Are your rabbits jealous of one another?

[LBJ10]

My lop, Leopold, isn’t a cuddly rabbit at all. He typically wants nothing to do with you unless there is food involved. As I said in other threads, my other rabbit is a real cuddler. When I go to open the curtains in their room in the morning, I usually stop to say hello to Wooly. Both rabbits have a mutli-level cage of their own. He will come up to the top and I will open it to give him a little kiss on the head. Well, Leopold sees me doing this and he will race up to the top of his cage too. So I’ll come over and give him a little kiss on the head too. He will sit there and let me pet him. Believe me, this is completely out of character for him. Anyway, does anyone else have jealous rabbits? We had chinchillas before and I know that they can become jealous. But that usually just involves food, not attention. I would have thought it would be the same with rabbits.

[Deleted User]

yes, jealous here too! I have one rabbit, Neigey, who is very cuddly with me, he will even fall asleep on me without much ado, but the others get very bossy to be part of the interaction between us and will nip at me/jump on me/nosebonk me if I don’t include them somehow.

[Michelle&Lolli]

When eddie was alive, he would actually chase Lolli right out of the livingroom if I was paying her any attention. Lolli isn’t a cuddler unless I make her, so normally I’d just be talking to her. So yes, they get jealous. lol

[Elrohwen]

Mine are mostly jealous of the possible treats the other rabbit might be getting. If Hannah thinks Otto is getting treats on the side, she’s right there with her nose in your business to see if anything is for her. She can also be bossy and will chase Otto away, but usually only if food is involved (and she never chases him more than a couple of inches, so he just comes right back)

[Rabbitsareecool]

My rabbits are lovely i have Pebbles she is the real cuddler and when pickles my other girl see’s me holding pebbles and giving her a cuddle Pickles stamps her feets and kicks her food boxes around! Rabbits can definetly get jelous! lol

[FluffyBunny]

When my affectionate rabbit, Mr. Bunny, is licking me, my other rabbit gets jealous and puts her head under Mr. Bunny so that she gets licked instead.

[mocha200]

when ever I pet Lulu, Mocha will hump and chase Lulu away. But he hates to be pet so he just kinda sits there and stares at me like ” don’t you got any tweats for me swave?”

[Monkeybun]

Moose only gets jealous if he sees one of the girls out playing when he is in his pen. Then he gets mad that he isn’t out and charges at the girls if they come near his pen. Meanie man.

[MayaConsuelo]

My house is a regular jealousy-fest. I only have one rabbit but he’s jealous of the cats, they’re jealous of him, etc. In face, as I’ve mentioned here elsewhere, one of my cats was downright mean. Now she’s ill and has to be medicated, which may be part of her personality transformation, but since I got Mr. Bun-Bun she’s become very affectionate. If I’m cuddling or petting him, all of a sudden one or both cats are there rubbing against my legs and demanding attention. When I’m talking to the cats and petting them, all of a sudden I have a rabbit trying to climb me and head-butting me. I am in no way tempted to get another rabbit, it would be too difficult to juggle all these divas.

However in the past hour, both cats AND the rabbit were chilling in the kitchen, all snoozing in their own corners, and nobody was trying to chase anyone else out of the room… I think that’s a first.

Think about it, if you have one animal you’re very close to, they bond to you in a way and you become their world… even if they take you for granted and use you mainly for your food-giving abilities. Then, if you suddenly bring another animal into the mix, it would be like randomly bringing a new dude into your home and making out with him in front of your boyfriend. Of course they’re going to be jealous LOL! Since they can’t express their jealousy in words, they resort to showing you their butts, stomping, peeing inappropriately, etc.

[MirBear]

My girls won the Miss Jelousy Padgent..

They both get jelous.. if i look at one the other tries to out do her. Hersheys a big cuddler, Twix is a lay beside you and fall asleep but you can only touch me to give nose rubs, no less, no more. they wil climb over top of each other for attention…

[lwayne]

yep mine are, especially Arduina. When I pet Leo, she’ll come running up and either nip at me or try to hump him. She is such a attention hog.

[Dee]

My first bunny, BunBun, is very posessive of us and his wife, Nelli. We adopted her about 2 months after we found him so he knows he’s the boss. He’s the affectionate one- he grooms us and will sit forever when we pet him, just basking in the attention. Nelli is really skittish and only allows us to touch her when she’s in the mood. I think part of it is that when we do pet her, BunBun watches us with suspicion, and sometimes charges over and scares Nelli off. We’re not sure if he gets mad because he thinks Nelli is stealing us away, or we’re stealing Nelli… but it definitely bothers him. As for treats, he is the worst little piggie- he’s way smaller than Nelli but he shoves her right out of the way when I feed them anything special. He will take food right from her mouth if he can grab ahold of it. Nell just adores him- she never fights with him. Sometimes she does get overly affectionate and lays her big furry paws on Bun’s back while resting all her weight on him. She looks blissful but BunBun’s eyes pop open like “Help! She’s crushing me, Mom!” I gently remove her and explain that her hubby is a little small for this kind of attention.
The weird thing is that when BunBun was at the vets during his GI stasis, Nelli acted like a different bunny. Instead of hiding from us, she sat right with us and let us pet her constantly. She obviously knows that Bun is jealous and she needs to stay in the backround when he’s around. They’re such smart and sensitive animals, it’s amazing.

[Elrohwen]

Dee, that’s so interesting that you mentioned Nelli’s behavior change when her husbun was at the vet. Growing up we had two dogs (brother and sister) and the boy was a huge attention hog, especially with my mom. He would let my dad and I pet his sister, but if my mom tried to pet his sister he would run over and shove her out of the way. When the boy dog had health problems and was at the vet, his sister really came out of her shell and was a whole new dog! She completely shopped being shy and seemed to enjoy attention so much more.

Animals are funny!

[Dee]

Hi Elrohwen- Isn’t that strange? They really learn to adapt to each other’s personalities and act accordingly. Your boy dog must have had a special attachment to your mom and therefore got jealous when his sister tried to get her affection. I wonder if the less dominant animals like your female dog and my Nelli really want to get more attention when their male counterparts are around, or whether they get lonely when they are left by thenselves and turn to us humans for comfort? I wish they could talk- although BunBun would just shout orders and demand food- lol.

[Elrohwen]

I agree that the shy ones get pushed aside by the bossy animals and it seems like they’re just waiting for their opportunity to get more attention. Our boy dog did have a special bond with my mom, but luckily my dad and I had a special bond with the girl so we tried to give her plenty of attention, even if we had to go find her instead of her coming over and demanding attention.

And maybe you’re right that she did miss her brother and decided to seek out humans for comfort. I never thought of it that way!

[Author]

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