How often do you allow him time out? “Cooped up for a few days…”

Only 20 mins a day? They need 4 to 6 hours out every day minimum. He probably is depressed to be honest. How big is the cage?

His cage is pretty small too then. You need to give him more time out.

Well he probably doesn’t do much because he doesn’t really have the chance too. More time is essential. The 4 to 6 hours out is when bun is in an adequate sized cage (cage must be long enough for them to run and binky) In a tiny cage, he definitely should be spending more time out of it than in it.

What time you let him out is important too. Rabbits are most active early morning and evening.

You can also attach a play pen permanently so he’s got more space to run and play. Does he have toys?

It sounds like he isn’t bonded to you at all and he’s also lacking general life enthusiasm. Loniless and boredom = unhappy bunny that will act depressed.

The good news is you can fix this!

Is he an outdoor bunny? You mentioned in a previous post you sometimes bring him in? If he is outdoor it’s even more incumbent you interact with him for at least a couple hours a day 1-1. This will build your bond.

You might want to look into clicker training; that’s fun for you (and as long as you do it properly) it’ll be fun for him too. This will give him play time as well as serve as a bonding session between you both.

I’d second the toys idea, he needs appropriate bunny toys (balls or chews or cardboard boxes he can chew and climb all over). Anything to add stimulation to his life.

It’s sad you’ve never seen him binky, but please hang around here and hopefully the good people here will have that fixed pretty soon.

Does he actually play with the toys though? It can take a while to find toys that our bunnies enjoy. Mine love anything they can throw around and/or destroy, eat etc.

Is there a way that you can bunny proof a room, or attach a play pen to his cage so that he has more room permanently?

Unfortunately, bunnies are marketed as pets that just sit in a cage and get pet and fed carrots and that’s all they are good for….they basically make it out to seem that they are inferior as pets as opposed to cats and dogs. This simply isn’t the case, in fact they are very sociable and arguably quite intelligent. They need mental stimulation in the form of toys, but also they need plenty of exercise. While they are animals, they truly aren’t all that different from humans. Sitting still in a small space for majority of the day would cause any of us to be depressed and unhealthy.

If you want to make your rabbit happy, I suggest that you try to look into a larger permanent living area and try to allow at least 4-6 hours outside cage time. Is your bunny litter box trained? That will be essential to allowing longer blocks of time outside of the cage. I have a bunny who is free roam of my apartment and it is so rewarding to watch her running around and binkying back and forth all around. It may be a pain to accomplish free range or even part time free range, but it is so worth it and will truly make your animal’s life much more satisfying.

It’s difficult and it’s something I think many rabbit owners need to remember, but rabbits don’t see the objects we buy as what they are, except for food. Things we consider “toys” may not be toys in their mind, just like if you buy a rabbit a bed or stuffed animal, it may not use or interact with it as you intended. Even what we consider litter boxes, they may just identify as “There’s a place I can go pee and not get bothered”, rather than “That’s THE place I NEED to go pee or I’ll get in trouble.”

You may need to experiment and see what gets your particular rabbit active. Wick does not chew or interact with any toys, so getting him active is me and his other parent cuddling and crawling on the floor with him, making him eat pellets out of a pellet ball (http://www.instagram.com/p/BbkzkgClko_/?taken-by=wick_theboogeyman), and putting random cardboard boxes and containers in the apartment occasionally so he has something new to explore.

I mean, the issue is that he is not getting enough stimulation by living life in a cage. All the toys in the world won’t change that when he’s still confined to a small space and he can’t run and jump freely…