my 2 month old mini lop ear rabbit

Question
my rabbit likes to bite you, not all the time.she likes to sit on my chest and have me pet her but after a few minutes she will start biting. what can i do to stop that? also what kind of food should she be eating at her age? we have been feeding her pellets and it has corn, seeds and dried fruiys and vegetables in it. is that good for her? we give her the small bales of timothy hay everyday, we break off a chunk of it and give it to her. the bales are the compact kind you get in the petshops


Answer
Hello Millie,
Hi Millie,

Any food with veggies like corn etc in it is bad.  You should be buying  pellets with at least 16 % crude protein.  Also the hay is good.  You shouldn't start introducing baby rabbits (up to 6 months old) vegetables or leafy greens until at least 4-6 months old.  When you do try little bits at a time.  Some of the things my rabbits like are cilantro (their favorite), small pieces of apple, dried pineapples, radish leaves, all dark lettuce (no iceberg), cabbage.  For treats they love raisins and one or 2 cheerio's but no more.  

Your rabbit could be biting you for a number of reasons.  Rabbits have a tendency to get nippy at a young age.  She might grow out of it (hopefully), she may not have been handled a lot by the breeder, and she might just want to be let down.  Some rabbits have a very short attention span and get bored very easily.  Just keep playing with her, she should calm down in a few months.  I have that problem a lot with very young kits.  One other thing you can do is yell "eeeeeek" in a shreiky voice everytime she bites you.  Believe it or not after a while rabbits can understand you and she will know she is hurting you.

Please whatever you do, stop feeding the commercial food sold at pet stores and walmart type stores.  They don't make it for the good of the rabbit but only to make a profit.  She might get mad at you at first but you can slowly ween her off of it.  I know walmart has just regular old fashioned pellets as well.  You can also get them at places like Agway, TSC, and local farmers mill etc.

Goodluck with your little rascal hope she stops biting you soon.

Sincerely,

Pam Enve

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