Bitting :( please help

[fashionistagirl13]

my rabbit is usually very calm but a few minutes ago i was petting her in her cage and i went to go fix and pick up her hay and as i moved my hand she nipped me once and then bit me hard, i have teeth marks in my wrist which and cleaned and they look fine but they hurt, can u tell me why she might of bit me and if this is normal. i love her and she is very sweet! please help! thankyou

 

[SOOOSKA]

Hi Kennedy, I have been bitten a few times by mine.

A lot of rabbits do not like when you go into their cages. If possible do not put you hand in the cage in a rush. Let her out when you have to clean the cage. Daisy Mae boxes with me every time i go into her cage.

Make sure you clean the bite well if you have polysporiun put some on the bite.

Susan

 

[Maureen Las]

She may be territorial of you moving things around in her cage. it might help if you take her out of the cage when you are going to straighten it up or clean it.

if she is not spayed and younger she may be getting hormonal and this could be making her feisty .... spaying may help

rabbits have a blind spot and it is possible that moving your hand startled her...


and now I need to express something notrelated to youbut to everyone.


Recently we have had bunnies retuned to the shelter for 'biting" We had a rabbit returned for biting at random without any obvious reason. I worked with this rabbit and occasionally she would bite "out of the blue" ; I also found her to be a highly intelligent rabbit who allowed people to carry her and pet her . Her bites could be annoying but nothing more than that..


Ibelieve that the average child ( and some adults) don't have the emotional/ physical/ intellectual ability to handle a rabbit physically andin a safe way and also that children ( some adults )can usually not handle geting nipped.
I have found that some rabbits tend to nip when annoyed or frightened and some don;t..

it can be as simple as that....

If a rabbit is a nipper there are many techniques that can be tried to discourage the rabbit from nipping but that doesn't mean that it will always work 100%; many times a rabbit will still get in an occasional nip....
A young woman brought a rabbit back to our shelter in order to surrender her and "get a nice one"; she was asked to do some reading about rabbits before she adopted another one.
The point I am making is that some behaviors are part of the animal and if folks would educate themselves first they will realize that a nip is just a nip and can be worked with.
I have dealt with an aggressive rabbit before; a rabbit that I had to wear long sleeves, pants and gloves to handle ; I am not talking about this kind of rabbit.

fashionistagirl13 I apologize for hijacking this post and I will give you a link to dealing with biting in a rabbit.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12319&forum_id=17

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12319&forum_id=17

The point I am making is that nipping doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the rabbit or with the way you are treating her. She is just being a rabbit.
Giving up a rabbit becausehe /she nips is just not a good reason. it is like giving up a child because the child had a temper tantrum, wet the bed or talked back to you.

Everything has "goods" and "bads" including rabbits and it is up to us to educate ourselves and accept the whole.

 

[Maureen Las]

And I realize that you are not giving up your rabbit but that you love her ..so just consider this a :rant:rant

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

Some bunnies will tend to nip a little if its a female who hasn't been spayed, then alot..my first bunny when she was about 8 mo. old, bit for the first time, right THROUGH my finger nail on my thumb. That really hurt and bled and bled. I flicked her on the head ( not too hard, but to let her know that was bad) and she never really bit me again.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

( ok, so i didn't exactly flick her, like tapped her on the forehead...)