Pippin's Story
Pippin came to MCRS after a local shelter asked us if we could teach him better manners. Originally we thought we would give Pippin a week or two of "boot camp" and then return him to the shelter for adoption. When the initial attempt to gently press Pippin's head to the floor resulted in a whirling dervish, we began to reconsider. The next day, we tried spritzing his face when he lunged and bit. That resulted in an outright attack on the spray bottle.
It quickly became apparent that this adorable little boy had been badly mistreated. He did not seem to know how to act around humans, only how to react to them by biting. Normally, we can interact with "biters" by simply feeding them and waiting until they are chewing to touch them. The rabbit can't bite if his mouth is full, right? Pippin was so reactive that he actually spit out a mouthful of pellets to bite me.
So, we tried to "speak" to him in a language he would understand but that would not be typically human; we "eeked" at him. Every single time Pippin's teeth touched skin, clothing, or hair we would let out a high-pitched, loud "eek." Pippin clearly understands that "eek" means that he hurt you. The very first time I "eek"-ed at him he immediately released the glove and backed up to look at me. He is clearly very intelligent, since when several very gentle nibbles were greeted with "eeks" he backed up and looked at me as though to say "You must be joking! That can't have hurt." However, he did not bite again for several minutes.
Over the next few weeks we saw very little improvement, and Pippin still didn't seem to have any idea of how to interact with people. After a lot of thought, we decided to try a muzzle to see if we could teach Pippin to communicate with us. Believe it or not, there actually are muzzles that will fit a 2-pound rabbit! Let me say right now that this is the only rabbit I have ever met who is so severely aggressive that a muzzle is appropriate. The average "biter" is only unsocialized, not abused, and simply needs a consistent person who will not allow the bad behavior. The average "biter" does not need a muzzle any more than the average mouthy person does. We first used the muzzle on Pippin with some trepidation, afraid that we would only confirm his fear of humans. We only left the muzzle on him for a few minutes, allowing him to hop around in an exercise pen before removing the muzzle and allowing play time to continue. Amazingly enough, he seemed to understand what we intended and was much more accepting of our touch, even after we removed the muzzle.
At the beginning of May, we began adding Bach's Rescue Remedy to Pippin's water. Shortly thereafter Pippin began accepting, and then demanding, nose rubs through the cage wires. He would still try to nip on occasion and was just as bossy and nippy when the cage door was open, but he was clearly seeking out human touch.
In mid-May, after two weeks on Rescue Remedy and after a full night of play time, Pippin was waiting on top of his Cottontail Cottage when I came down for breakfast. I cautiously reached towards him with my bare hand. He allowed me to pet his nose for several seconds before he began to act a little bit nervous. Needless to say, I decided to call it enough and backed off. Since then, Pippin has continued to improve; he is far more likely to try to nip the unwary visitor than he is to nip one of us who lives with him. We will be posting Pippin updates on the web site, so keep an eye on Pippin!
