hormones?

[coco]

Hi,

I am new to owning a rabbit ( Coco, approx 3 months old, N. Dwarf)& I have been reading a lot about the hormone stages in books & also on here.

I wanted to ask do all rabbits go through a hormone stage? ( biting, chasing, charging, etc.)

Does it happen more in males or females?

Thank you,

JMP & Coco

 

[naturestee]

Not all rabbits get bad during puberty, but many do. I think females are more likely to become aggressive with people because they are hardwired to protect their nesting territory, although males can get very aggressive with each other. Males are also more likely to mount objects or people, or to spray urine on objects or people.:yuck

I've only had one rabbit as a baby, and by all accounts she was much worse than most. That was enough. I think I'll stick with adopting adults now, like I did with my other three. I totally understand why some rescues push adopting a spayed/neutered adult for your first rabbit!

 

[bunnydude]

Amber came to us when she was 18 months old - after she had already had 3 litters in her previous home. She was just a bundle of hormones and attitude. Devon (Amber's son) came to us at 3 months old and not neutered. He was neutered before we experienced any problems.

 

[maherwoman]

I don't know much about how hormones work, but I do know that Maisie's started raging at about four months. She's almost six months now, so we're going to start calling around to find a good vet and get her scheduled for spaying.

 

[Spring]

I think I'm a lucky bunny owner.. All through Pepsi's teenage years and adult hood she has rarely shown any aggression and never really bit me to be territorial. She's never bit me to defend her territory (only once did she ever bite to bleed and that was when I was annoying her when I didn't know she had tummy upsets). So yes, it's not impossible for a rabbit not to show any signs of aggression for puberty.

But my other bun Pebbles for example.. Woohweee! She is still a bundle of biting, kicking, boxing, growling, biting teenage brat!

I guess you can't score lucky twice .

 

[maherwoman]

That's true...I think I lucked out a bit with Maisie in that respect, too. I've only had her teeth basically graze my skin. Once, I didn't realize she was asleep, and I think I startled her. The second time, I stopped petting too soon for her taste.

Other than that, the original things she was picky on just got a bit more on the aggressive side (for instance, this morning she dumped her food bowl because I didn't get a chance to clean her litterboxes yesterday). Lol...

She has a tendancy to just THRASH her cage when she's upset...she's quite talented at it, really. Or she'll undo something I did for her recently. Yeah...she's a stinker, and I'm hoping these things will lessen after she gets spayed, but either way...I love her like crazy!!

 

[Spring]

Hehe! Masie needs to show her diva side once in awhile!

 

[maherwoman]

I guess so!! It's usually quite hilarious to me, but the food bowl incident this morning kinda upset me (but more because it is a waste of food than anything else).

I love that she has a mind of her own...but there are also times I wish she would just hold on a bit before throwing things around in protest...LOL!!

I have yet to see anything like that with Flower...but, then again, Flower isn't even three months old yet. Hehe!!