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I have a female (altered) mini lop rabbit. I adopted her from a rescue and was told that she bites, I previously owned a male rabbit that was a biter, but he just nipped, she draws blood every time. I have tried spraying her with water after she bites me, pushing her head to the floor (to show dominance over her) she seems to go for a while without biting, then starts again. She bites if I reach into her pen (sometimes she also hisses) or if I'm just sitting on the floor with her out of her pen, I am at the end of my rope and I am afraid of hurting her if she does it one more time, so I aven't been letting her out since the last, and worst bite (she was hanging from my hand when I pulled it away from her). If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it. I don't want to give her to anyone else because of this behavior.

Aww silly bunny ...you give her a nice home and look how she rewards you!

Anyways, how long have you had her for? If you haven't had her for very long, maybe she's still not use to her new surroundings. Give her some time alone to get use to things. She's a rescue, so who knows how she was treated before you got her. Maybe she just needs time to feel safe.

I've never really found that discipline works all that well for rabbits. You don't want to scare her too much because if she see's you as a threat, then she's going to want to bite you even more. Is she mostly protective of her cage or is it all the time?

Have you tired just leaving her alone and see what she does on her own terms? I think that's what I would try in this situation. Just open her cage to feed her/give her water, and let her out for exercise when your there to supervise her, but don't impose on her anymore then that. Don't try to pet her or pick her up, just let her do her own thing. You can talk to her calmly maybe, and be around her, maybe offer her a treat of two if you can get close enough, but don't do anything that would cause her to bite. Maybe when she relizes that your ok, she'll come to you for attention. I know that might be a slow process, but worth it if it works. Plus maybe it'll save you from getting bite for awhile!

Good luck!

This is what the House rabbit society has to say about aggressive bunnies... maybe looking that over will help a bit as well?

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

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have had her for about 6 months. She is very protective of her pen, which I understand, rabbits being very territorial, but if she is out and I have been petting her for awhile or even just sitting there, she might just come up and bite my hand, leg or foot. The woman that had her at the rescue even named her Sadie (sadist) because of her aggressiveness. I don't pick her up out of her pen, I just let her come out on her own, she will usually follow me around (underfoot). She will also jump up on my couch and pee if I don't watch her. I also have an altered male bunny, I'm wondering if she doesn't like having another bunny there, I got her to be his friend, but they don't get along, so they are in the same pen with a divider down the middle. I think I might try wearing heavy clothes and gloves, she bites right through leather gloves, I have used dishwashing liquid on the gloves when I would reach into her pen, that worked, she didn't like the taste, but now I use a gopher (long handled reaching tool) to get her bowls out of her pen.

last night I let Sadie out of her cage. I sat on the couch and didn't acknowledge her, she ran around for a while, then she jumped up on my lap....and peed on me! Then she jumped down. She has done this a couple of times before, I don't know if she is saying piss on you, or if she thinks I belong to her so she is "marking" me.

The gentle approach works better This bunny may have been beaten/hit/ knocked around because she bites (and out of fear most likely) I would not hold her head down, or do anything agressive back to her.

I would f=give it time also. Let her have her cage door open and maybe sit across the floor or a few fee away, kind of ignoring her (but not really) LOL and have some goodies in hand. Goodies, as in raisins, or fruit she likes, before you sit sown go pick some dandilion greens / and flowers and have them ready for her to munch.

I think with this approach in no time she will come to you becuase she wants to and learn that you provide her with nice treats, and do not grab her or harm her. Slowly after a few weeks of TREATS and letting her come to you, I think things will settle down with her.

To get her into the cage put some good things a foot or so IN the cage so she has to jump in to get them and then close her in. Make the time out Special but like I say I would sit motionless away from the cage after the doors open, and let her COME TO YOU..... Don't forget the GOODIES

Let us know how it goes. She sound like shes been abused.
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PHEve/ Eve

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Whatever you pick from outside has not been treated with pesticides/ lawn or bug poisons.

Keep the treats in small hunks also so she does not get full and leave you, but continues to want more and taske it from you!

Take care,
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PHEve/ Eve

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How was she other then the peeing incident? No biting or anything?

Is she littler box trained at all? I never had any trouble with my boy peeing on anything weird like that, he always went in the same spot in his cage and absolutly REFUSED to go anywhere else. I think you had mentioned that she had peed on this couch before? Maybe that's just the spot she chose to go to the bathroom, and the other day you just happened to be in the way, lol.

If I were you I would try to get her box trained. First of all, wash the couch as good as you possable can so she can't smell her sent on it. I googled your problem a little since I've never really had that problem and found this...

"One thing I don't think it mentions is a technique for training a rabbit to stay off a particular piece of furniture they've decided to make a toilet. It's a pain in the butt for a while but many people find that it works. Get plastic sheeting (not thin like garbage bags, but thicker stuff like a dropcloth) or an old vinyl shower curtain and drape over the couch. When he jumps up on it, he will probably not care for the crackly plastic feel of it rather than the soft fabric he likes. And if he does pee it protects the couch. The idea is you leave this on the couch whenever he is out for a few weeks and he gradually loses interest in the couch, and you can take it off. Some people add aluminum foil for that extra touch of crackly uncomfortableness. This is not guaranteed to work but it's worth a shot"

That might at least protect your couch! As for the actual litter training process itself I'm going to direct you to the house rabbit society's website again, they have tons of info about it that should be helpful!

Here's the site, just copy and paste it into your browser...

http://rabbit.org/faq/sections/litter.html#method

No, she didn't try to bite me. She was litter trained when I got her, she just seems to want to go everywhere else too, she's gone on the living room carpet, on my bathroom and kitchen floors. I do think it's because of my other rabbit and she is desperately trying to mark her territory.
I do think I will try covering the couch with plastic (maybe I'll have to cover myself in it too!) Thanks for the info.

Haha, you can make yourself a little plastic suit to wear when you sit on the plastic covered couch so she can't pee on you.

If I were you, to prevent her from peeing all over the house, I would confine her to maybe just one room or one area when she's out, intill her litter box habits improve.