jiallombardo
New Kit
Hello, I have a question regarding rabbit behaviour.
Basically, my Doe, Phoebe, has reached 5 months of age, which, as I understand, is rabbit puberty. She started digging a lot (which, as I understood, is typical female puberty behaviour) and being a little more aggressive. However, recently this behaviour became a bit amplified. She is now attempting to "dig" almost anything (she used to "dig" at closed doors and floor tiles under them) -- the couch, the litter box, even a metal spinbike. She is also much more aggressive -- basically, she doesn't want to stay in one place when being petted (she used to come to my wife and lay on her chest for a long time, getting herself petted); instead, she now very oftenly bites on contact (she used to lick my legs whenever she saw me, but now she outright bites them; she also bit my wife in the forearm as she attempted to pet her while sitting on the couch, and this was a deep bite too!) and sometimes emits a "growling" sound. She is also becoming more aloof and unplayful. A month ago she used to emit a humming/buzzing sound (which I asked about on this forum), and also run circles around me; but now she mostly just sits on the floor in superman-like position, or falls on her side. She runs rarely and with much less... enthusiasm, and she jumps and head-tosses (something she used to do A LOT -- I have hardwood floors at home, so she can't do her binkies properly) even more seldom. Finally, she stopped the humming / buzzing, and she just growls at things she doesn't like (like the mop, or being locked in the cage, chewing on bars).
What I want to ask is whether such a shift in behaviour is normal for her age, or could she be having a medical condition, or maybe she feels bad about me and my wife for some reason. She looks ok as far as health goes -- no visible signs of trouble, the only thing I noticed lately is that she's often nervous. Her breath is almost audible if you listen closely, she often opens her eyes widely when close to us, and have accelerated nose movement / heart rate. As far as feeding goes -- we keep her fed with pellets, dried fruit and grains, she gets enough hay, and I refresh her water bowl as soon as it gets low on water. We don't yell or harm her in any way (exclusions would be by accident -- like sometimes I would move my feet without checking if she's nearby and hit her -- but nothing intentional). She gets about 4-5 hours of free roaming per day.
With the quarantine in my country, I'm hesitant to go out, and I don't see immediate causes of trouble, so I'm not asking a vet over. However, I would like to ask if anyone had similar experience and can share it or offer advice. She's a decorative lop-eared rabbit, I'll attach a photo to the post.
Thanks for reading this post and I'd be grateful for any advice!
Here is a link to her picture, this forum doesn't show images for some reason.
Basically, my Doe, Phoebe, has reached 5 months of age, which, as I understand, is rabbit puberty. She started digging a lot (which, as I understood, is typical female puberty behaviour) and being a little more aggressive. However, recently this behaviour became a bit amplified. She is now attempting to "dig" almost anything (she used to "dig" at closed doors and floor tiles under them) -- the couch, the litter box, even a metal spinbike. She is also much more aggressive -- basically, she doesn't want to stay in one place when being petted (she used to come to my wife and lay on her chest for a long time, getting herself petted); instead, she now very oftenly bites on contact (she used to lick my legs whenever she saw me, but now she outright bites them; she also bit my wife in the forearm as she attempted to pet her while sitting on the couch, and this was a deep bite too!) and sometimes emits a "growling" sound. She is also becoming more aloof and unplayful. A month ago she used to emit a humming/buzzing sound (which I asked about on this forum), and also run circles around me; but now she mostly just sits on the floor in superman-like position, or falls on her side. She runs rarely and with much less... enthusiasm, and she jumps and head-tosses (something she used to do A LOT -- I have hardwood floors at home, so she can't do her binkies properly) even more seldom. Finally, she stopped the humming / buzzing, and she just growls at things she doesn't like (like the mop, or being locked in the cage, chewing on bars).
What I want to ask is whether such a shift in behaviour is normal for her age, or could she be having a medical condition, or maybe she feels bad about me and my wife for some reason. She looks ok as far as health goes -- no visible signs of trouble, the only thing I noticed lately is that she's often nervous. Her breath is almost audible if you listen closely, she often opens her eyes widely when close to us, and have accelerated nose movement / heart rate. As far as feeding goes -- we keep her fed with pellets, dried fruit and grains, she gets enough hay, and I refresh her water bowl as soon as it gets low on water. We don't yell or harm her in any way (exclusions would be by accident -- like sometimes I would move my feet without checking if she's nearby and hit her -- but nothing intentional). She gets about 4-5 hours of free roaming per day.
With the quarantine in my country, I'm hesitant to go out, and I don't see immediate causes of trouble, so I'm not asking a vet over. However, I would like to ask if anyone had similar experience and can share it or offer advice. She's a decorative lop-eared rabbit, I'll attach a photo to the post.
Thanks for reading this post and I'd be grateful for any advice!
Here is a link to her picture, this forum doesn't show images for some reason.
