Rabbits Bite!

Question
Hello! Today I was cleaning my rabbit's cage and I took him out and put him under his cage.. and after I had put everything he needs in there.. I put him back and then he started biting the wires of the cage and I tried to gently push him back to stop him from biting and started to pet him and he bit me and he grunt at me. I would like to know why did he bite me , I'm trying really hard to take care of him and he's my first pet rabbit.. anyway i think he's scared of me because he always gets away from me and doesn't like me to touch him, please help me?

Answer
Dear Heidi,

First, are you sure of the rabbit's sex?  This behavior is very much like that of a female suffering from a false pregnancy, and if so, she needs to be spayed to prevent uterine cancer and to help curb her aggression.

Many rabbits are "cage aggressive" and they will be defensive inside their cages, even to the humans they know and trust.  To win her over, please read this:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/shybun.html

There are excellent articles on how to deal with an aggressive bunny here:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/aggression.html

But the main first step is to have the bunny spayed or neutered by an experienced rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope this helps.

Dana