General Bunny Behavior Questions.

[ccscheurman]

First of all, I would like to say this is my first post here, I am brand new to the forums, I am an 18 year old girl and have a bunny who is almost a year old, her name is Juno and she is adorable. I have a few questions about her behavior, most of them are more recent things. I am just curious if any of you know why she is doing this or have had similar things happen to you.

A. When I reach to pet her, she will watch my hand carefully and be like “Wow, what are you doing” but once I start rubbing between her ears, she will face her ears outward, zone out and be in a trance, same thing if I pet all the way down her back, except she will lay her ears flat. She stays really still, when I stop, she turns her ears forward, looks at me for a sec, and hops off to play. What is she doing when she zones out? and why does she look at me after I finish?

B. I will occasionally greet her with a “Hi bunny” she didn’t used to respond at all, but lately she will stop what she is doing and look at me when I do. Why?

C. She seems to quite like nipping my ankles when I am standing close to her, she doesn’t run up and bite them, she will walk to me, carefully sniff them and then nip. What is up with this?

D. When it is time to close up her cage for the night (She has to sleep there until next month, because the room I’m in right now only has one half bunny proofed) she puts up a fight about getting inside. She will run away and hop all about, making me chase her a bit before she agrees to go in the cage. Is this a game to her or is she scared?

E. When I am on my bed (it is too high for her and has power cords in the vicinity) she has learned she is not allowed on this side of the room. Yet she tries to hop the barrier and explore every day. Why? She knows she will get put back in her side of the room. Although it is worth noting that her food is on that side of the room too

F. Despite fresh cozy bedding, she will often lay on a hard plastic perch. This is generally only when I am trying to sleep though. The perch is the highest place in the cage, Ideas on why?

G. She seems to enjoy eating her bedding. Has anybody else had this happen?

H. I generally have to feed her when she is not in her cage (where her food is), if I try to remove her food dishes while she is in there, she will try to scratch and bite my hand. Clearly she has never heard “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” . Is she just guarding her territory?

I. She seems to enjoy listening to the Mariners games on the radio. She will pay attention to the radio if it is on. There are a few other shows she will react to, but Mariners baseball is the one consistent thing she will listen to, seemingly. Any clue on this?

J. When she is scared, she will hide behind a bass guitar that is propped against my wall. I can’t imagine this mirrors a rabbit hole, because the sides are open, so why does she feel safe behind a guitar?

Thanks in advance for all the help. I am new to these forums and just hoped I could get insight into bunny psychology.

Thanks all,

[litheandgraphic]

Hello and welcome to the forums! Judging by the Mariners reference, you must be in or around Seattle. Lovely city. As is the surrounding area.
Now on to your questions.

A. Rabbits are very cautious animals, being the prey species that they are. When she’s watching your hand, it’s because she doesn’t know what you’re going to do just yet. I’m assuming she’s fairly new to your home, so she’s not exactly sure if she can trust you 100% yet. She may come to trust you fully, or she may always be mildly cautious. When she’s zoning out, she’s fully enjoying being groomed by you! If you watch her mouth, you may be able to see her mouth vibrating slightly when you do this. This is called “tooth-purring” and is a sign of extreme contentment. Now, if she’s not flattening (“pancake-ing”) down and is just sitting stiff as board, she may be nervous while you’re touching her. This isn’t a huge issue, since she seems comfortable enough to stick around, and once she learns that you’re just giving her lovely pets, she’ll come to trust you more.

B. She’s learning to associate your voice with certain things. Rabbits are extremely curious, and as such she wants to know what every sight, sound, and smell is all about!

C. She probably wants to know what’s going on with those ankles! Or, she smells something tasty on or around your ankles and is trying to see if there’s any treats for her there. Keep in mind that rabbits have terrible eyesight and cannot see directly in front of them. They rely instead on their very good sense of smell, and their whiskers, to tell them what’s in front of them. Rabbits can see quite well when something is far away, but once it’s close up, they can barely see it at all.

D. Most likely, she’s being defiant because she doesn’t want to go back inside yet! I recommend not chasing her, as this will make her distrust you. Instead, try luring her in with a healthy treat such as cilantro or parsley or Timothy hay pellets. Reward her for going back inside with such a treat.

E. Well, she definitely wants her food. That’s part of it. But also, once again, rabbits don’t understand why they shouldn’t be allowed to go anywhere they please! They are extremely curious and definitely prone to disobeying your laws.

F. It’s likely that the plastic feels cooler than the bedding does. She also may just enjoy being up higher. Bunnies do weird things all the time. Not everything has a reason. xP

G. Yes, this is very common. What kind of bedding are you using? The safest kind of bedding to use is paper-based bedding such as Yesterday’s News and CareFresh. Since she likes eating her bedding, stay away from compressed wood pellets and definitely stay away from pine or cedar shavings, as these are treated with harmful polyphenols.

H. Yes. She is likely very territorial of her cage, which is now HER area. Definitely avoid cleaning her cage or feeding her / sticking your hand in there while she’s in there. Doing so will make her less trusting of you and will earn you a few nasty scratches and/or bites! Also, what are you feeding her? Her diet should be mostly Timothy hay, 1/4-1/8 cup of Timothy hay pellets (with NO mix-ins) per day, and 2 cups of at least 3 types of greens (the best to use are green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, romaine, cilantro, parsley, butter lettuce). This is a good chance for you to get her back into her cage, by the way! You can put food in her cage while she’s out and use it to get her back inside when it’s time to sleep.

I. Like I said, rabbits are extremely curious and respond to every sight, sound, and smell there is. If she becomes scared while the games or anything else is on, try removing it from the room so she feels safer. But if she’s cool with it, she probably just wants to figure it out or likes the sounds!

J. It’s probably the place in your room that feels the most covered / safe. Rabbits tend to go by the “if I can’t see it, it can’t see me!” mentality.

I also highly recommend checking out the “Language of Lagomorphs”website, which will teach you all about rabbit body language!

PS. Is she spayed yet? She’s old enough to have this done now, and it is highly recommended for female rabbits to get spayed so as to reduce the otherwise high risk of developing reproductive cancers. Spaying her will also help with her behavior and make her more friendly and possibly less territorial (no promises, though)! Consider it!

 Also, make sure she’s getting 5-8 hours of out time a day if her area is smaller than 12 sq. ft. Hopefully once your room gets bunny-proofed she can free-roam and just go to sleep in her cage at night!

Welcome again to the forums!

[ccscheurman]

Hi, funny-looking-rabbit, thank you for all your answers. To answer the few questions you asked me.

I live close to the Portland area, but am moving to Olympia for school in a few weeks,

She isn’t exactly new to the house, I got her in march, but she was a rescue from a 31 rabbit household, and she does NOT trust people very well yet. So I am glad to here that she is content (she is laying flat when I pet).

The weird part is, there is always fresh food in her cage right before bed time, she is just being a stubborn little thing.

I feed her mostly hay, and some greens, I also feed her Kaytee pellets twice a day.

I am using carefresh, she likes it most.

Thank you for the site link. I will look at that for future reference, and am reading it currently.

She is spayed, the human society did that before I adopted her.

Thank you so very much for the warm welcome!

[litheandgraphic]

Excellent! Sounds like you’ve got all you need to have a healthy and happy bunny. I’m also glad to hear you adopted. Always a great thing. Welcome again!

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