Is my bunny attacking or playing tag?

[Yuki13]

Hi, I have a bunny, Yuki, 6 months olds. Either really early in the morning like 4am or late at night, 12am, my bunny all the sudden runs at me, nips me and grunts and then runs away. If I ignore him , he keeps on doing the same for a while, if I chase him to tag him he starts running around and in binky mode and then comes back to nips and grunts at me again and so on for 20 minutes. Tho, those nips he gives really hurt if i dont wear tick clothes n gloves. Is he attacking me or he just dont know how to play more smooth?

 

[PolishRabbitmama]

Sounds like he's playing maybe push his head down gently when he nips that way he will learn not to do it and do an ouch high pitch to let him know it hurts.

 

[JBun]

Though that is normally aggressive behavior, it sounds more like this is how your rabbit has learned to communicate with you that he wants to play. If you don't want him nipping, you can try and retrain him to use different behavior to let you know this.

 

[bunnyman666]

Trix does this all the time. It's a very gentle nip, however.

 

[pani]

Felix used to nip quite hard at me when I was in his way. After squealing and pushing his head down if he nipped for a few days, he got the idea. Now he'll just nudge me, unless I'm doing something he's really unhappy with!

 

[Yuki13]

How do I make him not nipping so hard when we wants to play, I tried scream *ouch* but he still does it. Btw, he only charges the second time to nip when i put my hand on the floor and wave, he usually then waits me to chase him and runs away binking and only charges again if i put my hand on the floor.

 

[pani]

Whenever Felix nipped me hard, I would push his head firmly to the floor for a few seconds. Their mothers do this in the nest to punish bad behaviour, so they should get the idea pretty quickly. You can also ignore him in the way a bunny would if you'd upset him - simply turn around and face away from the bunny. Do not acknowledge his presence, but stay in the room facing away from him and ignoring him. This is how a bunny will treat you if you've caused him any upset, so he should understand the body language.

You could also enforce good behaviour - if he runs up to you and lightly nips or nudges you instead of nipping hard, maybe give him a small treat (I break my Timothy treats into quarters so I can give small amounts more often).