Dreading when puberty sets in, do any of you?

[l.lai]

My bunny Racer just started getting so affectionate!

It took 4 weeks to build up some trust from him running away, to him eating out of my hands, to him getting petted while sitting on my chest and from last night giving me bunny kisses.

I've read a lot about Netherland Dwarfs getting very cage aggressive once they hit puberty and becoming little terrors!

Im dreading the next 1-2 months!

 

[fuzz16]

my nethies never got to bad cept when my doe got prego. get him fixed?

some never show it when they hit puberty and some are dreadful

 

[lloorren]

Somehow hitting puberty gave my little girl the idea that all she has to do is go somewhere she knows she isn't allowed until I notice, then bolt, and then repeat. She's a little troublemaker now

 

[bunnybunbunb]

I have had very little trouble with rabbits maturing, and I have had a lot of rabbits. I find the bucks get sweeter and the does get more recluse, but that is not the rule. Yes, some rabbits get territorial but I think if you catch it as soonas ti starts and correct them it may help.

I personally do not worry about Dillan

 

[LovableLops]

My Smudge is at puberty stage and he isnt that bad really. He is still very sweet, he was cage aggressive for like 2 days then he stopped and now he just is very pushy but still sweet..it isnt bad

 

[Runestonez]

Our one Black Lopboy Daphne stopped talking to us or having anything to do with us for the better part of 8 months!:shock:

We saw more bunny butt in that time span then I ever hope to again! Everytime he saw us he would takeoff and lurk under a table and glower at us...or simply turn around and ignore us altogether!

It seems with our kids the more affectionate they are the worse they are when they hit puberty. The exception was our girl Zoe who was a terror for 2 months and then went back to her licky kissy self again...I HATE bunny puberty! LOL

 

[l.lai]

So for those of you who had issues, were they fixed at the time or un-neutered?

 

[Runestonez]

Ours were all spayed or neutered at the time...the thought of going through bunny puberty with an unaltered bunnis enough to give me ulcers! lol

Although...it would make me feel better if I could just write it off as hormones! :biggrin2:

Ours kids don't become jerks until they are about a full year old...hubby calls it the terrible twos...because that is how old they will be before they start being "nice" bunnies again! lol

Danielle

 

[l.lai]

Runestonez wrote:

Ours were all spayed or neutered at the time...the thought of going through bunny puberty with an unaltered bunnis enough to give me ulcers! lol

Although...it would make me feel better if I could just write it off as hormones! :biggrin2:

Ours kids don't become jerks until they are about a full year old...hubby calls it the terrible twos...because that is how old they will be before they start being "nice" bunnies again! lol

Danielle

Wow so for a whole year the bunnies were mean until they settled down and were affectionate again? That sounds like a nightmare!

 

[Runestonez]

Keep in mind too most of our bunns are rescues and were poorly socialized when we brought them home...they are also HORRIBLY spoiled...although they totally deny it!

The other fur-kids weren't too bad...the longest puberty incident is Daphne...and to be fair we not only spayed him(we were wrong of course) but neutered him too...Hubby says he had the right to never talk to us again! lol :biggrin2:

For us the average puberty is about 2 months to 6 months...and it comes and goes...so it is like living in a house with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Bunny! They seem to be driven to do things not normally attributed to them...for instance...not one rabbit has chewed so much as one piece of furniture in our house...ever...then Zoe hits puberty and chews a hole in my arm chair...for no real reason...just because it was there...I dunno...maybe it offended her in some way! Then she is fine for days...and suddenly digs out my potted plant...doesn't eat it...just digs it out...then stops talking to me altogether for 2 weeks and then is fine...you start to wonder who's crazy...you or the rabbit!?:?

I have had so many different rabbits with all different personalities and the only thing I know about each of them is that when they hit puberty...I stop asking WHY and just sit back and wait for my semi-sane fuzz kid to come back! I like to call it Rabbit-Schitzophrenia!

Danielle

 

[l.lai]

Runestonez wrote:

Keep in mind too most of our bunns are rescues and were poorly socialized when we brought them home...they are also HORRIBLY spoiled...although they totally deny it!

The other fur-kids weren't too bad...the longest puberty incident is Daphne...and to be fair we not only spayed him(we were wrong of course) but neutered him too...Hubby says he had the right to never talk to us again! lol :biggrin2:

For us the average puberty is about 2 months to 6 months...and it comes and goes...so it is like living in a house with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Bunny! They seem to be driven to do things not normally attributed to them...for instance...not one rabbit has chewed so much as one piece of furniture in our house...ever...then Zoe hits puberty and chews a hole in my arm chair...for no real reason...just because it was there...I dunno...maybe it offended her in some way! Then she is fine for days...and suddenly digs out my potted plant...doesn't eat it...just digs it out...then stops talking to me altogether for 2 weeks and then is fine...you start to wonder who's crazy...you or the rabbit!?:?

I have had so many different rabbits with all different personalities and the only thing I know about each of them is that when they hit puberty...I stop asking WHY and just sit back and wait for my semi-sane fuzz kid to come back! I like to call it Rabbit-Schitzophrenia!

Danielle

haha okay well i guess i'll keep you guys up to date with Racer's progress, right now he's still just a sweet curious little bunny whose shy in the mornings but at night he seems to come alive.

Only 3 months down, he'll turn 4 months on the 27th so thats when i expect to start seeing some changes.

 

[mardigraskisses]

Bayou is neutered and about a year old and he's till a terror. Well, a terror with fabulous litter box habits, thankfully.

When he was my sweet little baby, he never pulled up the carpet or chewed at baseboards or attacked you when you put food in his bowl.

:sigh: I used to have him out 24/7 in my room and not worried that I'd wake up with a huge chunk of carpet missing and a dead bunny.

I can't wait for those days to come back.

The next bunny I get is going to be a little older so I can skip this horrible stage. :grumpy:

 

[Pipp]

lloorren wrote:

Somehow hitting puberty gave my little girl the idea that all she has to do is go somewhere she knows she isn't allowed until I notice, then bolt, and then repeat. She's a little troublemaker now

LOL! Pipp did this! :biggrin2: And still does. :grumpy:

She turned it into a game. I'm not sure what I should have done to 'nip it in the bud', it started when we'd visit my parents. She'd want to go into their bedroom, the only room she wasn't allowed, of course. She'd head for the bedroom, I'd say 'Pipp, no!' and she'd stop and come back.

And of course everybody would laugh. I guess my family thought rabbits were stupid or something, they were surprised and entertained whenever she'd listen to me. :rollseyes

But Pipp, being smarter than all of us, knew that she wouldn't get in THAT much trouble, we were laughing after all, so the minute we weren't looking, back at it!

When she hit puberty, she was a terror. She'd frantically build nests, poop and pee EVERYWHERE -- especially on my bed -- and she'd want nothing to do with me.

I got her spayed and about a month later she was back to being her sweet (albeit hyper) little self.

But she still thinks its a great 'game' to jump on my desk as soon as I'm not looking (she can go from a dead sleep to being on my desk within 5 seconds of me leaving the room) and sever any stray wires. :X

She's lucky I love her so much. She'd be a black furry slipper by now. ssd:


sas :bunnyheart

 

[mardigraskisses]

Pipp wrote:

And of course everybody would laugh. I guess my family thought rabbits were stupid or something, they were surprised and entertained whenever she'd listen to me. :rollseyes

Same here. I especially "love" the fact that mom brags to total strangers about how I got a rabbit to use a litter box. Like it's something special. :dunno

 

[l.lai]

I believe its begun, he's started emptying out his litter pan and spreading the litter around a little. Kicking it out loudly and when i come out to see what he's done he'll stop and jump over to his cushion like nothings happend.

 

[Pipp]

:nod

 

[DazyDaizee]

My first two Holland lops were under socialized at 3 months old and came from a crappy place. When they hit about 4 or 5 months they started biting when they were being held. The male would bite if you denied him attention when he asked for it. They were pretty territorial. The female was horrible with cage aggression and lunging if she had claimed any area of the house as hers.
They did settle down after spaying/neutering, but the female was a VERY temperamental rabbit. She was never very friendly or people oriented.

My first Mini lop was the sweetest thing. When he hit that age he just started to chew. EVERYTHING. The walls, the bed frame, the carpet, doors, the baseboard, he'd take DVDs and books off of my bookshelf and chew the bindings. I've never seen anything like it. Absolutely ANYTHING he could get his teeth on he'd destroy. This never fully went away. After neutering he continued to chew more than any rabbit I've ever had, but it was much reduced from what it had been.

With my dutch, Toot, I never noticed a real change. She was spayed at 5 months and her litter box habits improved DRASTICALLY almost immediately after the surgery.

My others were already spayed/neutered before I got them.
Now I have baby lops.. wondering if I'll have to worry about any puberty issues with them.. So long as they're not biters or insane chewers, I can deal..

 

[l.lai]

DazyDaizee wrote:

My first two Holland lops were under socialized at 3 months old and came from a crappy place. When they hit about 4 or 5 months they started biting when they were being held. The male would bite if you denied him attention when he asked for it. They were pretty territorial. The female was horrible with cage aggression and lunging if she had claimed any area of the house as hers.
They did settle down after spaying/neutering, but the female was a VERY temperamental rabbit. She was never very friendly or people oriented.

My first Mini lop was the sweetest thing. When he hit that age he just started to chew. EVERYTHING. The walls, the bed frame, the carpet, doors, the baseboard, he'd take DVDs and books off of my bookshelf and chew the bindings. I've never seen anything like it. Absolutely ANYTHING he could get his teeth on he'd destroy. This never fully went away. After neutering he continued to chew more than any rabbit I've ever had, but it was much reduced from what it had been.

With my dutch, Toot, I never noticed a real change. She was spayed at 5 months and her litter box habits improved DRASTICALLY almost immediately after the surgery.

My others were already spayed/neutered before I got them.
Now I have baby lops.. wondering if I'll have to worry about any puberty issues with them.. So long as they're not biters or insane chewers, I can deal..

Well im lucky in that neither of my rabbits are biters.

My minilop doe is a digger and will spread everything out, which is why i have the gridded litter trays (came in the mail today so i'll put them in tonight!). She'll chew a lot, the baseboards etc, but this reduced when we bought her more chew toys and has drastically reduced since her spaying. She was never cage aggressive, quite the opposite, as soon as you walked near her hutch you'd hear her pawing at her wire loudly signalling that she'd want to come out for a pat.

My buck netherland dwarf started off extremely skittish and is now very tame, however in the mornings hes grumpy, he'll hop over for a pat and if you want to pat him more he'll hop away and stare at you from a distance He's not neutered yet, but he's yet to bite or show any cage aggression, but the digging has begun.

I love the look of your Dutch Toot!

 

[zyymurgy]

My buns are just heading into puberty, and they're driving me a little bit crazy! I had to separate the two, with a wire screen right down the middle of the cage, because Cocoa will chase Cinnabun relentlessly and hump his poor brother. D: They don't fight since Cinnabun is too sweet and shy, but they make an unholy racket while they run around. I'm going to get them neutered next month - in the meanwhile, they're being extra hyper but nothing really too bad - except Cocoa is digging in his litterbox... we'll get them a little sandbox soon!

 

[elrohwen]

My male holland lop didn't show any type of puberty behaviors and was very well behaved before and after his neuter. However, I'm noticing that as he gets older he's becoming much more affectionate. Last night he let me pet him for 15 minutes straight! Usually he won't let me pet him for even a minute.