HELP! My rabbit attacks my dog!
Xsquid
was doing her student teaching about six months ago. The poor thing had a
swollen closed eye and was stuck in the corner of the classroom in a cage no
bigger than itself hardly. Well, bun-bun had enough abuse and took a chomp
out of a kid, then one out of the teacher. So he was to be released into
the wild, (this was a store bought rabbit mind you). Well my wife was
having none of that, us having rescued various animal in the past, and she
brought bun-bun home. Since my wife is a severe asthmatic, triggered mostly
by mold spore, cat, bird, and yes rabbit dander, I had to come up with a new
"house" for bun-bun ASAP. Bun-bun was now a permanent fixture in our family
due to the sole fact that my two year old saw her, so the rabbit must stay.
Believe me there is a point to all this, I'm just trying to provide as much
background as possible. So, new house. Well we currently own three dogs,
they are Keeshonds, very friendly and good tempered (my wife is a Keeshond
rescuer). So we had a very large cage with 360 of visibility, and with some
slight modification, the 4 ft. by 4 ft. cage was turned into bun-bun's new
home. Well, we took bun-bun to our vet for the once-over, and that when we
found out our little Grey 2 pound bunny was a female, so bun-bun it stay (I
was kinda hoping for a boy). So bun-bun was listed for adoption (ha,ha), I
laugh because my wife did the intended parental interviews and I knew no one
would pass her severe tests of pet-ownership. So in the interim, our year
old bunny eventually warmed up to me, I borrowed a book on bunnies and
introduced the bunny to the dogs like it said (same height as dog, on your
lap, dog sniff rabbit, rabbit sniff dog) every thing was fine, she liked her
new home and the dogs didn't bother her. Then one day when I reached in to
get bun-bun out for her daily petting and yard run (dogs went inside the
house for this one) she growled at me. Well, straight to the book I went,
"rabbit means stay away", well that was a gimme. I gave it a couple of days
(the vet also said that the rabbit could be in heat), but her cage really
needed cleaning by this time so in I went. CHOMP! It wasn't pleasant, my
daughter learned new words which she didn't waste any time repeating for her
mother. This time armed with leather gloves I got her, put her into a puppy
cage and commenced to cleaning. Well, the next morning I go out to check on
her to see if she felt any guilt at all for almost lopping off my whole arm,
okay so maybe just a small skin abrasion, but smarted. I look in her
freshly cleaned cage, no rabbit. At this same time I am noticing "no dogs",
we have three dogs and three dog houses, but they all insist on sleeping
together in one (go figure). Well usually when I step outside its
pandemonium and a flurry of fur, not this time, just three guilty looks from
fuzzy faces in a dog house. Now I'm worried, since I routinely find dead
birds and unfortunately a squirrel this winter, in our yard, obviously play
toys for the dogs. Hey, I'm not going to make excuses for them. So I call
all three out first the two "puppies" come, I call them puppies, they are
actually 4 years old and are both about 50 pounds. Then the old man, my
wife remaining rescue Keeshond found on an old farm, he's about 15 years old
and 50 pounds. And then last but not least, bun-bun. Well, to make an
already long story shorter and to get to the point, I just thought bun-bun
was lucky and put him back in his cage and plugged the holes, I thought.
Out escapes bun-bun, I put him back. Out escapes bun-bun, I put him back.
Out escapes bun-bun, I put him back. You get the idea, so away goes the
cage and bun-bun has her own private section to sleep and rest and the run
of the yard with the dogs coexisting in harmony. Until a few weeks ago
bun-bun has had her total freedom no for about two months, and I noticed she
would always follow the female "puppy" where ever she went, well that's
kinda cute I thought. Well then a couple of weeks ago every time the female
would try to get away from bun-bun the rabbit would jump at the side of the
dog feet first again and again and again. Even with the dog running off the
rabbit is still trying to do this strange thing. This particular breed of
dog is very into a "pecking" order, and the female being the youngest is
lowest on the totem pole, and unfortunately is wracked with hip dysplaysia
(thanks to puppy mills), so is slow to move or defend. Could the rabbit be
picking up on the pecking order thing, or the dog being hurt, or is it just
a female thing (sorry ladies). Does the rabbit know that this dog is weaker
, or that its a female and trying to compete or does my 2lb. bunny think
that its a 50 lb. Keeshond. Ever since the biting incident it will not
allow me to hold it, I mean I didn't beat my bunny, or even scold it. it
will allow my two year old to get nose to nose with it and she still follows
me all over the yard to see what I'm doing, but if I try to approach her,
away she hops. Well any help or advice would be helpful. If you didn't
notice I tend to ramble on, sorry. TIA
Rodney S. Lechwar
Rhonda Mattax
>
Well any help or advice would be helpful. If you didn't
> notice I tend to ramble on, sorry. TIA
>
> Rodney S. Lechwar
Hi Rodney,
Great story! The way you told the story was hilarious.
I don't know why your rabbit is attacking a dog, is she trying to hump
her? Humping is a sign of dominance with rabbits. Even after rabbits are
spayed and neutered they still do that to show who is boss.
Your rabbit would probably be friendlier to people and less agressive if
she were spayed. The biggest advantage for female rabbits to be fixed is
that most unspayed females develop uterine cancer by the time they are
about 3-5 years old. The side benefit is that spaying can help their
disposition by removing the hormone factor.
Your vet mentioned your rabbit might be in heat, but rabbits do not have
a heat cycle. They can breed at any time. If you do decide to get her
spayed, you'll want to get a vet that is very experienced with rabbits.
Good luck with your bold little one!
--
-Rhonda
Stealthbni
was just the neatest thing in the world and would follow him around, begging to
play.
Cam
...somewhere in the peaceful mountains, a rabbit plots to take over the
world....
Stealthbunny
JLands9104
them and grunts. Freaks the dogs out. But, he's not aggressive... and he
hasn't actually latched a hold... so it might be more play than mean.
Tess3
hutch. If he upsets her water bottle or starts whinging, she lunges at
him and growls and he runs off to us for comfort :)
Nat
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BJW
Bunbun needs to be neutered/spayed immediately. This will help *very* much with
the aggression.
Good luck,
BJ
Cheryl
That is why I don't really approve on buns in the classroom. They tend to
either be neglected or totally stressed out because of the kids. But anyway
thanks to your wife for rescuing the bun.
You need to get the bun spayed right away. That should fix the
aggressiveness. The bun may be wary of you and not let you hold her, because
we know you love her, but she may feel differently. She may not trust
humans alot because of the school incident even though she loves your
daughter. Bunnies are very sensitive to human feelings and they learn to
read you. Some buns are like Fiver in Watership Down and maybe she can
sense that you prefer the keeshonds over her. She may be just playing with
the dogs too instead of being aggressive toward them. She is a brave rabbit
to be actually biting them. She may think that they are just large rabbits,
because they are very furry. Ha-Ha.
My brother has a Keeshond.
Rabbits kind of have a pecking order too in their warrens. She may be
picking up on your puppy being disabled. If bun is actually biting that
puppy, even after you get her spayed, you may have to keep bun in a large
rabbit proof cage, or put puppy somewhere else while Bun-Bun is there with
the rest of the dogs. I say that because my Dusty Rose rabbit who is a
female doesn't like Ralphy too much. Ralphy is a male 7 and a half year old
rabbit who is kind of sickly. It is like she wants to get rid of him
because he has defects. All the females I have are like that toward Ralphy.
They don't like him and will chase him and bite him. I have to watch Rosie.
The boys get along fine with him, it is just the girls. I don't know
whether any of this makes sense. It is just observations I have come up
with in my rabbits. Females rabbits definitely choose who they love.
Hope this helps
Cheryl GEhrke
Xsquid <Lec...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:HHX93.251$ug6....@typhoon01.swbell.net...
Michele Satanove
>
> That is why I don't really approve on buns in the classroom. They tend to
> either be neglected or totally stressed out because of the kids.
Not always! ;) Right, Rhonda S (aka Superteach)?
> You need to get the bun spayed right away. That should fix the
> aggressiveness.
This is probably true.
Good luck Rodney, and keep in touch with us... I for one love your
storytelling style.
Michele and menagerie
Gretchen
When I got my bun, Sam (5 lb grey Jersey Wooly), I had an elderly dog
(Sadie, 14lb pekeapoo). When I let the bun run around the kitchen with
the dog, she would follow thee dog around. I think she wanted to play,
but at 17, Sadie had no interest in such silliness.
Anyway, by this time Sadie was almost completely blind and the bunny
would sneak up behind her and nip her on the back legs. Sadie would jump
and look around like "What was that?" Because she was blind she couldn't
see Sam; the bun was silent so there was nothing to hear; she snuck up
from behind, so she couldn't be smelled. I'm sure the poor dog thought
it was some kind of invisible monster nipping at her!
Gretchen
JLands9104
Barett (bunny). Ryley knows it might happen whenever he crosses Baretts path
so he stiffens up, looks straight ahead and prays to doggygod! Then, when
Barett jumps on him he just ignores it and weasels right by... it's so funnY
Sonia Dickinson
round her large Golden Retriever as soon as it set foot in the garden,
Misty would make a B-line for her and get hold of the bib around her neck,
and the dog used to stand stock still looking ahead until Misty let go and
carried on eating grass.
Then they just ignored each other.
The other rabbits didn't bother.
They are fun to watch.
Sonia
JLands9104 <jland...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19990629193046...@ng-bh1.aol.com...
Susan
him and off they go! It's quite the site. It usually stops when she gives
the dog a fair nip on the back and he sort of bucks her off. A neighbor
friend of mine saw this behavior the other day and thought it was a
hilarious show to watch! I guess Shelby is trying to determine herself as
the "alpha dog" around my house! :)
Susan
