Circling, nibbling and grunting...help!

[darkshine88]

Hello everyone,

My partner and I adopted Topper, a year old male rabbit, from Pets At Home a few months ago. He was handed back to the store by his previous owner as he did not get on with her other rabbits.

Since we adopted him he has been a star! He is toilet trained, playful, loves to be petted but does not enjoy being picked up which I understand.

We live in London and I went to Glasgow to see friends and family for 10 day, leaving Topper with my fiance. I returned a few days ago and today Topper will not leave me alone. He is literally glued to my feet wherever I go. If I stop he runs around in circles and nibbles on my legs. He is making a sort of grunting noise, not very loud but I can hear something going on! If I sit on the floor he does the same thing, unless I pick him up or start petting him, in which case he stops.

What's going on?? He has never done this before. He does get excited at breakfast time, running around at my feet, but never like this!!

We are first time rabbit owners, and because we adopted him we don't know if he has been neatured.

Thanks!

 

[MiniLopHop]

He's in love and has come of age. Time for the snip.

 

[darkshine88]

Oh no! :lookaround

That's what I thought, but loads of websites kept saying he just wants attention and is trying to play...:rollseyes

Thank you...I shall phone the vet to find out more haha!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

That is courting behavior. It only gets worse without a snippage. We had a little Dutch named Bonnie. She'd do the same thing and even built nests from shredded newspaper--looked like she had a giant bow-tie. If Nancy came in the room with me, she'd shriek and attack her legs. One of us thought it was funny!

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

Yep, that's what bunnies do. JElly Always did this. And the stuffed bunny slippers I had..that really got her going. lol :')

 

[darkshine88]

It's crazy! He is pooing everywhere now! It's just falling out of him when he is sitting, running, anything! I know he is marking his territory, he is chinning everything now too lol. I camt believe how quickly he changed, literally a day! We were told he was just over a year old when we adopted him and we have had him for 2 months, so why now?

We have had to block off where he is allowed in house now as i can't keep cleaning up after him. He has a confined area to have the run of now, just until we get this sorted! He goes for the snip on Thursday. Is there anything I should prepare for post op?

 

[jeanluc_pippen_merry]

Lol i think it's so cute. But can get annoying when you need to move around freely but can't for fear of stepping on the little buggers. >.< You just need to keep him confined to his hutch for a week or so. Keep the hutch clean and check his stitches every day to make sure they're not infected and haven't been pulled out and make sure he's eating, drinking peeing and pooping. Other than that, he should heal fairly quickly (at least from the experience i had with my 2 boys who healed very quickly) as long as he's not jumping around everywhere or chewing on the "now" empty sacks/stitches.

 

[Dustiechick]

Time for a neuter! Don't worry neuters are less invasive, less recovery time, and often less expensive than spays!

 

[Kizza]

Rocky was neutered 2 weeks ago and he has since stopped scratching, biting, spraying and pooping everywhere, and hanging around like a bad smell. Time for the chop I debated for so long about doing it because I was scared but the vets did a great job and he has settled quite a bit.

Nawww Topper is in love with you! lol

 

[darkshine88]

Okay guys, I took Topper to the vet to get neutered this morning...and turns out HE is actually a SHE!!

When we adopted "him" the store told us he was a male and he was named Peter at the time. We had no reason to think otherwise, and being first time pet owners, were not sure how to check or tell!

It was quite a shock to say the least! We decided to put it off for a little while as the vet said it won't be the answer to the problems we were experiencing (as mentioned above). We are still going to get it done as I know about the cancer risks for female rabbits but what can I do about the other stuff?? Pooing everywhere, grunting and circling me and other half?? We have had her two and a half months and she only started this a few days ago!!

Help!

 

[MiniLopHop]

The answer is the same, she needs a spay. I don't know of anything else that will give you any real relif. Pet stores are often wrong about the sex. At this age if it were a boy you would have seen danglies.