Why does my rabbit bit me?

Question
June 25, 2004

Dear Gina and Kim,

I recently obtained a rabbit.  It is a male and he was doing good living in the house.  He started spraying me and my furniture, "a lot".  So I moved him to a very clean, cool, rabbit safe basement.  He has a large run including a fenced area outside.  He has inside/outside habitat.  Though, it seems that recently when I enter his new habitat he comes storming at me, circles me and ends up either biting me on my finger or between my fingers because I reached out to pet him, or has circled around me and bites me straight on the butt!  OUCH!  His bites are big and painful!  I don't know why he is rejecting me...I feel sad and hurt.  I even struck back one time.  When he bites he chomps down and curles into a ball and goes into a kicking spree...  His eyes shut! I can grab him and pick him up...I gently pet him and ask him what's the matter, but he seems to get more upset than ever.  I don't understand?  I love him so much and don't want to get rid of him.  Any suggestions or comments?  I don't know the history of his past... He's quite large and obviously an adult.  One of those brown bunnies with the white ring around the neck.  White nose.  I know he came from a local pet store.  

Anxious to hear.

Laura Lee  

Answer
Well, it sounds like he has a couple of issues going on.  One, he has reached his sexual maturity, hence the spraying.  If you have him neutered, within 2-4 weeks he will stop the spraying.

The biting could be either caused by the hormones (male rabbits bite the female during sex), or there could be some smell that is bothering him that is causing him to act like that.  If he never bit and kicked before, then hormones seem the most likely cause for that.

So if you can have him neutered first, give him about a month, then reevaluate, at least some and hopefully all of the issues will go away.

Kim