sweet bunny suddenly getting aggresive

Question
I have a dwarf lop eared bunny who is about 4mths old. She suddenly today started to get more "jumpy and aggressive towards me. Normally she comes out of her cage daily and she loves to be held and petted , but today she jumped up on the bed wet on me a little and then ran up and bit me on the check.She didn't bite me hard, but this is not her normal behavior. Could she be going through her 1st heat? If so , should I get a buck to mate her with?

Answer
Dear Suzanne,

Welcome to bunny puberty!  She's a little bit young to be showing these signs, but Netherland Dwarf rabbits sometimes mature a bit earlier than other breeds, and can have Attitude, to boot.  To stop her aggression, she will have to be spayed.  Breeding her is more likely to increase her moodiness and biting tendencies than to calm her down, so I would *definitely* not recommend breeding her, as well as for the reasons here:

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

Unfortunately, 4 months is still a bit young for a spay.  Ideally, I like to wait until at least 8 months of age, since estrogen performs an important role in bone density and skeletal formation.  But these issues are best discussed with a good rabbit vet, who can advise you about how long to wait to spay her.  You can find a vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

In the meantime, here are some helpful tips to train her away from being nippy and destructive:

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

I hope this helps.

Dana