Rabbit hissing at children

[ivlash]

Our 1yr old male rabbit is calm and lets me pat him and feed him from my hand, but when my 6 yr old daughter enters the room he hisses and tries to attack her.

She has had minimal interaction with the rabbit and when she feeds him through the cage then he is completely calm and friendly.

What could be causing this and how can we make him more child friendly?

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

Did you get him as a baby? Maybe he is acting that way because some children were hurting him in the past. Please, someone correct me if that is not possible.

 

[ivlash]

Did you get him as a baby? Maybe he is acting that way because some children were hurting him in the past. Please, someone correct me if that is not possible.

Yes - got him from the store when he was 4 mths.

 

[whitelop]

Is he neutered? It could be a territory issue if he's not neutered.

 

[ivlash]

Is he neutered? It could be a territory issue if he's not neutered.

But why would this be with two specific children - whom he will happily play with through the bars of the cage?

 

[whitelop]

Is he trying to bite them? You said that he's attacking them, but what is his actual behavior like? Is he just running towards them, or is it an angry lunge? I've never heard a rabbit making a hissing noise, but I've heard them grunt and breathe heavily through their noses.
I've never had a male bun, but my female used to circle my feet and grunt at me, she was telling me she loved me. My girl bun now, runs right up to me and grunts too and makes different noises. The girl bun now, grunts when I put my hand in her cage to feed her.
When my girl runs up to me, she kind of snorts and her tail is really high up, she looks excited and a little crazy. Is that what your bun is doing?

Is there a way that your kids could be going into the room while the bun is out in the room, and they're messing with him? My son screams at my rabbit all the time, she doesn't care and they aren't ever in contact because of a baby gate, but he yells at her everyday and she just stares at him.

Or maybe he just feels more comfortable and confident while he's in the cage and feels scared out of the cage. But I can't say that I've heard of an "attack rabbit" before, because they're prey animals and when they get scared they hide or get really low to the ground. Maybe people DO have rabbits who attack, but I've never seen it with the two that I've had.

 

[kmaben]

Dude have you MET shya?!

 

[whitelop]

Okay, well Shya doesn't count! She's a ninja and its her job.

I guess animals that aren't suppose to attack DO attack. When I walk into my back yard, I get assaulted by 12 small chickens with razor sharp baby talons.

Other than a territory issue or the kids messing with the bun, I don't really know?! Maybe someone else has a better idea!

 

[PaGal]

It might help if you explain in more detail such as what is the buns exact behavior? What does attack mean?

One thing I did notice in what you said is that he lets you feed him by hand and he is calm when your daughter feeds him by hand when in his cage but will attack when she comes into the room. Are you sure he is attacking and not that he associates her with food and is running up excitedly looking for some?

has he ever bitten her? The only time I have hear of a bun attacking would be lunging and biting which is usually the bun defending it's territory. Usually neutering will stop this behavior. How often does your daughter interact with the bun? How often through the cage? How often when he is outside the cage?

It could be that your bun for whatever reason doesn't feel the need to lunge when locked up. I have only seen my bun lunge once at my dog. It had been a while since my dog had been in the room with the bun. Thumper lunged just once and then was fine with the dog and played with him afterwards. He had never done it before so I could only assume it was because the dog had not been loose with him in a while although my dog was in the room while Thumper was in his cage everyday.

Without more info to go on I would try letting your daughter first enter the room with a treat to hand the bunny when it approaches her. He may learn to associate her entering the room with something positive. Over time her entering the room would become positive. However, I would only do this if the bun has not actually been biting or at the very least with her wearing a glove. Of course, only you know your daughter and bun best. I would not do this if my daughter was frightened of the bunny or frightened of trying this or if I felt she could become frightened.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Bonnie love me but would go crazy when Nancy came into the room and attack her legs. Each is an individual. Has he been neutered?

 

[existenziell]

Well, I think it would be best if you introduced your child slowly to the rabbit. It could be that he feels threatened, but feels safe in his cage. I would say to have your child continue to feed him treats through the cage. Have him get used to her. And then after awhile of this and you sense he is feeling more comfortable, maybe have him out of the cage but in a x-pen and she can feed him through the bars of the x-pen. That way he is out of his cage and not so comfortable, but you aren't taking things too quickly. Then I would, after a long time, remove the x-pen and just have them in the same room. If you take it slowly, this could work to get him used to your daughter.

On another note, I've never heard of a rabbit hissing. And I'm not sure what you mean exactly by attacking either. But, for the sake of the advice, I assume it's aggression.

 

[ivlash]

Thanks for feedback.

He has had this behaviour towards both of my daughters, and I really have not seen them be anything but playful with him.

The hissing sound was very frightening and I had to keep him away from her with my legs so that she could leave the room as he started chasing after her - and this is a rabbit who usually just plays quietly around the room. He has bitten her in the past so not taking any chances, and with my other daughter too - ran at her and bit her leg.

 

[kmaben]

Has he been circling your feet? That is mating behavior and he may be upset that the girls are getting too close to you. Again something neutering will take care of.

 

[Blue eyes]

Still no answer on whether he's neutered...

I have heard that delaying neutering too long can cause unwanted behavior habits to become ingrained. -just something to consider.

 

[Kipcha]

He has had this behaviour towards both of my daughters, and I really have not seen them be anything but playful with him.

What exactly are we defining as "playful"?

If he's neutered, I'd imagine that's playing a big part in the behavior.

 

[whitelop]

I would be scared of MY child being playful with my rabbit. He's pretty rough with the cats and rough with everything else. So if they're being TOO playful with him maybe he's scared.
Or like Kaley said, if he is circling YOUR feet, he might think that you're his girlfriend and they're encroaching on his territory and thats why he's being aggressive.
I've heard the same thing as Blue Eyes, that if you wait too long to get them neutered, then sometimes those unfavorable traits stay with them. So if he's not neutered, it would probably be a good to get him neutered. It might not take away all the bad behavioral traits he has, but it will take away his hormones and maybe make his less territorial and aggressive toward your daughters.

But in the meantime I probably wouldn't let them anywhere near the bun, if you can. Having him attacking them repeatedly can't be good. Rabbits tend to hold grudges.

 

[Imbrium]

as a note, in addition to info on whether the bunny is neutered, if it was possible to get a video of his reaction to one or both children without putting them at risk of getting bitten, that would be a *significant* help with our attempts to determine what's going on with his behavior. in the same way that a picture is worth a thousand words, there's something about being able to visibly SEE body language/behavior in all its subtle detail that makes it infinitely easier to narrow down the potential issues.

for example, the first time my girls' bond inexplicably broke, I did my best to explain what was going on... but nothing quite gives the same picture as actually *seeing* video I took of them:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tZQ8yJK4sk[/ame]