This is Sir Peanut of Bunnyville. Peanut lives a charmed life: he has two meals a day of nuggets and veg, has free range run of the house (he kept jumping out of the pen until I gave up with it) and all the hay and soft furnishings he can eat. He was neutered as a young rabbit, and is about 18 months old. He has constant companionship in a rabbit brother and human who both love him very much, and he can have as many pets as he demands. Every one of his needs is met, except that maybe he gets a little too many treats because he's so hard to say no to.
And yet, Peanut is an a**hole who wakes up every morning and chooses violence.
His brother Marshmallow lavishes me with affection in the form of little bunny kisses on my head. Peanut likes to get my attention by biting me on my hand, ankle, or any part of me he can reach. Alternatively he digs crazily at me like he's literally trying to dig a burrow. (His claws are clipped but he has long quicks so I can feel it.)
He has always been like this: when I met him and his siblings at the shelter they were the only rabbits who came running up for treats, and Peanut especially was gregarious and demanding. I figured he could just smell all the forage I had been giving the other rabbits at the shelter and thought I was still holding some, because he kept digging at me like it would produce food. He even bit me so hard he drew blood, but that just meant I wanted the little jerk in my life so much that I adopted him.
Things Peanut has bitten or clawed at me for in the past year:
– being asleep when it's breakfast time
– only giving one treat at a time
– existing peacefully on the couch
– working at my desk instead of distributing treats
– petting his brother, but not him
Does anyone else's rabbit act like this? Or have I managed to end up with some sort of vicious chihuahua trapped in a rabbit's body?
Note: he is not acting out of fear or pain. He's not even being aggressive per se, he's just nipping or digging at me when he wants my attention. I think I'm a pretty good reader of my bunnies, and I know when they're not happy. Peanut isn't distressed, he's just like this.
by innerbrat