A few questions about bunny behavior…

[alix33]

So this is my bunny Oreo. (Don’t worry, she has a bigger cage now). We keep her in a large cage indoors when no one is home and at night, but let her out at any other time. When we first got her a few weeks ago she would run around the house, play with the cats, she seemed happy. But now when we let her out, she just lays in a specific corner under a chair. Maybe it’s the heat? I’m not sure.

She was in her corner the other day and I decided to bring her outside. We have chicken wire that we have set up in the backyard wrapped around a tree. She started running around the tree super happy and doing the hops they do when they feel joy.

I wonder why she likes to run around outside but seems lazy or maybe even scared when she’s inside. It’s not the cats, she likes to play with them. I’m not sure. Any explanations?

Also, do you have any explanations why she poops in her water bowl?

[Terra]

Hi there,

Congratulations on your new family member! She’s very cute.

I don’t have any definite answers to your questions but I can make some guesses. With regards to her being less active inside, you mention it might be the heat – how hot is it? It could be an issue if it’s very hot. You also mention that you have cats and she appears to play with them. What does this playing look like? I ask because what looks like playing in cats can actually be fighting behaviour in rabbits. Another suggestion is that she might just be bored. Is there lots of stuff for her to play with, some accessible hay and so on?

As for the poops in her water bowl, is she litter trained? Or is the water bowl perhaps close to her litter tray and poops accidentally get kicked in? Have you tried moving the bowl to another place? She may have decided that where the bowl is now is where she wants a litter tray!

Let us know how you get on.

[alix33]

Well, she only really plays with ne cat and doesn’t do it to any of the others. She’ll just be sniffing Cutiepie, one of our less grumpy cats, and Cutiepie will get up and run away, Oreo will chase her, the cutiepie will chase oreo, back and forth around the house. Cutiepie will gently, with no claws, swat at oreo. I’ve assumed it was playing because when they do this, oreo will do some of those big hops that generally means joy.

She has toys, and we’ve gotten her new ones of every type we can think of, ut se doesn’t really play with them. It’s been like 80 degrees lately and my parents refuse to get AC so it’s just as hot inside but I make sure she has an ice bottle in her cage to cool things down.

[Author]

Messages