Behaviour change from calm and happy to always scared

[GlennTheLionhead]

Hi

I’m having a bit of trouble with Maggie, for the last 9 months of her being part of the family she has been been a bubbly little personality, always running over for strokes when you sit by her, bit nervy around new people but with us in the house she’s always been sweet and loving, will sit for an hour enjoying being stroked and never really had an issue with us walk past close to her or going in her pen, and despite being the subordinate bun she’s always the first to push her way to the pellet bowl in the morning!

The last couple weeks me and my partner have noticed a change in her behaviour, she’s just so scared all of the time, we can walk past her a meter away and she starts freaking out and running for hide outs, even when approaching her calm and slowly while she’s eating to pet her I can see her getting nervy and the moment we touch her she dashes away as if we’re about to eat her! And the worst is when we rustle the treat bag and go close to give her a treat she runs away scared, it’s so out of character for he, usually she’s the first climbing on your laps for treats.

We can figure out what’s wrong neither of us have accidently done anything to hurt her, or anything we would think would make her upset.
Glenn has been fine and the same as always, if anything even cuddlier than usual!
Haven’t noticed any nesting behaviours or any thing like that’s and both my buns are spayed/neutered .

Does anyone have any info that could help, explanations or advice to get her back to normal.

Thanks!

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

That’s weird indeed, I can imagine it’s very upsetting. Have you taken her to the vet yet to rule out that she has an underlying medical problem? Rabbits will fake being healthy, it’s a prey instinct.

Other sources of stress could be a sudden change in stimuli. Rabbits and other pets can get scared for more reasons than we can possibly imagine, because they can hear and smell better than we can. Have you recently switched your dish soap, shampoo, hand soap or washing powder? Or are there new sounds in/around the house? Think construction/noisy neighbours/barking dogs. Electronics can give off a high pitched beep which most of us humans can’t hear, but which is very stressful to some bunnies. Some bunnies can get triggered by electronic cat repellers.

My bun went crazy at times too, and it was a real hassle to figure out what it was. Once he flipped out when my neighbour across the hall had music on with a heavy bass. He had his front door open but wasn’t playing it loudly. I didn’t hear it until I went out to look in the hallway. However the vibrations were driving Breintje crazy, and he instantly relaxed when the neighbour closed his door.
Another time he nipped at a friend of mine twice, and we couldn’t figure out what the problem was. When we sat down for some drinks I noticed a really high pitched beep at the edge of my hearing. Turns out that my previous monitor gave off that beep when I put it in stand-by. As soon as I pulled its plug Breintje reacted.
Breintje is also sensitive to fragrances, smoke, spicy food smells, incense and cleaning products. When I’m making spicy asian food I have to open a window or he’ll start to sneeze. Bunnies have super sensitive airways and a great nose, so a smell which is pleasant to your could be overpowering for your bun. I also noticed that he avoids me when I have an active infection such as a cold sore or a strep throat. “Yeah, you can keep that to yourself thank you kindly…”

If the vet visit doesn’t reveal anything it’s best to think about any changes there have been in the last couple of weeks. It could be a lengthy puzzle and the results can be surprising. It can be a very small thing for us but massively overwhelmng for Maggie. Hope you’ll be able to pinpoint it soon!

[GlennTheLionhead]

Thank you for your response! That’s very helpful info!

Your definitely right, I will book her into the vets to check there’s no underlying cause to be on the safe side!
I’m one to change things like purfume, shampoo and body wash constantlyao perhaps there is a new one she doesn’t like, other than that it’s difficult to think what else it might be, I guess they are so much more sensitive than us it’s hard to tell. I will definitely work to see if small changes make a difference!

It has crossed my mind that it could be to do with Glenn being dominant, they are both very strong personalities and I fell Maggie really wants to be top bun but unfortunately Glenn is just to strong for her and perhaps this upsets her and puts her on edge :/

[Author]

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