Mean bun!!!

[Hawkertinger]

So...my butterscotch (flemmie mix), is about 4 or 5 months old...and being a complete jerk of a bun!!! She growls and thumps every time anyone tries to even clean her cage...can't hold her, can't touch her.....HELP!!! She wasn't like this even a few weeks ago...its like all of a sudden one day she woke up with a serious attitude problem. Is this normal? What can I do? She's unspayed...although that'll change before too long.. Is this a teenage bun thing? I dunno..I just want my sweetie bun back!

Thanks in advance!

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Yup, sounds like a hormonal girl... this is totally a hormonal-rage teen girl bun sort of thing. Evie was horrible before her spay... boxing, growling, plenty of little attitude thumps.

Unspayed females tend to become very cage-aggressive... clears up post-spay. How much longer until her spay?

In the meantime, see if you can maximize her run time... I never touched anything in Evie's cage while she was in there... talk about looking for trouble I just did maintenance and whatnot when she was busy...

Slowly giving treats and rubbing her head while she's in the cage may make the situation more tolerable.

 

[Hawkertinger]

Probably about another month. We had initially thought about breeding her...my husband and I really wanted the chance to have some baby buns around. We were planning on keepin em all and spaying her after that, but this is just ridiculous. Probably another paycheck or two in the bank and she's losing her girly bits...lol. At least this isn't totally unheard of. I can imagine the attitude being a big reason some families don't keep their new buns. I sure wasn't expecting anything like this...she's just gone off the deep end!

Thanks for the quick response!

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Well, it's easier on the wallet to spay one crazy hormonal girl than all of her daughters

I concur... not enough folks know about this part of bunny ownership

 

[Flashy]

I agree; hormones. She is being cage territorial.

Is her set up done in a way in which she can walk in and out of her cage if she wants? If it's not and its possible to adjust it, it might be worth a try, that way when she is allowed out she will have control over it and you might find her behaviour eases somewhat.

If you were to breed her then chances are any girls would end up with the same attitude she has, so then you would have a lot of buns with this problem. Far better to get her spayed and focus on her.

It's really important to remember though that this is not her fault, this is just her hormones going bonkers inside her and it can't feel very good for her to be this grumpy all the time. She needs some TLC (although maybe TLC from a distance )

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Oh, yeah... bunnies don't go into heat... They're always in heat.
Hence, the 24/7 PMS

 

[TinysMom]

I wonder if you open up her cage and sit on the floor (or lay on the floor) and let her come to you when she wants...if she'll go back to being a sweetie bun (somewhat).

Or perhaps you can clean her cage when she's out getting some playtime so she doesn't have to watch you cleaning HER stuff..

You also might want to try giving her a stuffed animal to mount and dominate so she can work out some of that...energy..

 

[Hawkertinger]

LOL!!! Yeah...the stuffed animal idea is a good one..might try that. She really seems to like when someone sits outside her cage and pets her head...which is usually what I go for.
Crazy girls!

 

[bunniekrissy]

This is exactly what happened to two of my past girls who were babies when I got them... after their spays, they became nice, friendly bunnies again.