behaviour interpretations?

[babybunsmum]

so, given that my vet wants pinky bun to be good & settled here before she goes in for her spay, i am carefully observing her behaviour and trying to determine her level of relaxation.  i got to wondering if some buns can exhibit a behaviour and have it mean a different thing than in other buns. 

for example… nose twitch rates.  pinky’s nose always seems to be a-twitching really fast, as though she’s anxious or excited, yet she’ll be in a flop or soaking up head pets.  or thumps.  i think the context of the thump is more important than the thump itself.  pinky thumped at the vet’s office which i’m sure was a fearful thump but she also thumps randomly which i think is for attention more than anything else.

i taped some of her out & play time yesterday until my battery died.  i caught some binkies & thumps & grunts.  if you have 3 1/2 mins and would care to have a look, i’d love to hear your comments.  since i’m still learning a lot about rabbit behaviour in general (and pinky’s behaviour in particular) i’d be very interested in any thoughts as to her comfort / anxiety level.  i’d really like to schedule her spay next month & am hoping if i give her 4 weeks to adjust to her home it’ll be enough.  she has been here 1 1/2 weeks so far.

thanks in advance for any feedback!  (oh… and excuse my sloppy old slippers & silly baby-talk voice)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EGKH8TgxZLE

[Beka27]

she doesn’t seem anxious to me.  i’m no expert, but she seems very curious, and not a bit frightened of you… even chinning your feet and legs.  maybe some other people who have had timid rabbits will watch and tell you their opinions.  i think she looks pretty settled tho.  maybe call and make your appt for next month to save the time spot.  she should do fine.

and she is so cute!!!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

She is energetic, but I would definitely not say anxious or stressed…in fact my immediate impression was how happy she is!

[babybunsmum]

thanks beka!  i think she’s real cute too  

i think she’s pretty relaxed too.  she’s just a thumpy girl.  i don’t think she’d be thumping for fear & then throw a binky or flop.  her nose twitch makes me wonder some times… her nose flares showing lots of pink & twitches fast quite often which i thought was a sign of nervousness but she does this when i’m petting her & she seems otherwised quite relaxed & receptive to the attention.  i think it might be a quirk of hers?

i do think i’ll call the vet & book a spay a few weeks in advance to save a spot.  plus i have the cash right now & i want to pay for this before i go to ikea & spend the $$ on perty things for my house instead

[MarkBun]

She’s good to go.

• Her ears are in a nice, neutral state.
• She’s not runing from you when you reach out to her
• She’s binking

Her stress level is at a minimum.

[notjulesverne]

I agree..she is sweet and looks like she’s just having fun and likes you

[babybunsmum]

Posted By Kokaneeandkahlua on 02/20/2008 10:27 AM
She is energetic, but I would definitely not say anxious or stressed…in fact my immediate impression was how happy she is!

oh i hope so!  thanks k&k    i’m real excited to get to try bonding her with baby so she can have eventually more & more free roam.  i love hangin out with her & my other crew is gettin a little jealous of being blocked out.  lol.  you may even hear bogart gently weeping in the background.

thanks also markus & notjulesvern!  this feedback is great for me so i’ll feel confident when i call the vet. 

[RabbitPam]

Pinky looks great!!! I just watched your video (it atkes about a half hour for me to DL 3 min. Dontcha just love dial-up?) and I love the binkies and the chinning, especially chinning the camera.

The others are experts on neutering, but my guess is that an appointment a month from now will give her plenty of time to settle in. She’s already claimed you, the room, her cage…she’ll probably chin the car by then and drive herself over to the vets.

A cutie!

[Scarlet_Rose]

My interpretation is happy, alert & curious.  She looks like she might turn into a trouble-maker!  Uh oh!  LOL  Seriously to help out with bunny language interpretation, The Language of Logomorphs is a good site to check out (if you haven’t already):

http://www.muridae.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html

Edited to add that her hose is twitching more because she is really excited about her new environment!  Nose overdrive!

[Holly]

Holly was very uneasy with us for about the first three weeks. Then she started to calm down. My husband kept asking me is it normal for her to breath that fast? She doesn’t do that anymore. In fact, now she flops down and snoozes. She wouldn’t do that when I first got her.

[Lisa_43]

She seems very content to me. they sure were big loud thumps.

[Sarita]

She seems totally content to me as well. Some buns are just thumpers – they are the ones who usually have alot to say.

I love her big huge binkies too.

[Cadbury]

She’s definitely comfortable with you. She wouldn’t groom herself so close to you if she wasn’t. Cadbury also thumps right before she binkies or jumps on the couch – I think she thinks it gives her extra air to jump higher!

Your bun is such a cutie, too!

[babybunsmum]

thanks for all the comments!  yup… i’m pretty sure she’s gonna be a trouble maker  she’s a very busy bun in and out of her enclosure.  i read the language of the lagomorphs before – its such a fun read – but i think its time to re-read it.  what i find odd about her is that her nose is flared & twitching even when she flops.  i always thought a flopping bun was in a more ‘chillin’ state of mind.  maybe its a quirk of hers.  last night i rested my head on the floor of her enclosure (it’s one level off the ground) and she did a huge twisty feet-in-the-air flop right next to my head!  so cute.  anyways… i’m totally convinced now that she’s an excited & active & curious young bun and not (no longer) anxious about her new home.

[Sarita]

Pinky reminds me of my white female NZ, Mad Maxine. I had her since August 2004 – she came to me as an adult so I have no earthly idea how old she really is. She is a very pushy and opinionated lady. I’ve seen her do some bunny flops and the whole house just shakes LOL. Pinky is much younger than Maxine but she has the same general spunkiness about her that Madam Maxine has. Maxine is like a big white freight train coming at me when I give her morning treats – she’s also a bit nippy too.

[babybunsmum]

thats hilarious sarita!  love the name… madam maxine aka mad max.  lol.  she sounds a lot like pinky… who knocked half of her pellets out of the scoop before i could pour them into her food dish this morning.

oh and i got a quick peak at her hocks the other day… they looked half as pink as what i saw during her vet exam.  although it was a bit of a flurry to look at them before she began kicking in protest.  should hocks normally be all fur covered?  i can’t find a bare spot on baby buns hocks.

[kimberleyanddarren]

she looks fine! you are just like me worrying all the time! she looks like a very happy bunny congrats!

[Sarita]

As far as hocks go – I have quite a few rabbits that don’t have fur covering all their hock part – they are calloused though – I do monitor that area of their feet – one is my rex Emmy and one is actually Maxine. When I got Maxine she had not been living in favorable conditions – probably dirty conditions and her hocks were not in good shape but luckily no bone was showing so we just let her hocks heal naturally. Hopefully all the fur will grow back but if not it will probably callous over and you will just want to watch it as best you can – I know it’s not easy with the feet because if they are laying down and the minute you touch them they spring up. They aren’t much help when it comes to this. I think these larger rabbits are more prone to this because of their weight – try to keep her back nails trimmed as best you can too – the shorter the better.

[babybunsmum]

thanks sarita.  i google imaged sore hocks & got quite an eyeful!  good grief!  i’m glad she doesn’t have sores like some pics i saw.  i’m really making an effort with her to get her used to me feeling all over her.   from what you say, i imagine because she’s big & a thumper that she’ll prolly always have a bare spot on her hocks so i’ll just keep an eye on it to be sure the skin doesn’t break or develope sores. 

yeah kimberleyanddarren, i’m a worry wart.  afraid to make a mistake that compromises my pets health like i have in the past… but the older i get the more i realize that perfection is over-rated!   by the time i’m a crotchety old gal i’ll have it all figured out & be sooo relaxed.  lol.

[RabbitPam]

I just googled “bunny nose twitching” and came up with a person who asked the Answerbag what it means. This was the Answerbag’s reply:

“Nose-twitching in rabbits is believed to indicate how interested they are in things – the faster the nose-twitching the more interested they are. It certainly isn’t a bad sign, so don’t worry about it.”

Makes sense for Pinky.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

That’s what I’ve sort of noticed/read too; That it indicates interest…If it makes you feel better Rupert flops with his nose twitching fast as well!

[MooBunnay]

What a fun video! Pinky seems super happy. A couple of my bunnies also do that digging at my leg thing and nipping when they want pets from me in fact, I think 6 out of my 7 bunnies do that to get pets in the case that, heaven forbid, I stop petting them for 15 seconds! I thought the *THUMP* *BINKY* was the funniest thing It made me laugh every time. I’m wondering if you really want her and Baby to be friends – I can just imagine the mischief that those two opinionated ladies are going to get themselves into! Poor Bogart, I can just imagine it now, Baby and Pinky perched side by side on Bogarts back, and then Baby counts down “3..2..1..” and they both pee on him!

[babybunsmum]

lol.  yeah i’d have to help bogart play defense with 2 buns running amok!  baby had calmed down with the dog considerably but as soon as pinky came home she went back to tryng to claim him for her own.  especially now that pinky does ‘twirling pees’ directed at him.  poor guy.  lol.  i’m very curious to know how bonding between the 2 buns will go… fortunately we have a great set-up here with them separate, so in the worst case scenario we’ll just stick with it.  i think that knowledge will make any bonding attempts less stressful for me

[Sage Cat]

So cute when she digs at your pants!
My sound does not always work – So, I did not get to hear all the thumps – bummer.
She looks happy and very curious. 🙂

[babybunsmum]

update

today pinky poo visited the vet for a nail trim.  i def needed professional help for this… she’s so adoreable & cuddly yet when i try to pick her up she still hurts me.  lol.  i needed experienced extra hands.  anyways, i thought another trip in would be good for her before her spay.  i figure she may be less & less traumatized each time she goes & then returns home safely again. 

anyways… it went really really well starting from when she hopped directly into the carry case for me at home.  then when we were there & waiting in the exam room she hopped out of her carry case 2x but each time went straight back in.  the 2nd time she thumped loudly when back in the case.  lol.  everyone in the clinic heard her apparently because when the 2 amandas came in to clip her nails it was the first thing they commented on.  i told them about her being thumpy mcthumperson even pre-binky or pre-flop & they thought it was pretty funny.

so it took 3 of us to clip her nails.  amanda 1 held her body in a half burrito, i stood infront of her & gave head pets, and amanda 2 clipped one side front & back.  then they reversed the burrito & we did the same thing on the other side.  she didn’t thump during the process at all!  and she went back into her carry case without thumping too .  i loved how she clipped the nails without having to lift pinky’s paw off the table.  very clever.  it was worth the $27 bucks almost just to have that demonstration, since i would like to be able to do this myself eventually.  amanda 2, who was present during her initial exam with the vet, said pinky was way way more calm this time.  i also noticed that when she lifted pinky up & out of the bottom of the carry case, pinky didn’t kick at all.  wierd.  maybe all the abuse she’s giving me at home is actually paying off

so we have tentatively booked her spay for the first thursday in april.  i was wanting the last week of march but the vet is away that week at a conference.  its only tentative because their appointment book hasn’t extended into april yet & so i have to call back in a week or so to officially book.  yay.  i’m so happy that they noticed she is more relaxed too! 

[Beka27]

we’ve had these conversations about the vet nail trims before.  i much prefer to have them do it.  actually i leave in a couple hours to go and have it done.

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