Female bun becoming very aggressive at breakfast time

[egg]

Hi :wave:

Over the last few weeks this problem has been slowly getting worse. I'm not sure if it's down to spring fever which seems to be making our buns a bit 'hormonal' lately (even though they're spayed :shock but my normally gentle, sweet, submissive rabbit is getting very aggressive when she knows it's breakfast time.

What happens is when I walk in the room on a morning they start circling each other and jumping over each other. This didn't worry me as I just thought they were excited about breakfast. But now Shimmer (submissive rabbit) has started lunging at Charlie (the boss) and headbutting him. She also lunges at me and bites my hand hard enough to draw blood when I try to get the food bowl out to fill it up. Once fed she's back to her normal, sweet self.

She's always very submissive with the other rabbit which is why I'm so surprised by her behaviour. I think Charlie is getting fed up with her bullyling at breakfast as this morning after all the lunging, headbutting and biting he mounted her for a couple of minutes. I left him to it and when he got off and walked away Shimmer sat with her head flat on the floor for a few minutes afterwards looking sorry for herself.

I have a sort of solution which is to distract them while I get their bowl out, which usually works, but I don't know why she's acting like this. Has anyone else seen this? Could it just be down to spring fever? It sounds stupid but I'm devastated my lovely Shimmer is now biting me.

Thanks.

 

[Aly&Poppy<3]

You should have seen Lola when they had pellets. Bleedin' nightmare with me and poor Donny :roll: very food aggressive.

Scatter feed? or hand feed? I hand fed my pair because Lola was a quick eater and Donny was very slow.

 

[egg]

You should have seen Lola when they had pellets. Bleedin' nightmare with me and poor Donny :roll: very food aggressive.

Scatter feed? or hand feed? I hand fed my pair because Lola was a quick eater and Donny was very slow.

I hadn't thought of scatter feeding, what a good idea I'll try that in the morning. Thanks.

Due to their 'over excitement' at breakfast time I don't think I'd have any fingers left if I tried to hand feed them :lol: It'd be like putting my hand in a tank of piranhas!!

The thing is, she hasn't always been like this. We've had her about 18 months now and it has just started recently. I'm still hoping it will pass once spring is over.

 

[Vegan_Bunny]

Both my buns are exactly the same. They lune, fur pull, grunt and growl :lol: I scatter feed..this keeps my hands out of the way and distracts the buns from attacking each other because they have to hoover up as much as possible. :roll: Afterwards they chase each other over me filling up their hay! :lol:

 

[egg]

Both my buns are exactly the same. They lune, fur pull, grunt and growl :lol: I scatter feed..this keeps my hands out of the way and distracts the buns from attacking each other because they have to hoover up as much as possible. :roll: Afterwards they chase each other over me filling up their hay! :lol:

lol I'm glad it's not just my two then.

It's strange because they are fine when it's hay time at teatime and veggie time in the evening. They know the food is coming and they're excited but not aggressive. It's only on a morning. Considering rabbits are vegetarians mine don't seem to mind a good mouthful of flesh off my hand :lol::?

 

[el1983]

Bellas being really mean recently, shes always been a nipper but she was actually lunging at my 3 year old today my girls are both becoming scared of her.

 

[happybun]

actually, my daughter has said she's like this! very aggressive before breakfast. solution - feed earlier.

 

[egg]

actually, my daughter has said she's like this! very aggressive before breakfast. solution - feed earlier.

:lol: Maybe it's a girl thing.

I might try feeding my own daughter a bit earlier, maybe her morning stroppiness will improve!

 

[Rosie&Chris]

Hi, I've just posted a similar post about my bunnies! They are chasing each other around at feeding time and growling at each other. I already scatter feed, but the aggression still persists until the food hits the floor. Silly bunnies, why can't they wait patiently?

 

[Fellie]

Our Bobo is an agressive little monster at feeding times - poor Harley has learnt to stay out of the way until he has a bit of food and calmed down before she comes to get hers. Sometimes he's okay - if you catch him by surprise - ie. produce the food bowl before he expects it. He charges at my hand as well but hasn't bitten so far - I just get a wet smear.

We tried scatter feeding once - oh my lord, that was messy. Bobo got SO stressed - trying to find food and also charge at Harley - had whip her out of the hutch and let him calm down a bit.

Most of the time - once Harley is out of the way it calms down quickly - but if he gets really bad, we take Harley out and feed her seperatly.

Silly bunnies!

 

[egg]

Awww poor Harley. She looks gorgeous xx I should be grateful mine aren't as bad as that yet :lol: