Need urgent advice about my rabbits behaviour..

[dwitkos]

Hi, let me quickly give some context and explain the situation. Doughnut is our mini lop rabbit that we've had since December 2020. He's now about 11 months old. He was always in a decently large play pen (about 3x2metres) and now that we've moved, we let him loose and he had a whole room to himself. However, because of some redecorating / getting new furniture and equipment in the room, we had to put him back in a play pen. So this was about a month ago, which is around the time when he started misbehaving. Before, he was very calm, got excited about new toys / food, and apart from that didn't mind anything we did around him at all. I could easily pick up his toys, do anything I want to him and he didn't mind.

Now, for the past month, and it's getting worse every day, he has been very aggressive and misbehaving like crazy. He growls at us all the time. Whenever we try to pick up any of his toys, he attacks us and often bites if we don't move our hand quickly enough. He was never like this before. I just want to mention, he is neutered so I ruled out hormones unless this could still be the case even though he is neutered? He's just extremely naughty and has been for the past month, I have no idea if it's because we put him back in the play pen after he had a whole room to himself for a few weeks? Or is it something else? We really need some advice here.

There's also one more thing. We got a new bunny yesterday, Lily, she's just over 9 weeks old and obviously not neutered. They are separated by a play pen metal grid, but whenever she gets close to him (next to the grid) he straight away attacks her, growls and her, tries to bite and scratch her. I know this is often normal behaviour when rabbits start bonding, so I'm not too worried about this but just thought I'd also mention it just in case.

What can we do to bring our old friendly, loving, calm rabbit back?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pets mum]

Hi, I think you have a couple of issues here. Sounds like your bunny is frustrated at being confined again, after having the freedom of the whole room. This is just him displaying normal behaviour, don't think of it as naughtiness. Also having a new bunny at such close quarters, in what he sees as his territory, is not going to help. Is there a possibility that you could move new bunny to a different room for now, and let him have his room back, that way both bunnies could settle down before you even think about bonding.

 

[Zoobec]

Hi, I think you have a couple of issues here. Sounds like your bunny is frustrated at being confined again, after having the freedom of the whole room. This is just him displaying normal behaviour, don't think of it as naughtiness. Also having a new bunny at such close quarters, in what he sees as his territory, is not going to help. Is there a possibility that you could move new bunny to a different room for now, and let him have his room back, that way both bunnies could settle down before you even think about bonding.

Agree with all of this :thumb:

 

[Shimmer]

I also agree.

He's upset by his reduced space, then by the stranger suddenly plonked in 'his' space as well. You definitely need to move her into a different room, wait until after she's neutered, then hopefully bond them on neutral territory - not somewhere either has been before.

 

[tonibun]

How long ago was he neutered? Does he have a place to hide in his enclosure?

 

[a reader of books]

With a sudden change in behaviour like this, I'd always do a vet check to see if he's not in any pain or discomfort. It sounds like it's related to the reduced space, like the others have said, but personally I'd have him checked out, too.