Emergancy bonding issue please help?

Hi everyone, so my partner and I have had our bunny, Pepper, the french lop since December 29th. She's 5 months old now, born October 3rd so maybe she's going through hormonal changes?
I let her out every night for hours to run around and she's never gone for me but my boyfriend today tried feeding her whilst I was in work. He said he opened her cage, she was fine, smoothed her head which is her favorite spot to be strolked and she was happy, then he reached in and she bit his arm?
I was so surprised when he told me, this was only half an hour ago as I only got in from work 20 minutes ago.
She's never gone for anyone before and my mum feeds her whilst I'm in work and has never had Pepper go for her, either.
I asked my boyfriend in detail what he did and he did exactly as I do when feeding her, and she was fine with him smoothing her etc.
One time a few weeks ago we were playing with her and her toys, and my boyfriend was pulling her chew toy around and she was following/chasing after it but she jumped on it and made a little noise which seemed a bit dominating, could she have remembered him doing that and now have a grudge against him?

I'm extremely surprised and confused
He doesn't spend as much time with her as I do, but my mum see's her even less and she has never had trouble with my mum? I think he needs to spend more time with her?
Thanks everyone, Georgia.

She sounds to be territorial over her cage, possibly her hormones kicking in. It's normally a phase they grow out of especially after being spayed. You will need to avoid entering her cage while she is in it, let her come out, give her a treat and while she is eating that, do whatever needs to be done in her cage. This way you will remain on good terms with her. :thumb:

tonibun said:

She sounds to be territorial over her cage, possibly her hormones kicking in. It's normally a phase they grow out of especially after being spayed. You will need to avoid entering her cage while she is in it, let her come out, give her a treat and while she is eating that, do whatever needs to be done in her cage. This way you will remain on good terms with her. :thumb:

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Hi, thank you so much for your reply it has really helped
We currently keep her cage beside my bed, that tiny section of the room is sectioned off by my boyfriends computer tower, and I always take her out of the cage and place her on the other side of the computer tower where she can;t get to wires and the other 90% of the room is open and ready for her to roam, however we always need to transition her from that tiny part of the room to the other.
We came up with the idea from your post to move her to the other side of my room, she instead of opening the cage and picking her up to move her to the open room, my boyfriend and I can just open the side of her cage and let her hope out into the room.
This way, she can egt used to him letting her out and assosciate him with good as she's never gone for me.
However, we still have to reach into her cage to feed her, especially my mum when I'm away for a day once a week, she opens the top of the cage, let's her know she's there by letting her sniff her hand and then pouring food into the bowl, so there's not any way of totally avoiding going into her cage unfortunately but surely this is okay as a small rule, do you think?
Thanks for any feedback greatly appreciated!
Georgia

Have you considered making an enclosure for her instead of the cage. She would have more space then all the time as a French Lop is a large rabbit! You will need to be cautious if you are entering her cage from the top as rabbits don't like being approached from above. (Bird of prey) Sadly, I always think indoor cages make rabbits aggressive.

I'm afraid it doesn't sound as though she has enough space - she needs constant achess to a run of at least 8ft X 6ft and should never be confined to a hutch/cage. There are some very good examples of indoor housing on here - people often use large dog crates and then attach a run. The RWAF give very good advice on housing sizes on their website. Have you arranged to have her spayed, as she is probably also getting hormonal.

tonibun said:

Have you considered making an enclosure for her instead of the cage. She would have more space then all the time as a French Lop is a large rabbit! You will need to be cautious if you are entering her cage from the top as rabbits don't like being approached from above. (Bird of prey) Sadly, I always think indoor cages make rabbits aggressive.

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Babsie said:

I'm afraid it doesn't sound as though she has enough space - she needs constant achess to a run of at least 8ft X 6ft and should never be confined to a hutch/cage. There are some very good examples of indoor housing on here - people often use large dog crates and then attach a run. The RWAF give very good advice on housing sizes on their website. Have you arranged to have her spayed, as she is probably also getting hormonal.

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Couldn't agree more :thumb:

tonibun said:

Have you considered making an enclosure for her instead of the cage. She would have more space then all the time as a French Lop is a large rabbit! You will need to be cautious if you are entering her cage from the top as rabbits don't like being approached from above. (Bird of prey) Sadly, I always think indoor cages make rabbits aggressive.

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Thankfully we've been working on this for a while now The room next door to mine is spare so we're cleaning it up and removing all the old things in it It will a room specifically just for her

Babsie said:

I'm afraid it doesn't sound as though she has enough space - she needs constant achess to a run of at least 8ft X 6ft and should never be confined to a hutch/cage. There are some very good examples of indoor housing on here - people often use large dog crates and then attach a run. The RWAF give very good advice on housing sizes on their website. Have you arranged to have her spayed, as she is probably also getting hormonal.

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She is out every night thankfully to run in ym very large room She only sleeps in ehr cage so I know she won't chew anything/hurt herself in the night, however my room is rabbit proofed We're currently working on the spare room next to mine which has been set to be her bedroom even before we got her
Yes we are wanting to get her spayed, 4-6 months is the recommended safe zone right? We're just getting money together