Skittish/ nervous bunny

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 7sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by frenchfried.

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- 06/26/2014 at 4:30 PM
  bun_fluffington
  Participant
  5 posts
  I have had my baby girl for almost 2 years now and I love her to death! However, she has a tendency to become very skittish and I don’t know why. If you are in a room with her and you walk by her, she’ll sometimes jump up and run away as fast as she can even though she saw and heard me coming. Shell then go off into the corner or under the sofa or something and wont let you come near her for a little while. Then other times she’ll sit there and ask for snuggles. Also (I’m not 100% sure this is necessarily related) she refuses to clean her own bum so it gets really dirty and all her poop will stick to her bum and feet and get hard so we have to bath her which only stresses her out more. Any ideas? I love my bun and she gets full access to the house and follows me around all day. She gets unlimited fresh Timothy hay, dark green veggies and water. Could she be sick?! Our vet said shes just lazy but i would appreciate a group opinion. Thanks!!
- 06/26/2014 at 4:39 PM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  Your vet says she is lazy? I think I would find another vet – what vet says that? The dirty butt could be from a number of things – how old is your rabbit? I know you said you’ve had her for 2 years…is she about 2 years old?
  
  As for the skittish and nervous, some rabbits are just this way. Sometimes it’s hard to know what actually sets them off, but it just sounds like her personality and she gives snuggles too, so she sounds like a typical rabbit to me.
- 06/26/2014 at 5:09 PM
  justwildbeat
  Participant
  257 posts
  Sounds like your vet is lazy. They should be asking for more details, such as if the poop is mushy like diarrhea or like the usual firm pellets. Does your rabbit have trouble grooming itself? Things like that.
- 06/26/2014 at 5:41 PM
  Bam
  Moderator
  17032 posts
  I have a bunny who won’t clean his butt. He IS a lazy bunny, but I don’t think laziness is the reason for his faulty butt-cleaning skills. Fat rabbits can have trouble reaching. My bunny isn’t fat though, so I don’t know why he won’t clean his butt. But since I changed his diet and excluded f ex carrots completely, his butt is almost always clean now and when it isn’t, it’s just a little stuck poop that can easily be picked out of his fur.
  
  I’ve started giving him a dietary supplement for humans, a probiotic called lactobacillus plantarum v299. It’s nothing to do with milk, bunnies should not get probitic yoghurt etc. I’m taking this supplement myself but I take a human dose, Bam just gets a little amount now and then sprinkled on a wet leaf. There are other probiotics that may help a bunny tummy.
  
  The skittishness sounds perfectly normal to me. When a rabbit hears sth that scares them, they don’t stop and think “Hey, wait a minute, that’s probably just mummy I’m hearing.” Because if a wild rabbit didn’t run as fast as it could the moment sth scared it, it would be somebody’s dinner very soon. That instinct is their main survival tool. It may look like the bunny is looking right at you, but they actually see better from the side than from straight ahead, most prey animals’ vision is like that.
- 06/27/2014 at 2:16 AM
  bun_fluffington
  Participant
  5 posts
  She is actually a perfect weight (a little over 4 lbs) so she shouldn’t have trouble grooming herself and she’s still young (only 2) so it’s not like she can’t clean. Her poop, when it doesn’t get stuck to her, Is a healthy firm pellet. However, on the top floor of her cage (it’s three levels) we have to place paper towels because she’ll quite often get diarrhea up there. However, it’s almost a liquid poop because it’s really watery (it’s definitely not pee) rather than the tradition mushy diarrhea. Does this help? I think it’s this liquid poo that gets stuck to her. Do you know what this could be?
- 06/27/2014 at 2:18 AM
  bun_fluffington
  Participant
  5 posts
  She is about 2 years old so she’s still plenty young enough to be cleaning herself. Check out the response below yours to see more about what her poop looks like. Thanks!
- 06/27/2014 at 2:20 AM
  bun_fluffington
  Participant
  5 posts
  Thank you, this was very helpful!!!
- 06/27/2014 at 8:33 PM
  frenchfried
  Participant
  16 posts
  IMHO I don’t think that mushy poop is normal. Are you feeding him hay? It could be something in the diet that is causing loose stools.
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