What to do with aggressive silver fox rabbit doe?

[flickerfarkle]

I posted a couple of weeks ago about a rabbit doe that fainted when I was trying to remove her from her cage. By the next day she seemed perfectly normal, and continues to appear to be in fin health, but now she attacks me whenever I try to touch her.

She rares up and lunges at me and bats at me with both paws. It's actually kind of comical because the blows are so soft, but what's not soft are those claws. I've got kevlar gauntlets and still manage to get scratched on the thumbs.

I've searched the old posts and about a year ago user 'Birds and Buns' had a similar problem and the only reply was "eat her." That's an option but before I go that route I'd like to know if anyone has an opinion about whether this aggression might affect her breeding habits. Basically, if I try to breed her, is there a chance she could hurt my buck? Because if she poses a risk to my buck, that seals the deal.


[[Again, I know I should post this at Backyard Herds but they suspended my account, allegedly because they didn't like my email address, but they also suspended my log-in so I couldn't change the address I was using. So I tried six times to set up a different account. Four times I got a message stating "Your registration has been rejected as it resembles spam-like or automated behavior," and the other two times i got an unsolvable reCAPTCHA. So I'm done trying.]]

 

[nuthatched]

Last year, both sites would be hit with hours of Chinese spam accounts every night for weeks, so both sites recieved significantly more robust sign up criteria.
Backyardherd isn't as visited so it's just as well you're here.
Have you taken her to a vet?

 

[Livia Ammon]

With the breeding question, your die will be territorial, so make sure to breed them in the buck’s enclosure or a neutral location. That way, she won’t be angry that he is invading her space.

Her behavior is very unusual for a prey animal: I expect she feels cornered or unsafe in her space. I would get her a box to hide in, perhaps some grass and dandelions to eat, straw or hay for her to mess around in. I don’t know what her space looks like, but adding a few more things for her to do will help her calm down, in my experience.

 

[flickerfarkle]

...Have you taken her to a vet?

Why, does he need to be clawed? [rimshot!]

Just kidding. I'm not trying to be a smart-alec but what can a vet do? These are meat rabbits, my first rabbits of any sort that I bought home other than in a game bag, so I'm new to all this. I figure the vet will cost more than the doe did so it doesn't seem to make economic sense to pay a vet more to look at her than I paid for the rabbit.

As for the Backyard Herds, I'm aware reCAPTCHA is the biggest at what they do but an unsolvable CAPTCHA is functionally identical to Denial of Service. IMHO, nobody who presumes to be a supporter of free speech and liberty in general should have NOTHING to do with them, especially when there are much less abusive and more user-friendly alternatives.

 

[flickerfarkle]

...I would get her a box to hide in, perhaps some grass and dandelions to eat, straw or hay for her to mess around in....

She gets all the hay she can eat (but none of mine seem to care much for timothy or alfalfa or orchard grass) and most days I give her dandelions (I mowed yesterday so today I was short on dandelions and went to my neighbor's yard this morning to 'steal' some). I keep straw so I might try some of that, but I don't hold out much hope because she pounces on me EVERY TIME I get close to her, without exception, and has done so EVERY TIME I've tried to touch her since the day she fainted.

I'll have to think on the tunnel thing (I have one in all my quail cages) but I'll have to come up with something I can remove from her cage without getting her too riled up whenever I need to take her out.

For the record, I'd only just got her when she fainted and it was just the second time I'd ever handled her, the first being when I transferred her from the box I'd brought her home in into her cage. I brought her home in a quail brooding box, which opens from the top, whereas the cage opens from the side. When I grabbed her from on top there was no opportunity for her to lunge at me, so I can't say to a certainty that the fainting spell had anything to do with this, or that she wasn't already like this when I got her.

The breeder says she hadn't and he's always been straightforward with me.

My only buck won't be sexually mature for a couple of months so i don't have to decide right this minute what to do with the doe, and a lot will have to do with how much trouble I have finding a replacement doe that isn't related to my buck or my other doe.

 

[nuthatched]

Why, does he need to be clawed? [rimshot!]

Just kidding. I'm not trying to be a smart-alec but what can a vet do? These are meat rabbits, my first rabbits of any sort that I bought home other than in a game bag, so I'm new to all this. I figure the vet will cost more than the doe did so it doesn't seem to make economic sense to pay a vet more to look at her than I paid for the rabbit.

Aggression in an animal not known for it is a big, red flag that something is very wrong, especially coupled with the fainting.
If she's a meat rabbit......do what you do with meat rabbits...... and get a new doe for your breeding.

 

[cassie]

Nobody asked my opinion, but I will give it anyway. With all the good healthy rabbits out there, it just isn't worth it to deal with ones that has issues. They are a lot more trouble than they are worth. Plus, if used for breeding they can pass those undesirable traits to their offspring.

 

[cassie]

Aggression in an animal not known for it is a big, red flag that something is very wrong, especially coupled with the fainting.
If she's a meat rabbit......do what you do with meat rabbits...... and get a new doe for your breeding.

Great advice!!!