susie dislikes/threatened by my oh?

susie came to live with us and to bond with neville on 14th march. she's a spayed 3 yr old nethie who has bonded with neville and myself (she licks me a lot and follows me around).

i was with them 24/7 for the first 4 days they were together and for a lot of the day after that. OH was there intermittently.

it now appears that susie has a real aversion to my oh. she will come over to sniff him and will bolt to the other side of the room, sometimes peeing just afterwards. she's warmed up to taking food from him, but will still bolt. if i smell of him, she will act afraid of me too.

is this a territorial thing? or does she just dislike him? my feeling is that she bonded with neville and myself, and to her, OH is a 'stranger' and she hasn't worked out where she wants to place him. she's top rabbit btw...

any thoughts?! and how can we get her to bond with OH a little more?

I don't know much about this, but in the same way as you would bond with a new rabbit. Maybe he should just sit/lie in the room, and let her investigate him, but he should ignore her, and not move too suddenly or anything (I'm still doing this with Daisy and she's getting better).

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tashp90 said:

I don't know much about this, but in the same way as you would bond with a new rabbit. Maybe he should just sit/lie in the room, and let her investigate him, but he should ignore her, and not move too suddenly or anything (I'm still doing this with Daisy and she's getting better).

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thanks - he's been spending some time in their room. i'll ask him to not try and reach out to her etc to let her go at her own pace and get used to his smell

That's what I've found with Daisy, if I try and touch her sometimes she'll bolt, sometimes she won't. Is your other bun ok with him? I find that Daisy is more tolerant of my, if Maizie is near me or getting some attending from me :lol: good luck, I'm sure she will get used to him

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She might have had a bad experience with a man (like a lot of us! :lol so your OH will have to be very patient to win her confidence.

tashp90 said:

That's what I've found with Daisy, if I try and touch her sometimes she'll bolt, sometimes she won't. Is your other bun ok with him? I find that Daisy is more tolerant of my, if Maizie is near me or getting some attending from me :lol: good luck, I'm sure she will get used to him

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tonibun said:

She might have had a bad experience with a man (like a lot of us! :lol so your OH will have to be very patient to win her confidence.

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tash - neville loves him! :roll: they've got a bromance going on. he's not a snuggly bunny but he is always pleased to see him and confident around him.

toni - she could've done, lol, bless her. i'll keep having him sit in the room with me so that she can relax...

Jesselle said:

tash - neville loves him! :roll: they've got a bromance going on. he's not a snuggly bunny but he is always pleased to see him and confident around him.

toni - she could've done, lol, bless her. i'll keep having him sit in the room with me so that she can relax...

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Seeing Neville with him will help her as well then. Its just patience really. Maizie and daisy are my first rabbits, I got them at the same time, and they're both so different with me. Maizie is so confident, not much phases her. Daisy is more nervous of sounds and me, unless I'm feeding her, then she loves me :lol:

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Could be that she doesn't like his smell. Does he have any contact with other animals, or wear aftershave/fragrances? It may be an aversion to those smells.

Otherwise, she could just be nervous of him because he is not there much. Or perhaps she finds his behaviour threatening? Walking heavily, talking loudly, sudden movements or a domineering presence can be intimidating and scary to rabbits.

My rabbit Barney has a tendency to bite men if they are too forward with him or touch his stuff, but is rarely like this with women.

You could try getting him to wear an old tshirt (old because it may end up with teeth marks) and then pop it in her pen. That way she can get used to his smell without having him there looming. I would hope that after a few days with the tshirt not doing anything threatening she'll treat it part of the furniture and not worth worrying about and hopefully that will extend to people that smell the same. Getting him to do the feeding might help too - positive associations with food.

nessar said:

Could be that she doesn't like his smell. Does he have any contact with other animals, or wear aftershave/fragrances? It may be an aversion to those smells.

Otherwise, she could just be nervous of him because he is not there much. Or perhaps she finds his behaviour threatening? Walking heavily, talking loudly, sudden movements or a domineering presence can be intimidating and scary to rabbits.

My rabbit Barney has a tendency to bite men if they are too forward with him or touch his stuff, but is rarely like this with women.

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he doesn't have contact with any other animals. it could be fragrance... he's tall and heavy (rugby!) so makes a lot of noise. that could be it, considering she's so tiny.

Tamsin said:

You could try getting him to wear an old tshirt (old because it may end up with teeth marks) and then pop it in her pen. That way she can get used to his smell without having him there looming. I would hope that after a few days with the tshirt not doing anything threatening she'll treat it part of the furniture and not worth worrying about and hopefully that will extend to people that smell the same. Getting him to do the feeding might help too - positive associations with food.

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that's a really good idea - i'll ask him for a tshirt! he's been feeding them and she's come to get the food, but will run away after each pellet and is very cautious!

If he is noisy, reducing that will help. He should start by sitting in the room for an hour plus, very very quietly, not doing anything. Taking a book or laptop would be good to stop him getting bored. Preferably he shouldn't move too much. The idea is to establish him as a non-threat. The rabbits will likely come and investigate him if he is quiet and still enough, and he just needs to ignore them mostly. Then when she has built up confidence, he can start talking to her quietly and offering food.

It is important to note that some rabbits will never become completely accustomed to loud noises, they are a prey species after all. Hence, I never allow shouting of any kind in the same room as them, whether that is argument shouting or excitement shouting (watching sports etc).

Edit: if he does the activity above lying down, she may climb on him. This is a great trust building exercise if he completely ignores them whilst they do it, as it will show them that they can have contact with him without him doing anything scary - e.g noises or sudden movements. That will help to show her that he is not a threat.