Is this normal spring behavior or am I doing something wrong

So the title is my question. To prefix it, two days ago I tried to take my angora doe, Blue Pouff out of her hutch to work on her nails when she flipped out and kicked, catching me in the chin and chest. Yesterday my cinnamon buck Amos lunged at and caught my thumb. It was a surface wound and only bled for a minute. I went to move some hay in the colony hutch and he was near it. It might have been either food aggression or the fact that the movement was from above and behind him. Today he seemed fine, but my other new doe, Avista took a nip at me. The hutch she and the buck, Marshmallow are in is two separate sections with one door, I know silly design but it was made in mind for two does. While I was feeding her, Marshmallow tried to take hers, she jumped forward and unfortunately my hand was still on the hay. My middle finger now has a similar injury to yesterdays, just longer and more noticeable.

Are my buns getting food aggressive because I am not giving them enough? Is this normal hormone behavior? Is it because I was wearing a different sweatshirt then normal both days (the regular one is in the wash)? Is my doe pregnant and just hormonal? The buck went into her side yesterday and she lifted, he humped/squealed and fell off, then I picked him up and put him back on his side where he stomped and groomed himself.

The amount of food I give them is a enough hay to roughly equal their size, a very large handful of bunny safe yard weeds - each, a palm-full of BOSS - each, and every once in a while either some banana or carrot (with the addition of BOSS this has lessened in frequency), I rinse out and refill their water bowls and close up which ever hutch I'm in at the moment and move on to the next bun.

I'm out of ideas, I have yet to try what Lopsided suggested yesterday in chat. It's been pouring rain here all day (week, welcome to the Northwest in spring) and I can't bring the rabbit's inside to do their nails. Anything to do with the rabbits has to be done outdoors, Hubby is allergic to the buns (watery/itchy eyes, running nose, itchy throat). I know that injuries come with any livestock but I'm getting frustrated. Three times in three days, ugh.

Moodiness is one thing, drawing blood is another.

I find I enjoy tending my rabbits much more, and I can provide better grooming and maintenance for them if I only keep animals who can be safely handled.
Consequently, anyone who draws blood here is on the next bus to freezer camp.


Once bred, they may settle, or...they may get worse.
You can try switching around their caging situations to see if you can discover the trigger.

If I were to cull Amos, would Roxie; my cinnamon doe, be hurt by mating with Marshmallow who is a Beveren?

What are their weights? ( I believe it takes a pretty dramatic difference to matter)

i have yet to weigh them on an official scale but when I pick them up Roxie feels like she is roughly between 7 - 9 pounds and Marshmallow feels like 9 - 11 maybe? I can pick both of them up with one hand easily, although I prefer to lift them both up using two hands.

That's nothing to worry about. I think the size difference risk is mostly myth anyway.

Larger litters tend to have smaller kits, and very small litters (like one or two kits)can produce dangerously large kits no matter what breeds were used.

I wouldn't breed a new Zealand buck to a dwarf doe...but... I've heard that many breed FG bucks to NZ does without trouble. My 7.5 lb Lilac doe didn't have any problem with my 11 lb SF buck. I might have been scared to try it, but the breeder who I bought her from had already successfully bred her to a FG/NZ cross that was even larger.

ok, I will make a decision on what to do. I honestly wonder if it is food aggression, because of the rain I wasn't able to get out there at my normal time. On both days that the bites happened. Idk, maybe I'm just making excuses so I don't have to kill breeding stock

baefull.wolfbunnies":3tguq1vh said:

ok, I will make a decision on what to do. I honestly wonder if it is food aggression, because of the rain I wasn't able to get out there at my normal time. On both days that the bites happened. Idk, maybe I'm just making excuses so I don't have to kill breeding stock

Click to expand...

I think what you need to ask yourself is:
"Is food aggression acceptable?" and by acceptable, I mean, do you want to continue to deal with it, and have it show up in your future herd?

I've never, ever had a buck who would bite me if I was late to feed him, so if it was one of mine...I wouldn't hesitate (since I don't already have that in my lines, I certainly wouldn't want to add it) But mine are just mutts. I baby my sweet rabbits, but I've also sent too many nice fryers to freezer camp to worry about aggressive adults....you know?

I can see that. As far as I am aware all 5 of mine are not mutts. However I might be making mutts soon if Roxie fails to kindle yet again. It might be her or it might be Amos.

The amount of food I give them is a enough hay to roughly equal their size, a very large handful of bunny safe yard weeds - each, a palm-full of BOSS - each, and every once in a while either some banana or carrot (with the addition of BOSS this has lessened in frequency), I rinse out and refill their water bowls and close up which ever hutch I'm in at the moment and move on to the next bun.

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Do you think they may be not getting enough nutrition? With no pellets I would think that you ought to be at least feeding them some grains other than BOSS.

baefull.wolfbunnies":fw6ld83p said:

Are my buns getting food aggressive because I am not giving them enough? Is this normal hormone behavior? Is it because I was wearing a different sweatshirt then normal both days (the regular one is in the wash)? Is my doe pregnant and just hormonal? The buck went into her side yesterday and she lifted, he humped/squealed and fell off, then I picked him up and put him back on his side where he stomped and groomed himself.

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Not enough food? Unlikely. Are they completely (or almost completely) eating all of their feed each day? If so, maybe you should offer more hay, but I still doubt it would be related to that.

Normal hormone behavior? Maybe for a hormonal doe, but even then, most won't put up with it for long.

Different sweatshirt? Definitely not.

I do think that rabbits can get bored and frustrated, which might lead to more aggressive behavior. This might be intensified in the spring, but if it turns into a pattern of behavior, it's unacceptable.

-- Sat Mar 28, 2015 8:06 am --

ChaoSS":fw6ld83p said:

The amount of food I give them is a enough hay to roughly equal their size, a very large handful of bunny safe yard weeds - each, a palm-full of BOSS - each, and every once in a while either some banana or carrot (with the addition of BOSS this has lessened in frequency), I rinse out and refill their water bowls and close up which ever hutch I'm in at the moment and move on to the next bun.

Click to expand...

Do you think they may be not getting enough nutrition? With no pellets I would think that you ought to be at least feeding them some grains other than BOSS.

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Might be good to feed them oatmeal or something. I feed pellets so I'm not sure how much extra they need on a natural diet. Might want to post and ask in the feed section about that. Are they all in good condition?

ChaoSS":2i23ne0l said:

Do you think they may be not getting enough nutrition? With no pellets I would think that you ought to be at least feeding them some grains other than BOSS.

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I would love to feed them other grains. I only have the quick quaker oats in the house at the moment. I do try to vary the weeds they get. Even cutting raspberry and blackberry vines for them.

Syberchick70":2i23ne0l said:

Might want to post and ask in the feed section about that. Are they all in good condition?

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I've looked through the feed section and taken my feeding list based off what I have available to me and what is on the lists already on rabbit talk.

Other then the poopy bottom we talked about yesterday they are.

--edit--

I forgot to say in my list of feed that they get a handful of fresh parsley and a leaf of kale each (when prices are good enough) but when my garden is up they will be getting good more leafy greens.

Hmmm... The only other thing that jumps to mind for buck aggressiveness is heath. You might inspect his teeth (and the rest of him) very closely for something that could be causing discomfort.

His teeth are fine, his nails were a bit long and I trimmed those a few days ago.