I agree it is probably hormones. I'm sure I had my girls done at around 4 months (one being a tiny netherland dwarf) ..so ask your vet as you may not need to wait until she is older.

EmsDay said:

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, so I hope I am posting in the right area!

I was looking for a bit of advice really. This is my first rabbit and so I'm still fairly inexperienced with them!

I have a 4 month old female mini lop. She is a house rabbit and litter trained. She spends a lot of time out her cage, having the run of a few rooms with lots of toys. She has always been very sweet natured, calm and confident with people. She enjoys being handled and often falls asleep while being cuddled.

However, very recently within the last couple of days she has turned quite aggresive. I have been bitten 3 times in the past 24 hours and she has lunged at me once as well.
It is just so uncharacteristic and I'm wondering if it could have anything to do with the fact she is reaching maturity and is unspayed? Could it be due to hormones or maybe she is just feeling under the weather? She had a check up last week and the vet gave her a full bill of health then.

I keep thinking, maybe it's my own fault for entering her territory and trying to pet her when she is in a corner just relaxing. However, I've stroked her and offered her food before while she's been in her favourite corner and she has always been fine.

I will definitley get her spayed once she's a little older, I've heard this may calm does down a bit?

I just don't know what to do! My lovely little rabbit has become extremley grumpy and I want to be able to play and pet her again without fear of being bitten, I alwso want her to enjoy spending time with me

Any advice at all on how to handle the situation would be muchly appreciated!

Thank you very much in advance!

Emma

Click to expand...

Turns them into totally different rabbits! Best thing you can do for them, and I agree that hormones are probably the root of the problem. Also agree that you should check with your vet as you may be able to get her in soon.

ETA: in the meantime, spend lots of time on the floor. Read a book, play on your phone, don't pay attention to her. Let her come up and run away when she likes, let her sniff you, walk on you etc. Just don't touch her or pick her up. She needs to feel comfortable around you, she doesn't want to be worrying that you're about to do something she doesn't like (they're prey animals, picking up = death in their little heads). Her hormones will inevitably dictate her behaviour, but it may help and it never hurts to spend more time with them.