Nipping bunny

Question
My boyfriend and I bought an 8 week old dwarf lop last week and are hoping to bond her very slowly with my neutered male. She is in her own cage in her own room and has at least 5 hours exercise a day with plenty of toys and activities to amuse her. She is bright and has picked up toilet training in just a few days. However, yesterday she began nipping at our jumpers and this has now progressed to nipping us and trying to rip out the carpet. We are not sure why she is doing this as we bought several books on rabbits before we purchased her and have followed all the guidelines. I don't want to get her spayed as she is too young and we don't want her to undergo an extensive operation unless absolutely necessary. What do you suggest to 'nip' this behaviour in the bud??! Notwithstanding this, she is funny, inquisitive rabbit who is very affectionate (licks us whenever we cuddle her) and is very confident and sociable with people and other pets. Your help is much appreciated. One last thing, we think she might be deaf as the hoover noise, music, doesn't faze her at all.

Answer
Dear Emma,

Wow, eight weeks old and already acting like the Alpha Queen!  You're in for a treat!  ;)

Every rabbit has a unique personality, and you can't predict a bunny's future self by breed in most cases.  But in my experience, Holland Lops and other lops tend to have real Attitude, and especially the females.  The males tend to be just goofy.  But the females are *challenging!*

If she's already acting like this at her tender age...look out!  But this is typical of the very smartest bunnies, and as she mellows with age (I hate to tell you this, but it will start around 18 months of age, and *after* she's spayed!), she'll not be such a handful.

When she engages in objectionable behavior, one way to discourage her is to give her a little squirt with a squirt gun or water bottle and say "No!" firmly.  NEVER strike her:  rabbits react to this as a threat, and she will lose all trust she has for you now.  Only positive reinforcement and *very gentle* negative will help train her.

You can find more tips on dealing with aggression here:

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

To keep your carpet safe, place 100% cotton mats over the areas she's chosen and let her rip those up.  Her behavior is natural part of female digging, and it's nearly impossible to keep a rabbit from doing this, since--unlike dogs--rabbits have no innate desire to please an "alpha dog."  In fact, rabbits pretty much view us as their slaves.  Which we're happy to be, of course.  But we also must remember our station.  ;)

I hope this helps get you started.

Dana