All good points! These
Blue seal
Definitely excellent advice, thank you! I have been having trouble with my keyboard so I will attempt to reply by my cell. He’s the son of the rescue doe and an unknown buck. She will not be bred again and it’s kind of turned me off to the breed, unfortunately. If my husband didn’t like the little demon buck I would have already culled him. I don’t want these traits in my herd’s gene pool.
As far as neutering goes that would be up to my husband. Out of all my rabbits, he likes this one!?!
I’ve changed his cage, location, upped his hay and given him some space. Absolutely nothing has changed in his behavior. My husband said he’d wear gloves and do some handling this weekend. I will likely videotape it!
Chances are good that I won’t breed any of them again, but will keep them as pets instead. The dwarf breeds are really cute but I’m not sure they are right for me. Turns out I enjoy the larger rabbits a lot more.
Rabbits are a species that uses a dominance hierarchy to live communally. This informs the way they communicate with each other, and the way they communicate with us as well.
In "rabbit language," riding (mounting/humping), nipping and licking, and putting the head over the head of another rabbit are all
dominance behaviors.
Running away, hiding, crouching with head low and ears lowered, and pushing the head underneath the dominant rabbit's head are
submissive behaviors.
Growling, lunging, open mouth with pinned ears, and biting (which involves holding on and/or drawing blood) are
aggressive behaviors. Like I mentioned above, sometimes young spring does go through a brief phase of this behavior that resolves after breeding or with increasing age and waning spring conditions. Other rabbits are permanently aggressive for one reason or another.
Submissive rabbits are generally a joy to work with. Without much other than gentle handling, they usually turn out to be outstanding pets, real loves. Dominant rabbits can be trained to also be great pets. They're the ones that have a spunky attitude that some people just love - they tend to be real characters.
Dominant rabbits often try to "be boss" which includes nipping (not actually biting) or bucking when you're trying to pose them. I see it mostly in rabbits between weaning and sexual maturity, when they'd be working out their place in the heirarchy. When a rabbit tries to "be boss," as
@Sapphire16 suggests, immobilizing it by covering its head and shoulders with your hand and pushing it down to the table is a good approach. Hold it till it stops struggling. The dominant ones will really fight you; be gentle but firm and don't let them up till they "say uncle" by relaxing. When they relax, let them go and pet their forehead (or whatever they like). Some will get up and try again, and you'll go through the whole drama again. Some take more effort than others, but in general it seems that 2-4 rounds of training helps them get the message that you're the boss.
I have had little luck with aggressive rabbits, though. Sometimes you can train them to be tolerable, but I have found that they're never really trustworthy; the aggression seems to just simmer under the surface. The exceptions to this are rabbits that are aggressive because they have been abused. It takes quite a bit of time and patience but we have rehabilitated rabbits in that situation. But it definitely doesn't sound like that applies to your young buck.
You've certainly gone above and beyond trying to reform this guy. It'll be interesting to hear how it goes for your husband. Some people love a particular animal in spite of all arguments. My daughter just
loved her neutered Netherland Dwarf buck, who would launch at her and hang onto her hand like a bulldog every single time she opened his cage. I just couldn't look.
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