Hi everyone,
Jellybean has been really hard work recently and I wonder if anyone might have any tips/insight into her behaviour.
Here's an overview - we were given her during December 2018 by a builder doing work on our house who offered her to us. She was a 'hand-me-down' to him and she had no name. She was living in a tiny hutch at the time and had recently escaped a fox attack, which I think may have given her the twisted looking front leg (you can see in this photo that it sort of faces inwards. no signs of pain/discomfort from her at all, it just looks different)
2019-04-11_06-00-31 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr
Her previous owner warned us of aggressive behaviour, but when we first got her there were no signs of aggression, other than some slight grunting/lunging when you pick up her poops.
She's been living in her own bedroom most of the time, and during that time things were okay. Then we tried bonding her with Beatrice and Hamilton in April and Beatrice nipped her back leg, giving her a limp for a few days, so we had to split them up again.
We felt really bad for her and I didn't want her to be on her own, so I moved her into our bedroom where there is carpet. For a couple of weeks this seemed okay, but then the real behavioural problems started. Jellybean started to become really territorial of our bedroom, to the point that my cat was too scared to go in the room and she even went for myself and my OH, in my instance biting quite deeply into my finger. She also started nibbling everything in sight and ruined all of our duvets and some of my clothes that were folded on the bed.
We decided to move her back into her old room to see if things would go back to normal, and so that we would be less worried about her hurting our cat. But she has become very withdrawn/moody/depressed? This week has been really sunny and hot, so we've been putting her in a large run outside every day to stretch her legs, eat grass and sunbathe. She has spent most of that time digging huge holes in the lawn, in a really obsessive and determined way. Is it that she is letting out some frustration? I've never experienced this kind of behaviour in my other rabbits. She has also started lunging at me when I present her food to her.
We want to try and bond them as a trio again this weekend - I really hope that the company of other rabbits will help her to calm down. She is terrified of Beatrice but I hope that this time things might be better.
Has anyone had similar experiences in the past? I just really, really want her to be happy!
Jellybean has been really hard work recently and I wonder if anyone might have any tips/insight into her behaviour.
Here's an overview - we were given her during December 2018 by a builder doing work on our house who offered her to us. She was a 'hand-me-down' to him and she had no name. She was living in a tiny hutch at the time and had recently escaped a fox attack, which I think may have given her the twisted looking front leg (you can see in this photo that it sort of faces inwards. no signs of pain/discomfort from her at all, it just looks different)
2019-04-11_06-00-31 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr
Her previous owner warned us of aggressive behaviour, but when we first got her there were no signs of aggression, other than some slight grunting/lunging when you pick up her poops.
She's been living in her own bedroom most of the time, and during that time things were okay. Then we tried bonding her with Beatrice and Hamilton in April and Beatrice nipped her back leg, giving her a limp for a few days, so we had to split them up again.
We felt really bad for her and I didn't want her to be on her own, so I moved her into our bedroom where there is carpet. For a couple of weeks this seemed okay, but then the real behavioural problems started. Jellybean started to become really territorial of our bedroom, to the point that my cat was too scared to go in the room and she even went for myself and my OH, in my instance biting quite deeply into my finger. She also started nibbling everything in sight and ruined all of our duvets and some of my clothes that were folded on the bed.
We decided to move her back into her old room to see if things would go back to normal, and so that we would be less worried about her hurting our cat. But she has become very withdrawn/moody/depressed? This week has been really sunny and hot, so we've been putting her in a large run outside every day to stretch her legs, eat grass and sunbathe. She has spent most of that time digging huge holes in the lawn, in a really obsessive and determined way. Is it that she is letting out some frustration? I've never experienced this kind of behaviour in my other rabbits. She has also started lunging at me when I present her food to her.
We want to try and bond them as a trio again this weekend - I really hope that the company of other rabbits will help her to calm down. She is terrified of Beatrice but I hope that this time things might be better.
Has anyone had similar experiences in the past? I just really, really want her to be happy!