Hello,
I am new to the forum. Could I please ask for some advise…..I adopted a female Netherland dwarf, Tinks, just over a year ago to pair with my other rabbit following the loss of one. We believe that she is about 4 years old and had been used for breeding before coming to us. She was fine at first but leapt up and bit my daughters hand completely unprovoked a few months after arriving. On advise from the vet we had her spayed to settle her hormones. This was over a year ago. Since then she had been wonderful. She’s bonded with my gorgeous boy, a Himalayan Rex, and has been playing happily in the garden with us. However, a few weeks ago she bit my daughter again….literally just jumped up and tore her finger open then chased her to the house. I had put it down as a one off, but since then she is becoming more and more aggressive. She has been charging at my husband the moment he goes in the garden and snapping at his ankles, drawing blood. And now she’s started doing it to me also. She had always previously really taken to me and used to eat out of my hands whilst I stroked her, but now is chasing me and snapping her jaws at my ankles. It’s got to the stage I cannot let my children in the rabbits area of the garden.
Tinks is very energetic and they have a large fenced off area of the garden, so has plenty of space. She’s healthy and eating well. She has a very large double storey hutch with connection tunnel to a large enclosed run, which I open each morning for them to play in the garden, which has lots of bushes, trees etc. that they explore. Tinks has never been mistreated by us and is lovely with our boy rabbit. We do chase them back into the run and hutch each evening to keep them safe over night.
Bizarrely, my boy rabbit chases her away from me when he’s around as if he senses her aggression.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could cause this sudden aggressiveness and any recommendations of how to stop it.
Thank you in advance
I am new to the forum. Could I please ask for some advise…..I adopted a female Netherland dwarf, Tinks, just over a year ago to pair with my other rabbit following the loss of one. We believe that she is about 4 years old and had been used for breeding before coming to us. She was fine at first but leapt up and bit my daughters hand completely unprovoked a few months after arriving. On advise from the vet we had her spayed to settle her hormones. This was over a year ago. Since then she had been wonderful. She’s bonded with my gorgeous boy, a Himalayan Rex, and has been playing happily in the garden with us. However, a few weeks ago she bit my daughter again….literally just jumped up and tore her finger open then chased her to the house. I had put it down as a one off, but since then she is becoming more and more aggressive. She has been charging at my husband the moment he goes in the garden and snapping at his ankles, drawing blood. And now she’s started doing it to me also. She had always previously really taken to me and used to eat out of my hands whilst I stroked her, but now is chasing me and snapping her jaws at my ankles. It’s got to the stage I cannot let my children in the rabbits area of the garden.
Tinks is very energetic and they have a large fenced off area of the garden, so has plenty of space. She’s healthy and eating well. She has a very large double storey hutch with connection tunnel to a large enclosed run, which I open each morning for them to play in the garden, which has lots of bushes, trees etc. that they explore. Tinks has never been mistreated by us and is lovely with our boy rabbit. We do chase them back into the run and hutch each evening to keep them safe over night.
Bizarrely, my boy rabbit chases her away from me when he’s around as if he senses her aggression.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could cause this sudden aggressiveness and any recommendations of how to stop it.
Thank you in advance
