My Dog (Bunny) Igloo

[LopLover]

Just thought I’d share a few funny anecdotes about my rabbit, and I’d love to hear some funny stories from you guys as well. 

A few funny, and sometimes creepy, things Igloo likes to do:

 Walk like a dog, that is… walk. NOT HOP, walk. With all four legs fully extended. I tell you, it’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. He’ll do it for a few minutes at a time, and make no mistake, he’s not stretching, he is just walking around. 

Walking on a leash. I know, I know, you shouldn’t harness your rabbit. You shouldn’t leash your rabbit. However, rabbits are outdoor animals by nature, and I feel cruel keeping him inside his entire life when there are so many wonderful smells and adventures outside. But, our neighborhood is very ecofriendly and thusly fully of little critters like raccoons, squirrels and wild buns, as well as passing dogs, roaming cats, and circling hawks/eagles. I do not feel comfortable at all putting him in a pen outside, even supervised, because there’s no way I could get to him in time if a bird swooped down, and I have a bird phobia anyway. Anyway, when he sees his harness and leash he goes nuts – flying around the pen and doing binkies every which way because he knows it means we’re going outside. 

He is fearless. I’ve noticed people say their buns required a long trust building process, and can be skittish around people they don’t know. The other day a friend who is literally 7’5 came over to see me, and Igloo marched right up to this enormous man, who he’d never met, stood up and his hind legs, with his forepaws resting on my friends leg, and clicked his teeth until he got pets. He also often investigates loud noises and strange objects, rather than running from them. 

What does your bun do that’s funny to you?

[MoxieMeadows]

Me and my bun play a “game”. She does something like sniff a container of soil on my window sill (I have windows where the sill is like 4 inches from the floor) I am sprouting food for her in. I will tell her “no!” and then she will hop away and hide behind something. As soon as I look away she will literally FLY over there and try to grab the container. I yell “no!” again and she will hop away very quickly. The second I look away and look back the container of soil is spilled on the floor and all I see is a bunny butt running away.

[MeketatenBun]

Haha! Meketaten used to do the “walk” thing all the time when she was little! I used to think it looked like she was army-crawling. She doesn’t do it so much anymore, but if she’s having a particularly goofy day I’ll see her shimmy herself across the floor and then sprint away in a binky.

As for Igloo’s friendliness, I wish I had a bunny that bold! It would be so much fun to have a sociable bunny that doesn’t run to the darkest corner the moment someone, including me, walks in unannounced.

[Pomandcourt]

Hahaha! The bunny walk. It is creepy.

Pom does it to fit under things she shouldn’t (beds, dressers, etc), but she’s occasionally done it out in the open. I wonder if she thinks she’s being sneaky because she always gives me a look when she does this.

It’s so good that he gets all excited for the harness! I have one for Pom, but have only used it twice as she sticks pretty close and there’s a small fence. She could easily jump it, but I can’t even get her to sit on the couch, so I’m not overly concerned with her jumping a fence. (They’re always supervised just in case)

Her weird thing is she’s SO vocal. Like cooing, crying (for attention or treats), purring, just constantly making noise. It started a few months after I had her and once I added new bunnies, it’s constant and louder. I can hear her in the other room!

[LopLover]

PomandCourt, that’s nuts! I’ve yet to hear Igloo make any noises aside from purring and thumping, but I feel like thumping doesn’t really count as a vocalization. I wish he would make a few more noises because I think they’d sound so cute, but I suppose he could be and I just don’t hear them before I’m hard of hearing. Since I’ve had him since he was little little, I taught him that the harness means good things happen, so he gets excited when he sees it.

MB, sometimes he’s a bit too bold. For instance, this morning he decided that the vacuum cleaner, which he is very familiar with because I vacuum every morning, was a monster and began full on attacking it. Like, he would shoot across the room and lunge at the vacuum and then slowly back off as if to say “I’M WATCHING YOU!!!”

Moxie, Igloo does something similar regarding getting behind the TV stand. He figured it out once which lead me to have a mini heart attack because I wasn’t able to find him for a few minutes (he went under the TV stand, around the corner, under my bed and was sitting in the window chewing my curtains, little sneak!). I replaced what was blocking it before with a cardboard box that fit in nicely and weighted it with some scrap metal I don’t use. It’s not going anywhere, but it won’t stop him from trying! Haha, I think it’s great that you grow for your bunny! I’m hoping when Igloo gets a little older, and I have a little more time to tend to plants, I’ll be able to grow a few things for him. Unfortunately, when it comes to plant life, everything I tough dies.

[Pomandcourt]

Haha! They HATE vacuums.

I don’t have a lot of carpet so I just had a tiny portable vacuum and she destroyed the charger. (It was unplugged, luckily) She’d never chewed any cords or anything before, but she decimated the vacuum charger. The biggest piece left of the cord was less than half an inch. Sigh…

I used to murder every plant that was near me. Didn’t even have to touch it. I have quite a nice garden on my balcony now (all bunny friendly plants). I’m pretty sure the solution to my black thumb was not having the plants breathe the same air as me. 

Keep an eye on that cardboard box if Igloo likes to chew. (See Luke, aka Johnny, below)

[HereComesTheBun]

I love this thread! Bunnies are so funny.

A few weeks ago, I bought one of the willow baskets on BB for hay. I thought it would last a while, because up until this point, Hugo had totally ignored anything willow. In fact, one of his hidy homes is willow, and he hasn’t given it any more than a nibble. Well, from the moment I put the basket down, Hugo went crazy. He started nibbling it immediately, and after hopping around a little, he came back and chewed it more. Within a few days, the hay was sitting on a tiny bed of willow. My theory is that since the other willow I gave him probably wasn’t as high quality as the Busy Bunny baskets, he could taste the difference. So I guess I have raised a gourmet willow eater!

My other story is from a few days ago. I recently ordered a shipment of Sierra Valley Hay (which Hugo just adores!), and it comes in a very big cardboard box. I’d set it down so Hugo could nibble it. I realized I hadn’t gotten all of the tape off, so I started tearing it off. Hugo hopped over to see what I was doing, and he decided to help. I stopped him before he ate any of the tape and quickly put the box out of reach. I think Hugo thought I was showing him a new treat.

He also found the mirror in my closet today. He didn’t know what to make of it!

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