Anyone ever kick their bunny (by accident)?

[Taloan7]

I know bunnies have poor eye sight, and I’ve never had a bunny before to compare to, but I feel like Bunnius has REALLY bad vision.  She runs into the cats all the time, and not aggressively, more like she runs over to them and just miscalculates when she should stop.  She is also always getting underfoot and yesterday I accidentally kicked her in the head (not very hard) as I was walking because she came running out of nowhere and ran into my legs.  I felt really guilty about this, even though she seemed totally unfazed.  She follows my kids around and I’m really nervous that one day she is going to get stepped on by someone because she’ll dart out from a hiding place and just run into you.  She is very good as a free range bunny and really well behaved, so I don’t want to change that, I have just been struggling to come up with an idea as to how to accommodate a bunny that seems particularly lacking in self preservation skills and is virtually silent.  She’s like a little ninja whose only goal is to be trampled.  

[Wick & Fable]

You just need get used to keeping tabs on where the rabbit is and then also modifying how you and children navigate (careful steps that immediately halt when they graze something). I’ve accidentally kicked Wick many times, but thankfully the frequency has plummeted so it’s not as much of a worry.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[LittlePuffyTail]

How old is she? She may have or may be developing vision issue.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

If you’re worried about eyesight best call the vet, some bunnies can get eye diseases with age.

More bunnies have this crazy habit of darting towards your feet when you’re near. Breintje has normal vision but is just a complete doofus. I’ve accidentally kicked him many times, he even tripped me when I was carrying laundry. I couldn’t see him coming so he got a face full of slipper at full walking pace. He let out the most pitiable wheeze and made a full forward roll Of course he was okay, but we were both very upset. He never did those head-first sprints afterwards, so I hope he has learned from it.

I’ve learned to watch certain spots where he does the sideways sprint often. We only have a small space to manoeuvre around the coffee table and that’s where most of these accidents happen. He’ll sit on the floor at one end of the table, and will bolt towards you if you try to go past it on the other side. I try to watch him out of the corner of my eye, and if he moves a bit I’ll say “NO!”. He’s become more careful over the years, but it still happens occasionally. Of course he always bumps into my bad leg. Silly bunny…

[sarahthegemini]

Yep! Rabbits seem to have a 6th sense and can detect the exact spot your going to put your foot and then they have a burning desire to get to that spot first lol.

[Taloan7]

I don’t know her actual age. She was a rescue that had been abandoned outside a pet store. I was told they guessed her to be a younger adult. She was checked out by a vet and spayed before being adopted and they mentioned that she did the eye scanning a lot, but there didn’t seem to be any progressive problem with her eyes that wasn’t just having poor vision. So her vision problems existed already and they haven’t gotten any worse. I’ve never had a bunny before so I don’t know if the eye scanning is universal or not, or how much is normal.
I’m also 9 months pregnant so I really can’t see the area around my feet all that well, lol, so I think that contributes to the difficulty in noticing when she is underfoot. There are definitely two spots where she darts out from the most often (a stool by the front door and a chair in the living room) now that I think about it, so I will have to be more careful when walking past those hiding spots. I have to admit, I feel a little better that I’m not the only one who has kicked their bunny, lol.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Oh, no. I remember how it felt being 9 months pregnant and having 2 small bunnies hopping around! Not fun for anyone!

[Dface]

My boy cant see so well, so he’ll hear my come into the room and sprint full force into me..it’s not standing on him, but I still feel guilty as hell!
Yumi has gotten kicked a lot, she has a habit of diving towards feet to lick them..which 1) leads to reflex foot movements and 2) puts her in the worst position if that foot is attached to a moving limb

[MountainBuns]

Here’s a little solution, its a dance most of us know around here, Its called “The Bunny Shuffle”, its really simple to learn,and it stops us from stepping on our buns

It goes like this:

Ok everyone get ready for this maybe we can play a song

Enter the room, look around if there is so bunny in your sight, go to town

 Step 3, Its pretty easy, leave your feet down flat, so the bunny wont go splat

 Lets go, Its time for four, lets add some more, move your feet to where you wanna go, keep em down, no stepping nope no

 Now slide to the left, then to the right, even if the bunny isnt in sight, because now you cant step on your guys , your feet slide on the floor, while the bunnies are in disguise. 

Keep sliding to you get where you wanna go, this has been the bunny slide rap, thanks yo 

This is too funny It took me a while to make that I hope this helps, Im gonna keep this saved in a word document for other members with the same question. 

[Gordo and Janice]

Yep, I used to hockey puck Icey across the kitchen tile floor, spinning as she slid, all splayed out. I’ll always remember those days. They were early on when she was younger. She had to get used to us and learn to not sneak up right behind our feet so much and more importantly we had to learn and incorporate the bunny shuffle. It became second nature real quick to slide our feet and always be looking before moving. Those first few launches were probably way more traumatic for me than her. Freaked me out.

[MountainBuns]

Yup G&J knows what its about lol

[LBJ10]

It isn’t so much getting kicked… more like Leopold simply running into my foot or shin.

[Bam]

EatSleepBunny, the Bunny Shuffle  

I must’ve accidentally kicked my Yohio, not that I recall any particular episode, but he was practically always near my feet. If I stood up still somewhere hed run up and try to pry his head under one of my feet, demanding pets.  

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