Written by The Rabbit Hole Hay Team
It happens more often than one would think — a previously nonaggressive rabbit suddenly starts biting. What is the reason behind the biting and what should you do?
In the immediate aftermath of the bite, uttering a high-pitched squeal like, "Eeek!" lets your bun know that they have hurt you. This is important, because not all nips and bites are done with the intention of inflicting pain. Then, you should wash the area and apply a clean bandage to the site of the bite.
It happens more often than one would think — a previously nonaggressive rabbit suddenly starts biting. What is the reason behind the biting and what should you do?
In the immediate aftermath of the bite, uttering a high-pitched squeal like, "Eeek!" lets your bun know that they have hurt you. This is important, because not all nips and bites are done with the intention of inflicting pain. Then, you should wash the area and apply a clean bandage to the site of the bite.
Although it may feel instinctual to swat your bunny after it nips or bites you, this is absolutely the worst possible reaction you can have. Remember, your rabbit is not a rambunctious puppy or angry dog. Hitting or otherwise hurting your rabbit for biting is likely to make them more aggressive and destroy any chance of a bond between you.
Bunnies can bite for any number of reasons. Let's review some of the most common:
All of the above could be the root cause of your rabbit biting you. But sometimes there may be other, less common, factors at play. We'll examine some of those next.
It's not always possible to know much about the circumstances of your bunny's life before you adopted it, therefore making sure you are kind and gentle is extremely important as they get use to you and their new environment.
Aggressive rabbits usually have legitimate reasons for their aggression toward people. Unless they have known love and gentleness from human hands, they don't understand how to properly respond to their new owners' gentle kindness.
Rabbits that come from animal hoarders are often food aggressive because they had to fight their littermates and others for every scrap and morsel. Thus, when you approach them with their tasty dinner hay, they react badly because they think they won't get to eat their fill otherwise.
It can't be stressed enough that you have to exercise patience to help your bunny get over these issues of aggressive biting. You have to put your detective hat on and try to determine what is causing your rabbit to act aggressively.
What you thought was a bite may have only been a nip from your bun as a way to communicate or get you to pay more attention to them. Bunnies also groom each other with a series of nips and licks. Your rabbit is not intending to harm you when it gently nips you. But it does mean that you need to understand the difference (and pay your bun enough attention).