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Jellybean Attacked Me

B

Beapig

Mama Doe
Jellbean has been becoming really territorial lately. She is now freerange upstairs as we thought it would mean more company while she recovered from Beatrice nipping her hock and giving her a limp during bonding.

She sees our room where her litter tray, water and food are as her territory. It's a large room but she is defensive of it towards our cat. She will grunt and lunge at him but has never properly attacked him. I was sat on our bed just now and she jumped up. I took a photo of her from a distance and all of a sudden she lunged at me and bit my finger, drawing a lot of blood. I drew back and cried (because I've had a bad day and was in shock)

She has been lungey from the moment we adopted/rescued her, but never aggressive. She only used to exhibit this behaviour when I scooped her poops, but it was mainly just grunting, never an attack. This is the second time she has bitten me, but the first time I think was an accident.

Jellybean living indoors is not our longterm plan. We want her to live with Beatrice and Hamilton in the long run and will try bonding them again soon. I'm just really upset and confused as to why she did this. I'm worried that she might hurt my cat. What do you guys think?
 
Hmm - this is a worrying concern - if I'm being honest. JB's life is full of love and comfort and her needs are fulfilled, so she has no reason to demonstrate frustration or aggression towards you. Therefore, in my opinion, there is probably an underlying cause. I recall one of my bridge buns - Sam. He was Georgina's second hus-bun (before she settled with Ben) and Sam was a young sprightly buck who was in a rescue as he had a fall out with his brothers. Sam was a reasonably friendly young buck - un-neutered, but my wife and I discovered the very painful way, what Sam's achilies heel was. He sunk his teeth into my wifes hand one afternoon - very very deep and so much so she lifted her hand up and he clung on. Some time later, I was moving a piece of carrot that he was eating and he sunk his teeth into the side of my hand, deep. Sam's issue was food and he had deep psychological issues about it. Sadly Sam was only with us about a year - he sadly died - unknown cause.
Jelly Bean must have a trigger - from what you say it doesn't seem to be food. If it's territorial, then I guess we'll need to find a strategy to make her more comfortable and accepting of intrusion into that space. The behaviour may suggest she feels threatened - maybe this is something in her past? Somehow you will need to earn her trust as she will, yours.
I'm not sure what else I could suggest - perhaps having some sort of soft toys with various other smells from Bea and Ham on them? So she gets used to the scent.
Hopefully some other RU'ers can jump in and give you some better pointers - and I'm sorry that this incident has occured. I do understand how you feel and I know how painful a bunny bite is. xx
 
Thank you everyone for your supportive words. I've had to move her back into her old room this morning because I was getting too worried that she was going to do proper damage to my cat. She has plenty of space in there but I wanted to give her the chance to be free range so she could be more social with us.

She is spayed, regarding sight/hearing issues I have no idea. It's not been suggested so by the vet, but I suppose it is a possibility. She is red-eyed and I know that can often mean underlying health problems. If I come up the stairs, I can hear her running from the bedroom to the landing to greet me. That would suggest she doesn't have hearing problems as she can hear me coming from a distance. I'm not sure how I could tell sight-wise, but she will charge at my cat when he's on the other side of the room, suggesting that she has reasonably good sight.

I believe it's a territory issue, and that by allowing her to share our bedroom, she's come to see it as 'hers'. It was a shock when she abruptly jumped on the bed and went for me, because she has only jumped on the bed a couple of times. It's also notable that whilst she has bitten me and attempted to bite my OH and my cat, she is fearful when put in with Hamilton and Beatrice and does not exhibit any of those behaviours. In fact, I sat in with them for a period during bonding last time and Jellybean was so scared that she jumped on my lap and buried her head in my arm to try and hide.

All I want is for her to be happy, but she does seem to have some deep-rooted behavioural issues. It's also worth mentioning that her previous owner described her as being very aggressive, a side of her that we have not seen until recently, despite rescuing her back in December 2018.

My guess is that her behaviour stems from a past trauma.
 
Beapig said:
Thank you everyone for your supportive words. I've had to move her back into her old room this morning because I was getting too worried that she was going to do proper damage to my cat. She has plenty of space in there but I wanted to give her the chance to be free range so she could be more social with us.

She is spayed, regarding sight/hearing issues I have no idea. It's not been suggested so by the vet, but I suppose it is a possibility. She is red-eyed and I know that can often mean underlying health problems. If I come up the stairs, I can hear her running from the bedroom to the landing to greet me. That would suggest she doesn't have hearing problems as she can hear me coming from a distance. I'm not sure how I could tell sight-wise, but she will charge at my cat when he's on the other side of the room, suggesting that she has reasonably good sight.

I believe it's a territory issue, and that by allowing her to share our bedroom, she's come to see it as 'hers'. It was a shock when she abruptly jumped on the bed and went for me, because she has only jumped on the bed a couple of times. It's also notable that whilst she has bitten me and attempted to bite my OH and my cat, she is fearful when put in with Hamilton and Beatrice and does not exhibit any of those behaviours. In fact, I sat in with them for a period during bonding last time and Jellybean was so scared that she jumped on my lap and buried her head in my arm to try and hide.

All I want is for her to be happy, but she does seem to have some deep-rooted behavioural issues. It's also worth mentioning that her previous owner described her as being very aggressive, a side of her that we have not seen until recently, despite rescuing her back in December 2018.

My guess is that her behaviour stems from a past trauma.
Click to expand...

I think you are very likely correct in thinking something in her past has caused her to behave aggressively. Hopefully, with time, she will learn that you are not a threat and will stop behaving this way.
 
Is she still injured and recovering? If so it might be worth a vet check just to rule out pain as a contributing factor.
 
Amy104 said:
Is she still injured and recovering? If so it might be worth a vet check just to rule out pain as a contributing factor.
Click to expand...

Her injury was a slight graze/cut on her hock and it has long healed. So I don't think it is very likely related to that.
 
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