Aggressive towards me during the bonding process.

I am currently mid bonding of my mini lops. Both neutered/spayed and so far the bond itself is going okay.

However, the buck keeps going for me the past few days. He has never shown any sign of aggression before. And the growling and biting seems to come quite randomly.

I was cleaning out his litter tray yesterday and he was jumping around me not minding at all, then all of a sudden bit me. And this morning I was stroking him for a few minutes and he just laid there as he normally does, then I went to give him some carrot and he bit me again, and kept lunging at me till I left.

I'm hoping he is extra territorial due to the bonding process? Does this seem likely?

Thanks for any advice.

Is he in an indoor cage and is he with the other rabbit?

So they are both in indoor cages which are side by side. Both cages have a nice run on both sides. We basically halved the room so they have a side each.

They have started laying next to each other through the cages now so we planned to try their first face to face this evening.

Good luck for this evening. Are they both neutered? Him biting you must be related to the other rabbit.

Yep they are both neutered.

The meeting went really well. There were no signs of aggression. After a little sniffing our doe laid down and our buck licked her a little then got bored.

Will go again tomorrow but leave them a little longer this time.

When were they spayed/neutered? If it’s recent then the hormones might still be subsiding.

Around 10 weeks ago now we had him done.

joemorris86 said:

Around 10 weeks ago now we had him done.

Click to expand...

When was she spayed?

She was spayed 4 weeks ago

joemorris86 said:

She was spayed 4 weeks ago

Click to expand...

Ah, ok, hormones take 6-8 weeks or sometimes longer to subside, so maybe she is still fairly hormonal? That might account for his behaviour. Hopefully it will settle down as the hormones settles and the bond becomes established.