rabbit problem?

Question

my rabbit is incredibly aggresive. recently she jumped out her hutch(when the lid was open....it was really scary as well because she jumped incredibly high). as much as we love her, she has destroyed the garden (burrowing, eating all the plants etc). she's 6 months old and I've been told to get a run for her, but it seems so cruel because they are so tiny. Also, i've heard the reason why she's agressive us because of her age and is at that puberty stage. if i get her neutered will she destroy less, and be far less agresive than she is now??

Answer 1

aww the poor lil buni

Answer 2

She may be less aggressive if you get her down. As for your garden you have no hope in having any plants if you let her run around the garden. Yes runs are small - so why not make one.

Make it big enough so the hutch is in it to so she can go in and out of her hutch as she wants. Make it high enough so she dont get out and them you wont need a top and then you can sit in with her and get to know her she may be a rabbit that doesnt like to be cuddled - I have a mini lop like that. But just spending time sitting near her has made her a better rabbit and I am able to pick her up and cuddle her for a little while before she starts to eat my clothes

Answer 3

I have raised rabbits for over 25 years (ever since the age of 5 years old). I have raised thousands of rabbits in that time period. So I have grown up around a lot of rabbits and have grown accustomed to the behaviors they exhibit.

Female rabbits are usually NOT more friendly than male rabbits. For a pet, I would normally recommend a male rabbit over a female rabbit. Either sex can become mean, especially around the puberty age for them. Rabbits hit the puberty age when they are about 4-6 months old. One thing that normally affects their aggression as some people mentioned is their hormonal levels. On females, if you hold her head and touch her tail you'll probably see her raising her rear end up indicating that she wants bred. Female rabbits seem to be affected much more often by hormones than male rabbits. That is why I normally recommend male rabbits for a pet. Male rabbits normally also become like a big puppy dog, sometimes sticking their head out of the cage to be petted as they get older.

Here's one aspect as an experienced breeder that I disagree with everybody else on. Don't let your rabbit out of the cage to run and don't put it in an oversized cage. Letting the rabbit have too much room or run around freely unsupervised can have totally the opposite affect that you want it to. In my opinion, it can make the rabbit more aggressive. Think of it from the standpoint of a wild animal. What would a wild animal's response probably be if you raised it up in a cage and had it used to you, then you let it run free? Then after you let it run free you tried caging it back up again? Most likely that animal is going to be more agressive than before it was allowed to run free.

Over the years, I've noticed that when I have given a rabbit a cage that was a little on the large side where I could not reach to the back corners of the cage easily that the rabbit tended to be more aggressive. The rabbit would go to the back corners of the cage where I could not easily reach then get aggressive. I did not have this problem with rabbits in smaller cages where I could easily reach the back corners of the cage.

Another thing that I have realized in over 25 years of observing rabbits is that they react totally differently than cats or dogs do. They react much more like a cat than a dog. Don't ever try disciplining a rabbit by spanking it. The rabbit will only become more mean and agressive towards you.

Removing the aggressiveness out of a rabbit is not easy. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of petting. The first thing that you need to realize when trying to reduce the aggressiveness in your rabbit is that they consider THEIR cage as THEIR territory. You need to get the rabbit on YOUR territory when you work with it. That means getting the rabbit out of the pen and sitting it on a table with a piece of carpet pad on it. You should notice that the rabbit is MUCH less aggressive once it is sat on the table. That is because the rabbit no longer has the upperhand by being in THEIR territory.

Take the rabbit and pet it on its forehead right between the eyes. That will help calm your rabbit down. Doing that sort of puts them in a trance. I don't care how mean your rabbit is. If you pet it in that spot it will temporarily stop being mean and just sit there.

Always pet your rabbit from the front so it can see your hand coming towards it. Never pet from behind, that can scare the rabbit.

If you have trouble removing the rabbit out of the cage, use one hand to get the rabbit to focus its attention on that hand. While the rabbit has its attention focused on that hand grab it with the other so that it doesn't bite you.

As far as neutering or spading, that may or may not help. Neutering and spading does affect the distribution of hormones to the rabbit's body system and therefore it may make your rabbit less aggressive. However, it is NOT a guaranteed fix. Even after having your rabbit neutered or spaded it may still be agressive.

Regarding aggressiveness and breeding, I have seen some agressive female rabbits lose their aggressiveness a few days after they have a litter. I'm assuming this is due to a change in their hormones as a result of having the litter. Not all females turn nice after having a litter, but some do.

Answer 4

OK! I don't know what kind of rabbit you have. My daughter has a dwarf. She stays in her cage, which is pretty big, most of the time. She comes out about every other day and runs around the house. Her and our Shih Tzu are great buddies. The rabbit (Bella) is close to two years old. She snorts when she's irritated. This rabbit has been a whole new thing for me because when I was young and in school I raised Californian rabbits. Totally different! Those rabbits would injure you with a bite if a hand came near them. Your baby is still young, if you want her as a "pet" you have to have her confined to a small area. She will get use to seeing you and knowing that you mean she gets to come out and play. It sounds like you have her free in the backyard so when you try to hold or confine her she feels trapped. If you put her in a smaller area she is young enough she will get use to being held and "let out" and like it. You just have to try to do it every day. She'll get use to her "area" and won't go to bathroom except for in her "spot". Rabbits are kind of like cats with that. Good Luck.

Answer 5

The reason your rabbit is showing aggression towards you is because of her sexual desires. She has come of age and feels she wants to breed. Being without male attention will lead to her becoming stressed and frustrated and unfortunately that also means she will vent her frustrations on you when shes in a bad mood.

Neutering is not always the answer, as removal of the hormonal changes which leads to aggression, has to take place before the animal has chance to experience them first hand and as she is already showing aggression towards you, she may well continue after the op. The removal of hormones in this case could frustrate her more as she is lacking the reason for the aggression suddenly and without warning, and so down to further confusion, she may attack you every time your around her for the rest of her life.

She will eventually outgrow the tendencies as she matures a bit and sometimes hormones, once bridled by the animal, become accepted as a regular daily occurance. As she is alone, her frustrations are based on solitary existance. She knows she is a rabbit as she was born to one, and she would have spent the first couple of months of her life with her mother and siblings. She needs companionship, and its the companionship which you cannot fill for her. Don't buy a guinea pig either while she's like this.

If you get a young male rabbit, possibly of the same age, but have him visectomised before introducing. The reason to have a visectomy as opposed to a castration, is because he will still want to mate with her, but will not be able to fertilise her. This will put her into reproduction mode and she will calm down quite dramatically. They can be kept together because he will not be in a position to out dominate her.

In a wild rabbit warren, the social structure stands as a dominant female rabbit with her alpha male in a large burrow at the centre of the warren. Around them are large and strong rabbits who may or may not challenge the alphas for their position on a regular basis, but live in close proximity to their burrow. Then the weaker rabbits or youngsters live in holes on the outskirts where they either get picked off by predators, keeping the dominants safer, or grow to a stonger age and size then displace someone higher up in the social order.

Female rabbits can be aggressive towards their mates, but aggression is based on hormones and without the male the female would be aggressive at all times. If she shows aggression to you, it is because she is matured and doesn't take from you the pleasures she seeks.

Answer 6

Hi,

Your rabbits is behaving exactly as a rabbit. It's not the males that are more aggressive, it's always does. Bucks tend to be more friendly neutered or not.

Any rabbit, regardless of sex should be neutered by five months of age to eliminate these behavioural issues arising. They should also be neutered to eliminate the risks of uterine cancer which over 80% of unneutered does will develop. Behaviours such as digging and eating the plants are just what rabbits do and should be allowed to do! If you can't allow your rabbit to exhibit natural behaviour then a rabbit is not the pet for you. You should also keep her with another rabbit for company, a neutered male, and you will see a change in her behaviour. Rabbit are sociable creatures and wouldn't live alone in the wild, she really needs a companion. Your rabbit lives outside so is unlikely to ever become 100% trustful of you. If you want to keep her on her own you should bring her in to the house, she shouldn't be living outside on her own.

Having her neutered will help to an extent. It's not guaranteed to eliminate all of her bad behaviour, and it's not an immediate quick fix all of the time. I have a neutered rabbit that I got when she was 6 months old and was incredibly aggressive, it took about 6 months working with her to get her to the point that she is not aggressive towards people. Aggression either comes from fear or hormonal issues. Occassionally you will get a rabbit that is just nasty by nature, but by having her neutered and getting her a friend I promise you will end up with a happier, mentally stable pet.

As for the plants, you need to read up on plants that are safe for rabbits as many are toxic, and if it really is a problem for you then block them off. You can make a run for your rabbit if you think they are too small, which I have to agree with. A rabbit should be allowed plenty of space to run around an behave like a rabbit. If you have a garage or shed you can let her exercise in there.

With regards to the breeders comment...

Breeders will always justify keeping a rabbit in a small cage a s this is what they themselves do, not for a rabbits benefit but for their own. Rabbits were not born to be in cages, and even when they were originally bred for meat and fur they were allowed to live in big colonies in a pit type environment. I agree that while caging is necessary in taming a rabbit and making a rabbit feel secure, especially an aggressive one, that isn't to say it has to live in a small cage for the rest of it's life. From my personal experience after having rabbits for 20 years and working with hundreds of abused, neglected animals with severe aggression caging and limiting freedom isn't always the answer. If you are worried about catching your aggressive rabbit from the garden then put her in a pen. Keeping a rabbit in a small cage so that it submits aggression via fear and having no place to get away from you is a quick-fix step for yourself, not for the rabbit.

Answer 7

Having her spayed should reduce or even stop the digging and should calm her down a bit, but I can't guarantee it will stop all of the aggression. She will continue to eat the plants - its what rabbits do. She would benefit from a run when you can't supervise her, however nothing beats seeing a rabbit having fun and charging round the garden. Spaying will also greatly reduce other health issues, check out the information link on the following page:

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rwf/index.htm

Please ignore the person who said let her have one litter - there are tens of thousands unwanted rabbits in rescue centres across the country. Would you be able to keep all the babies or find them good homes - and what about any babies they might have?

Answer 8

Neutering will be the answer.
Had a rabbit that attacked our big Labrador dogs. Used to grab them on their privates and hang on for life! The poor dogs didn't know what hit them. Got the rabbit neutered and she was fine after that! They get like that around 6months and your friend's right about the puberty, but it wont go away unless you get her neutered.

Answer 9

Hormonal changes are probably the cause. See of vet of course but you can also alter her diet. The "All in one good for rabbits feed nothing else food" is not all that they need. Many professional show rabbit breeders feed Eukanumba puppy bisquits to their rabbits once a day. Also, iron defeciencies can also alter behavior. I raise meat rabbits and sometimes does's canabalise their young. When I find one that does I up her iron considerably and generally they stop that nasty habit. Exercise is of course essential for any creature large or small. Runs are easy to built with chicken wire and 2 x 2's. Construct a series of rectangular boxes, attache them to each other and coat the entire thing, top, sides and bottoms with chicken wire. Using a wire coated frame for the end or a piece of plywood cut to the right size close her/him in for a while and let the rabbit run, chew etc. You can get creative with this as its an inexpensive way to get them out and running, arrange your rectangles in different layouts not straight, run it around your barn, house, yard etc. Creativity knows no boundaries. Neutering may help but I have found creatures who are already acting out of hormal positions do not alter their behaviors after such a procedure, especially males.

Answer 10

neutering may calm her down but i don't think rabbits are aggressive due to puberty. putting them in a run gives them the chance to play, relax and eat grass in a enclosed area.
if you don't like the sizes of the runs in shops make ur own as you can shape it to your garden.
giving toys such as a toilet paper tube, a ball, tunnels, big box with holes the size of ur rabbit so she can climb in and out and sticks for her to knaw on may keep her entertained.

Answer 11

Your rabbit must have a run - she may be frustrated as well as pubescent!
Seems hard to spay her before she has the joy of one litter. Could you get her mated via stud & then see how she is - & leave possible spaying until then, perhaps. Average lifespan of rabbits is 3-5 years I think, so seems a shame to spoil such a short life. But I did have a rabbit who lasted 13 years, male, & heard of another that lasted 19 years. good luck.