Liz47
Wise Old Thumper
I hope this is ok in rabbit chat, I'm hoping for some more opinions as many don't visit behaviour and bonding section.
Bigwig is just over 1 and was spayed in January this year. Around February she was bonded with my 5 year old neutered pair Jake and Jasmine. It was quite an easy bond. Before that she was kept in our kitchen and never showed any hormonal/destructive behaviour and was very friendly, I hand reared her from approx 10 days old with her siblings who I rehomed.
Since moving up to the rabbit room, she became quite destructive and needs a lot of enrichment. She likes forage/dig activities and gets a rotation of various toys each day. Jake and Jasmine are very laid back and spend most of the day eating hay in their crate or snoozing on the rug. Bigwig has been through a phase of bullying, chasing them both away from the pellets and lunging when they jump out the trays. Mainly focused on Jasmine who is the most reserved. She has stopped this now and all if well but she is very destructive. She's chewed through the lino which was put down the protect the carpet, ripped all the carpet and underlay so there's big bare patches. She's chewed the skirting board too. She occasionally lunges at us, particularly around food, or when we try and stop her getting out the room/under our bed!
She built a nest a few months ago and today I've heard her being very noisy and when checking on her she had hay, shredded carpet and bits of the rug in her mouth, and has built a huge nest behind her soil dig box. I've removed it but she's started again with hay.
Sorry for the long post! Can this just be her behaviour or would you go through the route of getting her tested for any hormonal imbalances/left over spay tissue??
Bigwig is just over 1 and was spayed in January this year. Around February she was bonded with my 5 year old neutered pair Jake and Jasmine. It was quite an easy bond. Before that she was kept in our kitchen and never showed any hormonal/destructive behaviour and was very friendly, I hand reared her from approx 10 days old with her siblings who I rehomed.
Since moving up to the rabbit room, she became quite destructive and needs a lot of enrichment. She likes forage/dig activities and gets a rotation of various toys each day. Jake and Jasmine are very laid back and spend most of the day eating hay in their crate or snoozing on the rug. Bigwig has been through a phase of bullying, chasing them both away from the pellets and lunging when they jump out the trays. Mainly focused on Jasmine who is the most reserved. She has stopped this now and all if well but she is very destructive. She's chewed through the lino which was put down the protect the carpet, ripped all the carpet and underlay so there's big bare patches. She's chewed the skirting board too. She occasionally lunges at us, particularly around food, or when we try and stop her getting out the room/under our bed!
She built a nest a few months ago and today I've heard her being very noisy and when checking on her she had hay, shredded carpet and bits of the rug in her mouth, and has built a huge nest behind her soil dig box. I've removed it but she's started again with hay.
Sorry for the long post! Can this just be her behaviour or would you go through the route of getting her tested for any hormonal imbalances/left over spay tissue??