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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BEHAVIOR Trying to figure Roza out

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    • Tia
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        Roza has been with us almost two weeks now. It seems as long as I don’t clean her cage with anything other than water and I don’t remove the bulk of her poops, and I don’t take away her litter box, she doesn’t spray (slowly trying to deal with this issue). She is scheduled to be spayed next week, so hopefully that will help. Along with the DIGGING. Now, I just have to get her used to being picked up and swaddled so I can give her her pain medication after her spay in case she won’t take it willingly.

        New thing she has now started is getting angry when I’m in the pet room and not paying attention to her. She has part of the room for her living area and the cats have part of the room for their food, litter, and bed area (they are able to come and go, but it is gated off so they have their own space away from the dogs. When I am in the room playing with the cats, or cleaning up after them, she hops around in her cage thumping really loud. Just today, when I was sweeping up the floor in front of the cage, she was hopping around going berserk and then she growled at me pretty loud (I was on the phone with my husband and he even heard how loud it was). She wouldn’t stop until I sat down and stuck my hand in the cage and started petting her. I wanted to finish cleaning so after a few minutes, I closed her back in and she wasn’t as loud, but she was making a light growling or grunting sound and thumping. I’m afraid I’m misreading this, though and maybe she just doesn’t want me in the room at all and she’s telling me to leave. She just puts up with my petting in an attempt to get me to leave. 

        She does like to be pet, though. Even when I bring her greens in to her, she will leave them be and crawl all over me, nipping my clothes, wanting petting. My husband says that she’s just trying to make up for the lost time she had when she was stuck in the outside hutch for over a year and a half. 

        I’m just confused, I want her to be happy, and I’m scared that I’m going to walk in and find her dead just like Milly. I actually wake up and check on her a few times per night to make sure she’s still breathing. I’m also wondering if she might be deaf or hard of hearing. She doesn’t respond to any type of audible sound and when I come into the room when it’s dark, and she finally sees me, she seems to jump like she’s startled. I have been thumping the floor with my foot before I come in the room and she seems to face the door and is at ease that she sees I’m coming. She doesn’t respond to verbal calls or loud noises, either, but if I lightly tap on her cage and make a hand gesture, she comes running. How does someone find out if a rabbit is deaf?

        Sorry for the long post of gibberish and stupid questions.


      • LBJ10
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          Leopold is deaf. I have never heard him make any kind of noise. He doesn’t grunt or growl. He doesn’t honk. He doesn’t thump either. Just because you bunny makes sounds though, doesn’t mean she couldn’t be deaf or hard of hearing. That is just my experience with Leopold.

          The vet did look at his ears, she couldn’t find anything visibly wrong with them. We believe he has been deaf since birth. I think it has affected his social skills. He bites. Hard. He never learned from other bunnies that biting hard causes pain. I can squeal all I want when he does it, he doesn’t learn. Wooly, on the other hand, knows not to bite down hard. Even if he is really upset, he will only put his teeth on me.

          It has been difficult to teach Leopold what is and is not appropriate behavior. You can’t tell him no or try to startle him with a loud sound. I have been working with him by physically removing him from what he is doing and redirecting him. If I can’t get to him quickly, sometimes I will throw a soft toy at him to get his attention. You can sneak up on him really easily. I startle him if I grab him mid-naughty because he will be so engrossed in what he’s doing that he won’t know I’m there.

          We did a few things to test how deaf he is. I remember going in their room when he was busy grooming himself. I stood right over him and clapped my hands. No reaction. Clapped again. No reaction. A moment later, he was finishing up and he went to look up. He jumped when he saw me standing over him and gave me this look like “where the heck did you come from?”

          We also did a test with treats. I removed Wooly from the room so he couldn’t give Leopold any visual clues. I stood in the doorway and I held the treat bag up on the other side of the wall so Leopold couldn’t see. I crinkled the bag. No reaction. Crinkled again. No reaction. Suddenly I felt tugging on my pant leg. Wooly had come from the living room and down the hallway because he had heard the treat bag crinkling.

          Hopefully that gives you some ideas.


        • Tia
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            I’m going to ask my vet about it. My concern is that for the last year and a half she has been outdoors in a hutch, exposed to many things including extreme temps, and just not so great living conditions. So, I am thinking she may have become deaf due to circumstance. She is either deaf or she is excellent at ignoring everything around her. lol

            I have been testing her out a little since I started noticing her becoming startled when she’s turned away from me when I come in the room(about 3/4 days ago). I put up a partition so she couldn’t see my hands and I clapped really loud and got no response, tried the treat bag also (the one the former owner gave me so I knew she should know the sound) and the only time she gets excited about the treats is when I put the bag in front of her. I’m thinking tomorrow I may try banging together some metal dog dishes. That usually scares everyone else in the house. And, now that I’m thinking of it, I ran the shop vac in there the other day and she had no reaction to that and I know she’s never been exposed to anything like that either.

            Thank you for the tips!


          • LBJ10
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            16870 posts Send Private Message

              Leopold nose bonks the vacuum and follows it around.


            • Tia
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                LOL Too funny. I tried hitting the bowls together and had my husband yelling at the top of his lungs (former Marine) and she gave no reaction to me except digging my shirt and biting me because I stopped petting her. The vet said that she will give her an exam when I bring her in to fix her and will check in her ears for any problems. Her spay is being postponed until we get more time to bond with her. The vet said that is more important at this point so the aftercare will be easier on all involved.


              • LBJ10
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                  It sounds to me that she either can’t hear very well or at all. Yes, the vet can look in her ears to make sure something else isn’t going on. Is Roza a Holland? Deafness is actually relatively common in Hollands. I think it has to do with genetics.

                  I don’t know if you were planning to get her a friend after she has been spayed and is settled into your home. I know having a friend has really helped Leopold. He relies on Wooly for visual cues so he knows what’s going on.


                • Tia
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                    Yes, she is a Fuzzy Holland Lop and that would make sense that it could be genetic. I’m sure she is deaf at this point. We have repeatedly tried different sounds and noises and she doesn’t respond to any of them. Now that she’s settling in and we are aware that we have to do other things to announce our presence, she is doing better.

                    We actually don’t have plans to get another rabbit. But, the local animal shelter page has been visited more than once to see if there are any other wayward buns out there needing a home. We seriously don’t want to entertain the idea until she is fixed and we know what her attitude is going to be like. My husband is already on board with a new friend for her, but he is only home 6 days a month, so I have to be willing to take on the bonding process by myself. Easter is coming up soon enough and I’m sure there will be an influx of buns at the shelter shortly after as much as I wish it wasn’t true.


                  • LBJ10
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                      I would wait until after she is spayed anyway. You’ll have a much better idea of her personality and you can’t bond unaltered bunnies anyway. If, at the time, you feel she would benefit from having a friend, you could try taking her to the shelter to meet some bunnies. If she’s allowed to pick out her friend, you would have a better chance at a successful bond.


                    • Tia
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                      36 posts Send Private Message

                        Duplicate post


                      • Tia
                        Participant
                        36 posts Send Private Message

                          Thanks so much for your input about this! I really appreciate it.

                          I know they allow meet and greets for dogs at the shelter. Not sure about rabbits, but I will ask if we decide to go that route. There usually isn’t more than one or two rabbits at the shelter at a time.

                          So, I am noticing that her digging is getting less and less. Maybe she is finally settling in.
                          I went and bought a linoleum remnant to make an insert so I can expand her cage to include the xpen. Then, if she pees all over, it will be easy to clean up. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to take her out of her cage and clean everything. Fingers are crossed that it doesn’t cause a new wave of spraying. It needs to be cleaned though. I have let it go longer than I can take and even the cats are complaining lol

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                      Forum BEHAVIOR Trying to figure Roza out