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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

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 Is my bun feeling lonely or content? What do you think?

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    • Quartz
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        I am trying to interpret my bun’s behavior to gauge how I should approach him better.

        Basically we got him as a young adult from a shelter, he was already not really afraid of people at that time (not at all phased by begging for food, running all over our laps when we eat trying to get human food (big no), coming to see if something interests him).  He allows us to pet him but generally doesn’t seem to care for it unless he’s already lying down or else feeling cozy after food.

        I’m totally okay with him doing things on his own, but here’s what I don’t quite understand.  We let him free-roam our apartment, which is not that big really, and he chooses his own areas to spend time in.  He does love his X-pen and spends a bunch of time there with his litter tray, hay, water, etc.  He snoozes there during the day periodically and also between 6-8am or so.  In the evening, he comes to sleep alongside our bed in a tunnel formed by our bed and a long overhanging blanket.  He relocates early in the morning, waiting for us to wake up and for his pellets.

        During the day he’s relatively stand-offish.  Meaning he rarely seems to demonstrate any signs of wanting to hang out with us.  He might want to come into the same room and briefly see what we’re up to, but he just wants to do his own thing.  I try to spend time with him by visiting him myself, but most of the time it seems like he wants to be left alone.  It can be hours of him doing his own thing somewhere, and I would love to know if I should persevere in making myself more present or let him continue choosing what he wants to do. I’ve tried playing games with him, offered toys, offered extra towels outside the X-pen for him to toss and jump on, I run along the corridor trying to encourage to follow me (he used to sometimes run after one of us back and forth a little, but not so much lately), I sit next to him and just talk to him, or lie down next to him.  A lot of the time he just looks vaguely interested, checks me for treats, and walks off to do his own thing.  He doesn’t chew on stuff anymore: he has chew toys he ignores, a grass mat he’s no longer shredding.  He used to do a bit of that and loved shredding grass mats, but that was when he was mostly confined to his X-pen and was possibly a sign of boredom.  After he got full free roam access, he’s stopped being interested in chewing anything other than food.

        I can’t even tell if it’s a sign that he wants another rabbit or if he just likes being the king of the castle, so to say.  For reference, I’m home most of the time due to my job, so he’s rarely alone in the apartment (in that case I do lock him in his X-pen home).  So I’m able to spend a lot of time with him if he were willing.  He just doesn’t seem to be.

        Could still be him getting used to humans being interested in him, I don’t know.  I wonder more about whether he’s unhappy and whether his stand-offish behavior indicates that.  Is he depressed?

        P.S.: he eats well and frequently, his poo looks very good.


      • Quartz
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          Lol, I was just telling someone how great my bun is with being super litter trained–not a single bit of poop to be found in the house outside his pen (and 99.9% are in his litter tray). Then he just got out from under the bed, jumped onto the bed, explored for a minute, sat by my pillow and made a huge pee puddle all the while looking at me. Holding a grudge? Not sure what to do, just changing my sheets now, and I have a waterproof mattress protector on thankfully. Hopefully this won’t be repeating often.


        • Kodachrome
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            How long have you had him? His behaviour sounds a lot like that of my Wicket who I just brought home a few weeks ago. I’m a first timer but already it seems to me like they are quite independent little creatures with ideas of their own and not much care for what anyone else wants of them haha. Maybe this varies based on character/breed. What breed is he? He sounds quite content to me, does he binky much? I take this of a sign of being pretty darn happy hahaha


          • Muchelle
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              I have read that peeing on your stuff means that they want to put their smell on your smell to say “hey I’m family too!”
              My bun used to pee on my couch (on the side I usually used) while going through adolescence, then he probably felt that he had mixed smells enough and stopped now he just marks stuff with his chin and leaves the occasional poop


            • Quartz
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                I’ve had him for a couple months. He’s a dwarf mix variety. He does have his curious moments at times like when we wake up, when we come home, when something new and different happens. It’s just that he quickly loses interest and goes back to doing his own thing, sometimes a good long distance away from us. Pretty much the only reliable way to get him to come up to us and show interest is if he hears sounds or senses smells of potential food. But we don’t really offer any treats other than additional hay (which he loves) and a rare single blueberry here and there, few a week.


              • Quartz
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                  I have a waterproof mattress protector on my relatively recent memory foam mattress, so it wasn’t a big deal.  It’s all getting laundered today as I type this.  But it was definitely a large puddle of pee for such a little guy   He had jumped onto our bed, walked around a bit, I spoke to him softly from my desk, he got to where I sleep next to my pillow and squatted down.  And he stared at me directly the whole time he was doing #1, so it seemed like he was making a statement.  Especially because there’s literally not been even a single piece of poo outside his pen in the entire apartment–he’s extremely clean.  All his poo and #1 are in his litter tray, and the only bits of poo that make it out a foot or two away from his litter tray are the ones that fly out when he jumps out.

                  I remember reading that peeing on a pillow or bed can be a sign of ‘payback’.  I’m wondering if it’s because I had spent something like 30 minutes inside his xpen yesterday trying to socialize.  I had thought it would help with bonding if I just sat there without being intrusive.  Clearly he thought I was intrusive enough as he wasn’t too interested in socializing then, and it just so happened that on that very same day he peed on my bed for the first time ever.  Maybe he thought “you invaded my space, I can mark your territory too now”?  

                  I don’t know rabbits well at all, just trying to read all the rabbit whisperer wisdom I can come across

                  edit:

                  Ah here it is:  http://language.rabbitspeak.com/r-e-s-p-e-c-t-is-what-my-bun-demands-of-me/

                  “Finally, there is the all-out nuclear weapon of insults, reserved only for the most offensive, utterly unacceptable, good for nothing individuals and behavior: urine. And if you’ve ever had to clean up a pungent puddle of bunny pee, often bright yellow, orange, or even red, and more than a little odorous, then you know just how powerful this weapon really is. Note that urine used for marking territory and ownership is another story entirely. But when your rabbit pees on your pillow (yes, it happens), you have obviously qualified as the lowest of the low. If you respond in kind, then you probably deserved it.”

                  Except that his pee was a nice light color and didn’t smell much, thankfully.  And certainly I have been crawling out of my skin to be nice to him and pay attention to him as much as I can, but who knows, maybe I had made some rabbit faux pas with my body language.  He does think that I should be giving him far more food than is healthy for him, which I don’t submit to.


                • Muchelle
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                    Oh rabbits can pee to human lenghts… one of the first times we took Kuro to the vet he had some kind of panic attack and the carrier was flooded luckily the vet nurse offered to wash his wet butt and paws & cleaned the carrier for us


                  • Cinnabunn the bunny
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                      The general consensus is that bunnies are social creatures therefore you should find someone to bond with. my bunny used to act like your bun and still does but now that he has a friend (fixed of course) they go exploring together. I think even though bunnies can enjoy like with a human companion there is something another animal companion can provide that we bunny mamas cannot. It wouldn’t hurt to try bonding him if you have the time and money to afford another bun. keep in mind it doesn’t even have to be another bun. some bunns like cats or dogs better. Also, some buns just hate all other mammals that don’t pet them which is the case with my cinnabunn. while he does like lily (female bun) hell still attack her every once in a while even though they love exploring together and grooming eachother. theyll even loaf around together.

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                  Forum BEHAVIOR Is my bun feeling lonely or content? What do you think?