Hello! I’m looking for some advice on a rabbits behavior.
I run a small rabbit rescue, and we took in this rabbit around 5 months ago. This little guy, Sméagol, was neutered by his previous owner when he was 6 months old, he is now over 1. She took care of him pretty well! He was free roamed, x-pen and all, she never laid a hand on this rabbit. She reached out to me before his neuter saying he had some pretty bad aggression. I told her to take him to get neutered, wait a little while, and that his aggression should het much better. A few months passed and she asked to surrender him to our rescue, that he was just so bad that she couldn’t even pet him!
I took him in of course and let me tell you he is pretty bad. He has gotten better! But he might never be adoptable due to his behavior, he will lunge at me, bite onto my hand, and hang there completely unprovoked. He is so aggressive that I originally thought he must’ve been abused. So it must be stemming from fear.
But no matter how much time I spend reassuring him, giving him treats, approaching him gently and never crossing his boundaries, he’s still pretty bad and actually kind of dangerous to be around.
I wonder is there something I can do to help him (he has no medical issues he was seen and cleared by the vet! And it’s not hormones he was neutered atleast 7 months ago)
Does anyone have any ideas?
A little bit of extra context, he was a solitary bunny before which I thought might’ve been an issue. I pared him with our wonderful sweet boy and he’s much happier with a friend but that didn’t really clear the aggression. I did notice high stress does trigger him. But I wonder is there any tricks I can do to help him?
by Mindless-One-3970