we have a bad bunny

[Reon]

Hi, im after a bit of help with a bunny we have, we live in New Zealand and have a 20 acre lifestyle block, we have over 100 animals mostly pets, we have 3 kids and we are all animal lovers, we range from horses to mice that my daughter has in her room, so being dad and looking after them all i have huge experience looking after pets for the last 15 years, but this bunny is different...

Im not sure what kind she is , the pet shop cant tell me either but we brought her and her sister a year ago, at 4 months old a black one and a grey one, both sisters the grey one is the most beautiful grey you have ever seen stunning looking rabbit, small normal size but this is the one we have big problems with, they have both been spayed when we got them , but the grey bunny has huge problems....

We have a 100m square enclosure for our 7 bunnies, and a great huge hutch with plenty of space for them all, some choose to go to there own space to sleep when we put them away at night, they seem to have there own space that they like to keep but all of them get along with us and each other, not the grey bunny tho..

This bunny is like the devils bunny, it hates everyone including the other rabbits, it will attack the other bunnies if it gets a chance, and us if we go near it the only one it will tolerate is its sister (that i put them together each night) but her sister is happy to go in the main enclosure with the other bunnies, and get played with like the others with my kids...

I have made a seperate run for this bunny but it still tries to attack the other rabbits through the fence, and us if we try to interact with it, our dogs are even scared of it.. it has the space when its in the main enclosure to keep to itself, do its own thing if it wants to.... we have another bunny like that, but this one cant be put near any other animal exept its sister, its too aggressive.

anyone have any ideas?

 

[Flakes]

Just guessing I would say that your bunny isn't bonded with the other rabbits. I'm new at this whole rabbit thing but from reading on this site, I've learned that Rabbits can be territorial and there is a process to bond them to other rabbits so that they share the same space. Otherwise they try to dominate and can even kill the the rabbits they are with.

 

[zuppa]

Sounds like she might be defensive for some reason and trying to protect herself, maybe she had bad experience in the past or something. There could be other reasons just guessing I have two girls who are very defensive, first I've got at 9 weeks from a very noisy home with barking dogs and abusive kids and very unhealthy environment and it took me nearly one year before she stopped biting and attacking my, I've lost lots of blood. The other one I had her from day 1 and she was rehomed at age 4 months then I took her back because she didn't fit with other bunnies and she was all badly wounded with bleeding scars all over her back, and pregnant. She was very defensive too, now after 5 months she had her babies and was a very good loving mother she doesn't attack me anymore and she loves her 4 month old girls, but she'd attack any other rabbit, especially if it's a male, even my males are very friendly and don't do anything, just passing by her door, she attacks them and trying to bite through the door, they get frightened of her.
Your case could be different just thought I'd share my own experience.
If it was my rabbit I'd watch her closely for some time to see what makes her defensive, there should be a reason for that, then when you know what the trigger is you can try correcting maybe. Anyways this will require time and focus, as Flakes mentioned she will probably need some extra help with bonding to your other rabbits and your family, she probably doesn't trust anybody except of her sister.

So I would suggest to read some articles about bonding process, there's lots of videos as well it could be a long process and sometimes with no success unfortunately. But if you have lots of experience with your pets and time and desire to fix that it could be possible. Good thing that she is already fixed, but maybe she's need to be fully isolated from other pets for a month or two so she can forget them, during this time you can try building trust between you, get to her level, let her watch you just sitting or laying near her and doing nothing so she'd understand that you are harmless, give her only positive experience so you can gain her trust step by step, day by day. And then you can try introducing her to the other rabbits in a neutral territory, as a completely new rabbit, they have a short memory and hopefully won't remember the fights. As I said, it could take lots of time, if you have it.

When I say isolated it means fully isolated from your other pets so she can't see or smell them, also your dogs maybe she understands them as predators maybe they just want to play but she's too scared and thinks they are going to harm her. Rabbits are prey animals and she's maybe just see much danger around her and trying to protect herself.

Also if you could post some pics or maybe videos how she attacks other members maybe so we can see and understand better what's going on, we have people keeping rabbits for decades here and surely they could help you to analyse her behaviour and possibly fix it.
Hopefully it it fixable, good luck anyway!