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Bunny biting at/digging on me

sillyrabbit

Wise Old Thumper
Just wondered how people deal with this, if at all.

My little one nips us, or like digs on our feet, to get us to move out of the way. At first I was like whatever he is just communicating and left him to it :love: but the bites are getting harder, and he hurt my partner the other day and left teeth marks :lol:

I’m wondering if maybe I shouldn’t have just let him do it. I’ve only ever had buns that nudge before so kind of took a guess at what to do. We are trying for a baby, so I guess it would be sensible to try and curb the behaviour. But I also don’t want to stop him expressing himself!

He also jumps up and bites at dinner time, but I’m pretty sure that’s just clumsy attempts at grabbing food :lol: With this I’m worried he is going to hurt himself as he gets so excited, so I’m trying to make feeding time more relaxed. But yeah if anyone has any ideas on that too it would be appreciated!

Edit to say, I know vet checks are the first thing to do in this situation, and he has recently had one and is a healthy little bunny :D
 
He may prefer to have a bunny friend so that he can redirect his attention to them. At the moment he only has humans, who don't really speak rabbit.

Is he neutered yet?
If he has been neutered for a few weeks, you could look at getting a neutered companion for him, and you will all be happier. He won't need to nip you for attention as he will have his own playmate, and you may soon be busy with another small human so will have less time to spend with him.

There are links on the forum on how to bond rabbits - essentially, both neutered for at least several weeks, and on neutral territory.
 
I’m sure he would love a friend, we have been keeping an eye out for a suitable single female but haven’t seen any, lots of single boys though! We only adopted him less than a month ago too so having him at home is all still pretty new, getting him settled and getting to know him has definitely been the priority over the last few weeks. I’m confident bonding rabbits though :D He is neutered.

Aww I don’t anticipate ever spending less time with my bunnies :love: we don’t set aside specific time that we have to like schedule or restrict his access to any part of our home, he is very much a part of our day to day lives. He even hangs out in the bathroom while I’m in the bath or shower. If we are at home he is out and interacting with us :D But yes, I do agree there is no substitute for a rabbit friend.

I also feel quite confident that he isn’t nipping for attention. He is very affectionate and spends a lot of time interacting with us, sitting on us, demanding we groom him etc. He has never just approached us and bitten, it’s only happening when we clearly wants us to move out of his way, like if we try to stop him getting into the fridge while it’s open :lol: he has somebody home with him all day every day and gets a lot of one on one attention, he isn’t ever really alone at the moment.
 
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Perhaps he is just naturally a little bit bossy :lol: Fern is similar, she nudges me hard in the shin if I’m not where she wants me to be or not feeding quickly enough :lol: I kind of don’t give in to her, but if he is biting that’s a bit more difficult. I’m not sure what to suggest tbh. I know from the photos you have shared he has a good environment with plenty to do :love:
 
He wants at places he knows he isn’t allowed. We have a tiny laundry room which we don’t let him in as he could get behind the washing machine where there are wires. I swear the minute one of us even decides to go into that room he is heading for the door! We try to have the other person entertain him while the other goes in, and he will be enjoying whatever attention he is getting, and as soon as he hears that door open he is like bite bite bite get out of my way and sprints over to that room :lol: Or the front door! It wouldn’t be the end of the world if he got out, but we aren’t supposed to let pets in the communal areas and I don’t want to chase him up and down the hallway. Or if I sit on the balcony door step, he bites me, I move, and he flops right where I was sitting.

The food thing is just him being greedy!
 
Ok he has stopped nipping the past couple of days, I searched the forum and took some advice to make a kind of loud noise to let him know it hurts. But he has just changed to digging on the top of my feet every time he wants me to get out of the way. Because he is always out with us that’s quite often, and it hurts if your not wearing socks :lol:

He has calmed right down at feeding time, I think we were making it worse by making a big deal over his food.
 
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