Eeyores biting

eeyore is a little terror. I don't know if he hates me or just does it without knowing.

He hasn't bitten my skin direct. He bites my clothes and catches my skin. Today he managed to break my skin through my jeans :|

Is he just biting by accident because he's chewing my clothes, or is he doing it deliberately cos he doesn't want me near him? He also nudges me. Like a "get out of my way" nudge.

Twiglet on the other hand seems to love me. I picked her up for the first time a couple of days ago and yesterday I put her on my lap and she stayed there for 20 minutes!!! I was so pleased. I wasnt even holding her there. In fact I was getting really uncomfy as I was cross legged on the floor getting pins and needles!

She nibbles my toes sometimes, but I'm sure thats not deliberate.

Any ideas on Eeyore?

are you stroking him at the time or just stopped stroking him maybe? Simba gives me a nip sometimes either to say oi keep stroking me thanks.. or sometimes i think he means it as.. thats enough now thanks get off me.

Does he stop biting when you tickle him? Patch nips me when he wants attention and head buts my feet when he gets bored!

it could be an attention thing...he's nipped my elbow when I didn't even know he was there. But he runs away a lot cos he doesnt like me picking him up. So I've been trying to build up the trust by stroking him lots. But he doesnt seem to enjoy the stroking the way Twiglet does. He gets fidgety.

I will have to pay close attention to the times he does it. See if there is a pattern.

When I cuddle Violet she tugs at pieces of my clothing that are loose (I have to be careful about wearing necklaces and she sometimes catches my skin. This is reciprocal grooming. In other words your bunny is probably acknowledging your grooming by grooming you back, when it hurts let out a yelp to tell them as this is what wild bunnies would do.

If they nip you when you aren't stroking/cuddling or nudge with their nose this means "give me attention now" and with Zeus usually means he wants food or a nose rub.

http://www.muridae.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html is an excellent site about understanding rabbits through their body language.

Caz

Thanks Caz, what a fanstasic site.

I'm just reading it now and it seems my bunnies must be very happy. They both do the flop occassionally (when we have them indoors) and Twiglet regularly lays with her legs like the 'porkchop'.

Twiglet is the boss, she lays her head on the ground for Eeyore to lick. But I've not seen eeyore do the same...now I understand why!

6. Rabbit turns its back to you and sits or lies down, without even looking back.

Click to expand...

This is what eeyore does to me. So it seems overall he's happy, but sometimes he's really upset with me.

He doesn't appear to enjoy strokes as much as twiglet, yet when we show twiglet more attention he'll turn his back on us.

It says to shout no when a rabbits doing something bad, which is what I';ve been doing when eeyore bites. I'm going to try what they have suggested and turn my back on him.

The only thing I can't find out what it might mean is when we have them indoors, Eeyore (when he's not having a nose) constantly sits/flops in the litter tray! We only let them indoors in a makeshift fence of storage cubes. I'd love to let them have roam of the house but it's just not bunny safe.

Sam