Deciphering the Language

[The Law Bun]

Hey all,

For anyone who has not seen my previous post, I am a new bunny owner (now for approximately 26 hours). I have spent a lot of time on the language of lagomorphs website, trying to determine my bunny’s feelings and general demeanor. But I am confused about ear position and signaling anger.

Here are a few examples:

1) Lilith will be eating hay in her litter box and her ears are down. If she angry or merely eating?

2) When resting, or possibly sleeping (meat ball position), Lilith will sometimes lay her ears down as well, is this fear or anger? She does lift an ear if my roommate makes some noise though, so I assume she’s not angry.

3) I am also confused about bunny butt. Sometimes I will be sitting beside her in her cage where she likes to lay talking, and after a while she moves, turns, lays down facing the other way and tries to sleep. Is this her just getting comfortable? She isn’t standing when this happens or anything nor does she look back to see if I’m looking. 

Do these seem to her just getting adjusted and doing normal rabbit things. I don’t know how rabbits sleep, but i assume ears would be down if she’s comfortable. Ultimately, how do you guys differentiate between a agitated bunny and a just calm or comfortable one. Are they usually standing on the forepaws with ears back and body turned when they are agitated. Or can they just be in meatloaf position in a cage facing from you. 

Thanks again guys .

[Sarita]

1. Probably just eating;
2. Just resting;
3. Just being comfortable.

I love the website you are referring to but I don’t think it’s going to give you all the answers as it really cannot tell you why your rabbit does or does not behave in every particular situation and really sometimes it’s not really behavior so much as just being. You just have to take your rabbit’s behavior into the context of the whole situation rather than just the position they are sitting or standing or whatever the case is.

[Hazel]

Welcome and congrats on becoming a bunny slave!

It can be difficult at first to figure out what some behaviors mean, because lots of them can have several meanings. But as you go along and get to know your bunny better, it will become easier. They are very opinionated, so your bun will give you lots of clues to let you know how she feels, especially if you’ve done something wrong! Love the name by the way, we have a cat named Lilith, we just call her Lily though.

Ears back would mean she is relaxed, going by the situations you described. Doing this while eating or lazying around just means there is nothing else going on that peaks her interest. When they are angry and put their ears back, it’s usually accompanied by a charge and maybe a grunt. The bunny butt doesn’t always mean they are trying to reject you, sometimes it just happens to be the way that they are sitting. From what you said, it sounds like she just wanted to take a nap and told you to be quiet.

We would love to see some pictures of Lilith!

[JackRabbit]

I agree with the others. Doesn’t sound like you’ve done anything to upset her — yet! You’ll know the bunny butt when you get it. Its like an intentional turning her back on you and sitting there. One of mine will even occasionally turn just her head to look at me and make sure I know she’s giving me the bunny butt!

[Cottontail]

I agree with what the others said; but would like to add that other mannerisms play a part in deciphering bunny language, too.
Pete spends a lot of time with his ears back, or fully forward; but to tell how he’s actually feeling is by also taking into account his tail position, body tension, and his eyes. When he’s relaxed you see a lot more of his brown eye coloring (not as dilated) and none of the white.. when he’s angry or overly excited you’ll see a bit of the white. Usually he’ll turn down his nose to show his grumpiness. Tillys eyes are especially telling since she’s got slightly chubbier cheeks; and they give the same lift to the bottom eyelid as you would see in a person smiling when she’s super content.
It takes a while with each bunny, but the longer you live together the easier it is to tell at a glance.

[The Law Bun]

Thanks Everyone for the responses! I promise pictures of Lilith, along with an extended story of her coming into my life, will be arriving shortly. I took so many pictures yesterday, but the trick is trying to sneak a photo because if she seems me trying she won’t keep posing. And yea I love the name Lilith. The way I told my parents, Lilith would be her professional “resume” name in case some other bunny asks for references LOL. But to everyone else its just lily. Middle name is still being figured out, but thanks again everyone. This forum was my main source of information regarding preparing for the rabbit (nearly 150 printed pages from the forum LOL). 

[Diamond]

Cottontail, can I just say that that is an adorable mental image of Tilly?

[LBJ10]

Believe me, you’ll know if you’re getting the butt. LOL

[Flopsie]

ear positions alone don’t mean much without context. Context is highly important. If she is doing something that is eating with her ears down, I would not take that as being angry.

As far as bunny but, context again is important. If she is just sitting like that when you turn around or when you walk in, I wouldn’t take that as a bunny butt towards you. However, if you were to do something to her and she reacted with bunny butt, that is a completely different situation. Hope that makes sense

[Bam]

If the bunny turns her butt towards you and vigourously flick out her feet as to rid herself of every molecule that could originate from you, then you’ve done sth horrendous. Not offered a good enough treat or tried to touch her royal forehead without being invited to f ex.

Congratulations to your new bunny friend! I’m sure she will teach you how to properly behave around a bunny =)

[JustineT]

I read all of those sites too when I first got Willow three years ago. As everyone else has said, you’ll know when she’s actually angry or shunning you. I think every bunny does it differently.

When Willow eats, her ears tend to go back unless she’s incredibly excited about her food: sometimes when she’s on the search for the perfect strand of hay, her ears are incredibly alert!

When she’s sleeping, her ears are down…unless one of her favorite TV shows is on. Then she makes sure to listen and only put them down during commercials. This is not a joke. I don’t know how she knows but she does! She also stretches out during Speed and Lethal Weapon but if I move my foot on the couch, she gets alert and ready to run…I think for the refrigerator hoping for treats, but still!

When she’s been scared, which only happened twice because of a cat that kept peering in the windows, she thumped. We completely freaked out but we calmed her down and she was okay. When she’s been angry, she’s “supposedly” grunted at my husband…but she’s never been aggressive. Just saying, “Hey. Stop bugging me. I want my alone time so back off.” Or, “I want in the master bedroom and you keep stopping me! Grrrr”. And when’s she been ticked off at us for whatever silly reason she has, she’s flicked her feet three times while hopping away… We haven’t gotten the “bunny butt” persay, but we got her version of the “I’m happy without you and don’t need you in my life” bunny flop. I thought she only flopped for happiness but apparently it’s also to make a point. She was angry at us for cleaning the house all day one time and when we went to see her, she ran straight into her cage and flopped. At first we thought, “awww how cute.” Then we realized that if we walked away, she’d get up, and the next time she saw us, she’d flop again! We tried offering her treats to get on her good side and she refused them. I panicked something was wrong but my husband and I left the room to leave her be. A minute later, my husband peered in without her seeing him and she was halfway through her raspberry. She spotted him, dropped the raspberry and ran back to the corner of her cage and flopped again.

You’ll definitely learn over time what your bunny’s signals are The sites can give some insight (and their just plain adorable to read!) but just like a child, your bunny will teach you about who they are and how they react.

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