problems with an angry rabbit.

Question
QUESTION: my rabbit attacks my hands and arms, bites and grunts at everyone, including my cats! he used to play with the cats and people so well. if I try to give him treats he knocks them out of my hands and tries to bite. what can I do to train him to behave differently?

ANSWER: HI, you don't give enough info to tell you what is going on.  You'll need to answer a couple questions (do a follw-up):

1.  Are you 100% sure your rabbit is male?

2.  How old is your rabbit?

3.  When does he bite you?  What are you doing, and where is he when he tries to do this?

4.  Has anything changed in the house recently?  For him, for you, anything?

Lee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I got him from a pet store and they checked him for me there and said they were sure he's a male. how can I check myself to be sure?
he's a 7 month old lion head rabbit. it seems like he attacks whenever you move your hands or when you reach into his cage to give him food or water, he's very protective over his toys and he grunts at us when we give him treats.
yesterday I was sitting on the floor with him and put my arm down to lean back and he bit me and smacked at my arm with his paws. he seems to do this more when he's in his room or in his cage. when we let him out to play he sometimes attacks our feet when we move them around at all.
I can't think of anything that has changed in the house. we keep him in our spare bedroom all day because he hates our dog and only let him out to play when the dog is outside. when he's out he plays well with our cats as long as he's in our living room area. if they're in his room and he's out playing, he bites at their legs.
he has a pretty regular schedule, he comes out to play once or twice in the evening for a least 45 mins and gets fresh food and water before I go to bed. when we enter the room he runs to the cage door and seems happy to see us. he will hop up on my lap for some petting from time to time, if I stop petting before he's ready he bites but it seems really light and not as aggressive as any other time. he doesn't do this for anyone else though.
I hope that helps, I'm really confused here!

Answer
Hi Christina,

I think that if you haven't ever taken him to the vet, now is a good time.  Not because he's sick, but every animal needs at least an annual exam by a good vet.  The vet can show you how to check what sex he is to either confirm the pet store or not (it is quite common for pet stores to not get the sex right with rabbits).

In any case, being 7 months old, your rabbit is now sexually mature and the behavior you are seeing is proof.  Cage aggression, nipping at feet, etc, is hormonally-driven behavior in an intact rabbit.

You cannot train this out of them.  You need to find a good rabbit vet (very experienced) to do either a neuter (if male) or a spay (if female).  I would strongly suggest starting to look for a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society-recommended vet near you.  Not all vets are good rabbit vets.  Most vets get little to no experience with rabbits in med school.  Maybe 1 days' worth of classes.  So start with the HRS site as these are vets who have lots of good, regular experience with rabbits.  Very high success rates.

I would also strongly recommend picking up the House Rabbit Handbook and spending time at the HRS web site (www.rabbit.org) reading their extensive article collection covering all aspects of rabbit care and behavior.

Lee