Breed behavior questions

[Jessie]

Hi all. I would like to open a discussion about breed variance, and commonalities specific to behavior. So heres a little backthought to this topic in reguards to how I came upon this personal pondering. My daughter at the age of two came upon this tiny ball of fluff at our local feed store. He was advertised as an english spot/non specific lop cross and by all apperances seems to fit that bill, anyways, I digress… daughter glommed onto this one rabbit (in the face of like 12 others) and for about 5 or 6 months nagged for nearly daily trips to the feed store to say hello to “her bunny.” Well, one day the guy who works there and cares for the rabbits tells daughter that she should tell her bunny bye bye forever. Then explains to me in semi code (to avoid daughters understanding) that once the rabbits get large they go back to the breeder, who subsiquently EATS them. Well guys I buckled. There was no way in H*** I was going to let that rabbit wnd up on someones dinner plate after my kid dragged me to that place to say hi for nearly 6 months. So. We have had Cookie for about two years now and he has suprised me with his massive, playful, and BOLD (always dismissed rabbits as fearful shy creatures) personality.  This rabbit spent the first near 6 months of his life in a 15 by 15 wire bottomed cage, no toys, only pellets to eat, and nearly no human interaction beyond the odd kid poking their fingers in his cage. And from day one he has been loving, attention seeking, and is downright obsessed with my daughter. They look at books together, and nap in sun patches together. Maybe he knows my daughter got him out of that horrid place, or maybe we are just lucky. But his presence in my house has awoken a possible future obsession in me.

All my life Ive been an animal freak. I fell deep into the dog hobby and am virtually a walking encicolapidia of all things dog and dog related. Ive had reptiles, all mannor of rodents, ferrets, a hedge hog. I love animals. And I love learning about them and training them. Well somehow I completely managed to avoid (up until cookie)knowing much of anything about rabbits. Hence my suprise to find that rabbits are so much more than cute, scared, not so interactive creatures. As our familiarity with cookie grew, so did my knowledge of rabbits in general. Best diet, adjusting misconceptions, health, handling etc. But Ive noticed that there is a massive gulf in one area and I dont know why. With dogs, it is true there are traits common to all breeds. But beyond just visual differences, there are certain behavior patters which can be safely assumed to hold true in specific breeds. A beagle will bay and track smells, an Australian Shepherd is going to have a built in incentive to heard. Likewise, and more importantly, certain breeds will have certain temperments. Keeshounds and newfies nearly ALWAYS love children and make exceptional therapy animals. Dobermans are highly trainable and emotionally needy. flock guardians are loyal but independant. Labs always have bounds of energy and exibit people pleasing desires beyond other breeds (which is why they dominate the service dog field.) Cats follow this rule as well to a lesser extent. Torties are playful and crazy, breeds with “pointed” markings (siamese) are talkative and doglike. So Ive seen some remarks like this about rabbits but they are extemely sparing and repetative. Most commonly I find a long list of visual standards, a long explanation of breed history, and one sentence on behavior/personality. Is there really slim to no personality difference from a flemish and a Belgian Hare and one chooses a rabbit for asthetics? Or perhaps there is simply little information out there on the behavioral distinctions?

I would greatly enjoy reading peoples thoughs on this, and perhaps people knowledgable in a particular breed can express possitve and negative attributes to said breed.

On a final note, my motivation in this is not just the knowing (but that accounts for alot) I am also thinking I too, would like a rabbit to bond with as my daughter has with cookie. And while I cant find another Cookie, I would like to seek out a bun with an outgoing playful and engaging nature like him. Is there a breed to aim for where my chances are greater? Ive seen some great comments about rex (I like standard) and new zealands… unfortunately the vast majority of information out there one these guys is put out there by meat breeders, and I feel strongly that one cannot describe a rabbits nature unless they have lived with it indoors as part of the family. So, if anyone has some personal experience owning either of these, I would particularly love to hear your stories.

Sorry this was long, and thank you to anyone who actually read the entire thing.

[joea64]

Welcome to BB, hello to Cookie, and those are some really good questions here!

I don’t hold myself out as being any sort of expert, but I’ve read as deeply into various domestic breeds as I could over the past couple of months while preparing to adopt my own pair of buns, Panda and Fernando, whom I’m pretty certain are purebred Polish – at the very least, Panda, the female of the pair (and Fernando’s mother) is very likely purebred. I don’t think I’ll ever know who Fernando’s father was but he’s a virtual twin for his mother except that she’s broken-black-and-white and he’s pure white with ruby eyes. I’ve been observing them closely over the past ten days to get a sense of their behavior, and while I don’t believe I can speak for all Polish rabbits, I can tell you something about the way my buns act.

Polish rabbits are the smallest domestic breed that aren’t dwarfs; they don’t carry the dwarfing gene but they’re often misidentified as such. Like every other small breed I’ve heard of, they’re quite energetic, active and playful, and very curious. The Polish breed actually falls into two different types, the British-Polish (which is called the Britannia Petite in the U.S.) and the American Polish, which is what my rabbits are. As far as individual personalities go, Fernando, a 7/8-month-old neutered boy, is very lively and also very outgoing and affectionate. When the X-pen is up of an evening and I’m at the computer, both he and Panda love to come up to the fence to get my attention, no doubt hoping for treats. Fernando likes being rubbed on the forehead and he’s engaged in a couple of longish pet/cuddle sessions with me since he and his mom moved in. Panda, his mother, a 13/14-month-old spayed female, is the more sedate and reserved of the two, a very elegant lady (Polish rabbits have the nickname “the little aristocrat” in show circles), who so far is reluctant to be petted but enjoys being talked to and is rather demanding about asking for attention and treats; she’s nipped me several times to that effect! That being said, Panda has proven to be the more demonstrative of the duo about her feelings about living with me; she’s done a couple of mini-Bunny 500’s around the X-pen and condo and this past weekend, to my amazement, showed me the first binky I’d ever seen in person!

Both of them have groomed me briefly on several occasions as well, though more my clothes (which they seem to think are my fur) than my actual person. Oh, and they’re both VERY enthusiastic eaters, so much so that this evening, while I was lying down in the X-pen making myself available for a floor session, they basically blew me off in favor of eating the fresh hay I’d laid down for them instead. But when I got up to go take a shower, wouldn’t you know it, they ran across to the X-pen fence to make goo-goo eyes at me. Go figure…

[ThorBunny]

Hello! Glad to hear from another rabbit lover I’ve also been discovering how wonderful, bold and intelligent rabbits can be, they are such wonderful companions!

I’ve only had rabbits for about 9 months now, I adopted Thor in December and Boo (hopefully to bond with her) a month ago. However, from my limited experience, I would say that with rabbits it really depends on the individual rather than the breed for personality. I think some comes down to natural tendencies in the rabbit and a lot comes down to their previous experiences. Both Thor and Boo are from the shelter, adopted as adults.

Thor is a satin/mini lop mix *we think* She is small but big and bold in sass and personality! She is cuddly when she wants to be, loves pets and adoration and is very calm in almost any situation. Over the months we’ve had her she has gotten slowly more comfortable with us. She loves toss toys and dig boxes, binkies all over the place.

Boo bunny is a Californian rabbit, he was rescued from the slaughter house Well it’s a good thing he was saved because he’s such a good bunny! He’s much larger than Thor, a bit of a clumsy goon. He loves to play and lounge. He was more nervous and shy than Thor at first, but every day we have him he gets more cuddly and personable. He now has an insatiable appetite for pets and is always running up to us and greeting us at the door when we come home. He’s even groomed us on occasion, which Thor never does

OK, long rant about my bunnies, just hopefully giving you a taste of the differences between different individuals! My advice to you in getting a bun that you will know their personality is to adopt an adult bun from a shelter. Baby bunnies don’t have developed personalities, plus when you get a bun from the shelter they are usually already spayed/neutered (saves money and is necessary if you want to house two buns together)

[Jessie]

Thanks for the welcome and telling me about your rabbits guys!

@joea I have not read anything on polish, but I did meet a couple at our local fair. There was a rabbit show happening. They where cage mates with a dutch rabbit. They were cute as buttons. Yours sound adorable too.

@thor: its not ranting when I asked. actually what you said about your boo checks with the sparce behavior descriptions Ive seen about californias. It was noted along with the new zealand white and himalayan on several sites as being some of the most attention seeking rabbit breeds. I am not completely sure about where Id get another bun (not the feed store. Still feel guilty for giving them money. They sell puppies there. Not a practice I look favorably upon), or if I will yet. Our home is happy and balanced. I may wait some time longer and see where my daughter and cookie go with their relationship. They love eachother, but small kids can suddenly lose interest in things they once loved dearly. She isnt quite 4. She may start school and make friends. In that event I need to be ready to step in and keep him company. I am only second place to him, but hopefully better than nothing. Some parsley will bring him around. XD

[Bianca]

I think the difference is dogs were bred for different abilities, uses, and personalities. Some were bred to guard properties, others to guard nurseries, others to hunt, be a perfect companion, etc.

Rabbits weren’t bred quite so much for that I don’t think. I don’t know heaps about rabbit breeding but for years they were bred more for their meat and/or fur. Now they are bred more for appearance and size too, but I think personality is harder to bring into it.

There are some generalisations you can say about breed personality. On average, smaller breeds (such as dwarfs) tend to be more active and less cuddly, but it can depend on individual personality and how they are raised. Larger breeds tend to be less active, and therefore often more cuddly. However, I have met lots of rabbits not true to that theory.

If it helps I have:

-Not sure but suspect rex x Terry – loves pats, and weirdly friendly with other rabbits. Likes throwing toys but tends not to run around a lot.
-Maggie the angora. Loves being brushed (thankfully even on the tummy!), loves cuddles, expects all other rabbits to groom her, enjoys spending long periods of time on my lap (provided I keep patting). Not overly playful – prefers naps and cuddles. But will follow the other rabbits sometimes.
-Lily the netherland dwarf. Likes cuddles a lot for a nethie – is a little bit more confident exploring than Terry and Maggie but not much. She just finds smaller places to get into. I suspect with her behaviour she may have been hand raised or handled a lot from a young age. Gets upset and demanding if I stop patting for even a second.
-Greebo – netherland dwarf x mini lop. Came to me very nervous about being handled/picked up. However, now loves pats and often demands them, but if he isn’t in the mood for being picked up you hear about it pretty good. He isn’t so scared now, just opinionated. Loves exploring. First time we let him out in the lounge room he went everywhere he could. Including a flying leap onto the dog – who was on the couch. The other three rabbits haven’t explored half the room yet – I’m hoping once bonded to Greebo they might, but I kind of blame miss dominant and lazy Maggie who chooses to nap – and the others prefer to stay near her.

I think the best way to find a rabbit personality that suits you is to go to some shelters and meet them and ask about them and what they are like to handle/cuddle/etc. They may change a little at home – i.e. more confident, but I find you can get a good general idea.

[joea64]

A lot of us get our fluffball housemates from shelters or rabbit rescues (including yours truly) so it’s not always easy to determine what breed our buns are at first glance; there’s also the problem that a lot of pet-store rabbits are mixed-breeds. Pretty much the only guaranteed way I know of to get a purebred is to go directly to a breeder who specializes in that particular breed. If I didn’t already say it, by the way, well-done on rescuing Cookie from the dinner plate! I’ve heard of even grislier fates for some unsold pet-store or feed store bunnies, let’s just say snakes are involved and leave it at that…

Getting back to the topic at hand, It’s pretty much a universally-acknowledged truth that a rabbit’s real personality only blossoms when they’re in a loving indoors environment with plenty of opportunity for interaction with their human(s). The reason that pet rabbits have always been thought of as being overall fairly passive creatures is that until the past 30-40 years or thereabouts, most pet buns have been kept outdoors in hutches with variable, to say the least, degrees of interactions with humans, so obviously people often don’t get to really know their bunnies. I’ve only been living with Panda and Fernando for 10 days or so and I am already here to tell you that they are some pretty individualistic individuals! In fact, one reason I chose Panda and her kit is because of the description in her Petfinder/Adopt-A-Pet listing which characterized her as “opinionated, and will thump if she doesn’t like what’s going on!” That suited me; I like ’em lively and feisty.

[Mikey]

(pet) Rabbits are not often bred for personality. Often (pet) rabbits are bred based on their fur markings. Because of this, not all rabbits will fit their breed stereotype, and many will have quirks about them. There are also tons of mixed bred ones due to accidental or uncontrolled breeding. In my opinion, its better to think of (pet) bunnys breed lines more like cats than dogs

With a quick google search, it says mini rexs often loved to be pet and will go out of their way to acquire pets from their human familiars, are easy to pick up and handle, and are very quiet and laid back with little to no drive for anything but cuddles.

My Blue, a mini rex, likes pets, but would rather run around and explore than have a cuddle session He likes things in their place (a place he put the items in) and loves to binky when caught “getting into trouble”. He will stretch out and wiggle towards the bathroom and a simple “Blue…” and he will fly around the living room binkying like crazy, lol. His main drive is for food, though. Touch the pellet bag = Blue running wild around my feet. Touch the hay bag = Blue running wild around the living room, and my feet. Point to the tote with all of their treats, hay bags, brushes, pellet bags, ect are = Blue standing on his hind legs watching and listening, completely focused in case you touch the hay, pellets, treats, ect.

But hes also motivated in general. Its pretty well known that he is my emotional support animal. I have PTSD, anxiety, depression, autism, and more. When we got him, it was with the intent of him helping me during my panic episodes as soft things really calm me down. Over time, Blue took to this and now when I panic, he runs over to me and forces me to pet him and/or hold him. If Im holding him and Im panicing silently, he can feel my heart rate speed up and will again force me to pet him and talk to him. He has taught himself that if I faint, he will dig at me to help me wake up quicker. He can easily tell when I am having bad days and will walk over to me often to check on me, even if he was in the middle of a play session with his bond mate.

With a google search, netherland dwarves tend to have tempers and might act out aggressively instead of running away when scared. Theyre also seen as grumpy often because of their tempers, and many report that it gets worse as they age. They are very active and are considered one of the smarter breeds when it comes to learning commands. A lack of learning and lack of exercise may cause a nethies temper to sour.

My Bombur, a nethie matches this pretty well. He has an easy temper which is obvious when you do something he does not like. It could be that you pet him too long, or too short, or tickled one of his whiskers, or maybe you put his hay in the wrong spot, or heavens forbid you touched his toys while he was playing. He will even get upset sometimes if you watch him for too long while he is running around, LOL. He may try to fight you, or he may just run under the couch and thump to show his dislike at whatever youve done. He fights getting his nails trimmed, he fights grooming, and he fights if you pet him and he doesnt want to be pet. He is more likely to fight if he does not know or trust someone, and building trust with him is not easy. He is also incredibly active and has spurts a few times a day where he will bunny 500 around the room for a few minutes, up to an hour! Bombur is also very good with commands, unless he is purposely ignoring you. He knows the basics (his name, “no”, “stop that”, “pellet time”, “treats”, ect). One last silly note, if you call him cute in a soft voice, he will do a mini binky. As angry as he is, he loves knowing he is adorable lol

With a quick google search, dutch rabbits are calm, simple, and very easy going. Theyll let you do almost anything to them, and theyll deal with it unless it scares them or causes them pain. They are easily bored and require a lot of attention and exercise. They can be easily nervous in new areas and around new people, but are quick to trust strangers in most circumstances.

My badger, a dutch dwarf mix, mostly fits this. My partner and I joke often that if something bad happened and the buns were released into the wild, Badger would be the lease likely to survive. He trusts everything. Hes not afraid of anything or anyone. A family members dog, atleast 4x his size, has been nose to nose with him, and Badger just licked her and walked away He does not care what you are, he will see you as a friend. He adores cuddles and pets and will go out of his way to get exactly that. If you do not notice him enough, he will jump into your lap or clank the side of his cage to get your attention so you go pet him. He loves to run and play, but is disabled so playtime is often cut short with the need to relax and regain energy. He enjoys being held if it means getting cuddled and when carried, he is very calm. He is never bored as he always finds things to do (run, flop, explore, climb, ect).

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to note down all of my buns

[Q8bunny]

I’m going to pitch in with what I know from having lived with two nethies, and much later one lionhead, as well as from fostering a variety of buns.

Dwarf breeds, like the Nethies: high energy, easily startled, sassy, mischievous

Lionheads: independent, assertive, intelligent, affectionate

Lops: sweet, lazy, mellow, trainable

Giants, rexes, and english spots I’ve only come across once in a while and were generally docile sweetheart buns – quite affectionate

Probably less than 2 cents’ worth, but there you have it

[joea64]

Posted By Q8bunny on 8/30/2017 11:34 AM

I’m going to pitch in with what I know from having lived with two nethies, and much later one lionhead, as well as from fostering a variety of buns.

Dwarf breeds, like the Nethies: high energy, easily startled, sassy, mischievous

Lionheads: independent, assertive, intelligent, affectionate

Lops: sweet, lazy, mellow, trainable

Giants, rexes, and english spots I’ve only come across once in a while and were generally docile sweetheart buns – quite affectionate

Probably less than 2 cents’ worth, but there you have it

While they’re not dwarfs, Polish buns seem to share the personality traits of their smaller cousins – and in fact Netherland Dwarfs were bred from the Polish. Panda will head for the safety of the upper deck the moment I move their condo just a little bit, but Fernando generally is made of sterner stuff and stands his ground. They’re both very high-energy…when they want to be. I’m still feeling rather miffed about having been ignored half of last evening while they lazed about in their litterbox munching fresh hay.  Sassy and mischevious? Even at this early date, heck yeah. I am beginning to get the very strong impression that Panda’s coyness about being petted is as much a game now as it is any residual fear instinct, and that she’s deliberately playing hard to get.

[Jessie]

I understand that for a great many years rabbits where bred for meat or fur yeild. Others for sport (shows) but only in look and not temperment. These creatures where not thought of as pets until very recently. Likewise cats speant a long while as passive vermin control.

But when populations discovered indoor cats as pets and not tools, they slowly developed a fancy that focuses on not just asthetic, but their chosen breeds nature as well. And I assure you there is a great deal of temperment variance to those who love cats.

This is because when you isolate one gene, you inadvertently isolate others as well. A russian study of domestication of foxes found that if you breed temperment, certain asthetics start showing up (broken colors, shorter legs, certain face markings.) It stands to reason that this flows both ways. Isolate a physical trait and certain behavioral ones will be attached. One cross species example is the pointed marking. In rats, cats, and rabbits it seems, this marking more commonly results in a more attention seeking animal.

I think these things are true in rabbits too. It just that we (large societal sense) are only at the beginning of discovering these things because of the way society treats rabbits. We are still trying to fight the concept of the meat/4h show/backyard hutch is acceptable idea of the rabbit.

Perhaps one day when the shelters arent overrun, and petstores stop selling rabbits (contributing to mills and overpopulation ) we will start to see true rabbit fanciers. Breeders who breed for temperment as much as look, with rabbits who live in the home. In smalls ways our rabbit breeds are already unique. True rabbit enthusiasts simply dont have as much time to define them because too much time and resource is speant trying to change public perception of rabbits as a whole.

Mikey I loved your post and hearing about all your bunnies. Especially bombur. Haha. What a character. cookie has never acted grumpy, so ive never seen a rabbit “thump?” He just follows my daughter around and they get into things they are not supposed together. Haha. Blue sounds like an amazing little guy. I used to take my pup in to work with aitistic children and found that the presence of an animal didnt help every kid, but when a child came along that it could have an effect, the effect was instant and amazing. What a wonderfult thing for you and blue. (I hope that isnt taken as patronising, I just love when humans and animals make these kinds of connections. Particularly with PTSD. I know of many former millitary guys whose lives have been much improved by dogs.) Also knew a woman who’s ferret alerted her to upcoming seizures. So cool when pets become partners.

Bianca- thanks for sharing. I cant say for certain ill be getting a rabbit any time soon. But a petstore bunny is not in the cards if I do. Knowing what I know about the dog world (worked in rescue coordinating adoptions, but was also part of the agility and show circles) I dont frown on RESPONSIBLE breeders. Unfortunately from what ive seen, locally at least, responsible breeding doesnt exsist in the rabbit world. So a shelter is my most likely place to go. The few rabbit shows we had locally made me sick and sad. Stark differences between cat/dog and rabbits. It felt more like assesment of livestock. Poor creatures. I hope public opinion starts to change at a faster pace. These social little creatures deserve better.

[BrokenBlue]

This is my experience with a few rabbit breeds from working at the local rescue kennels. Most of our rabbits are mixtures though.

Dutch- Crazy. We had two in for quite a while. One has been with us for over a year. She is very grumpy and will bite as soon as your hand goes in her cage. If that doesn’t stop you she’ll scratch and do whatever it takes to get you to leave her alone. It makes cleaning tricky. The other one which was with us for 2-3 months was hyper active and nervous. When you put her in her outside run she would run in laps around it for as long as she could. If you went near her cage she would dart to the furthest away corner.

Lionheads- Generally the best tempered breed IMO. I have kept 3 lionheads. My first two were brother and sister and were absolutely amazing. Super easy to train and very laid back. They were trained to walk on lead. Each morning I would open the door and walk with them (without putting their leads on) and they would run to their outdoor hutch where they would wait to be picked up and put in. Really tame and easy going too. Our friend’s kids liked to come around and play with them and they didn’t mind being petted by the children. They would sit on your knee for about 40 minutes in the evening they were so cuddly. Unfortunately they got a poopy butt occasionally and needed a butt bath. They didn’t struggle and were fine with it. Afterwards while drying them they would lick you and give you a bath. My current lionhead is just a baby and I have only had him for a few days so I’m not certain of his temperament just yet. So far he seems clever and naughty. We have had a few lionheads at the rescue. They are usually shy (but who could blame them) but soon come round if you spend some time with them. Rarely aggressive.

Angoras- Usually quite calm and a bit playful. Fortunately all the ones we’ve had have enjoyed being brushed.

Rex cross- We’ve had one rabbit who has been in for about a year and a half. She’s mixture but definitely has some rex in her. Her temperament seems to change weekly. This week she’s being grumpy. She’s never cuddly though. She loves her food and throwing toys around.

[Jessie]

Posted By joea64 on 8/30/2017 11:40 AM

Posted By Q8bunny on 8/30/2017 11:34 AM

I’m going to pitch in with what I know from having lived with two nethies, and much later one lionhead, as well as from fostering a variety of buns.

Dwarf breeds, like the Nethies: high energy, easily startled, sassy, mischievous

Lionheads: independent, assertive, intelligent, affectionate

Lops: sweet, lazy, mellow, trainable

Giants, rexes, and english spots I’ve only come across once in a while and were generally docile sweetheart buns – quite affectionate

Probably less than 2 cents’ worth, but there you have it

While they’re not dwarfs, Polish buns seem to share the personality traits of their smaller cousins – and in fact Netherland Dwarfs were bred from the Polish. Panda will head for the safety of the upper deck the moment I move their condo just a little bit, but Fernando generally is made of sterner stuff and stands his ground. They’re both very high-energy…when they want to be. I’m still feeling rather miffed about having been ignored half of last evening while they lazed about in their litterbox munching fresh hay.  Sassy and mischevious? Even at this early date, heck yeah. I am beginning to get the very strong impression that Panda’s coyness about being petted is as much a game now as it is any residual fear instinct, and that she’s deliberately playing hard to get.

Lol. I think femals in general seem to play hard to get from time to time. dare I say across all species? 

[Jessie]

Hmm. Didnthe quote thing wrong… still figuring out the forum stuff…

[joea64]

Posted By Jessie on 8/30/2017 12:35 PM

Hmm. Didnthe quote thing wrong… still figuring out the forum stuff…

This forum’s software handles quotes in a way different than those I’m used to, so I’m still having occasional problems with it myself. Click the text-entry window (this one) so that the cursor appears a couple of lines below the text you’re quoting. Or you could switch from “Design” to “HTML” view, which might help better. In HTML view, you can see the [blockquote] tag, so you want to type under the [/blockquote][br] tags.

[Jessie]

Posted By joea64 on 8/30/2017 12:43 PM

Posted By Jessie on 8/30/2017 12:35 PM

Hmm. Didnthe quote thing wrong… still figuring out the forum stuff…

This forum’s software handles quotes in a way different than those I’m used to, so I’m still having occasional problems with it myself. Click the text-entry window (this one) so that the cursor appears a couple of lines below the text you’re quoting. Or you could switch from “Design” to “HTML” view, which might help better. In HTML view, you can see the [blockquote] tag, so you want to type under the [/blockquote][br] tags.

Oh, Hazah! Html works, I see the “br” line. Thanks.

[Mikey]

Posted By Jessie on 8/30/2017 12:25 PM

Mikey I loved your post and hearing about all your bunnies. Especially bombur. Haha. What a character. cookie has never acted grumpy, so ive never seen a rabbit “thump?” He just follows my daughter around and they get into things they are not supposed together. Haha. Blue sounds like an amazing little guy. I used to take my pup in to work with aitistic children and found that the presence of an animal didnt help every kid, but when a child came along that it could have an effect, the effect was instant and amazing. What a wonderfult thing for you and blue. (I hope that isnt taken as patronising, I just love when humans and animals make these kinds of connections. Particularly with PTSD. I know of many former millitary guys whose lives have been much improved by dogs.) Also knew a woman who’s ferret alerted her to upcoming seizures. So cool when pets become partners. 

Not patronizing at all! I also love when animals and humans can get along like equals and help one another Thumps can be funny to watch. Bombur, being so small (2lbs), his thumps sound like a penny dropping to the floor. Youll see his body jump, and hear a small noise. Bombur never thumps when hes scared (unless Blue thumps from fear first) so its funny to watch him all angry pouting and “*small jump and small thud noise*” because hes angry, lol. My Badger and Blue sound similar to your daughter’s bun. Blue enjoys fallowing me around, but if bored he will wander somewhere else to explore. Badger will fallow me if he is tired or needs help getting back into his cage; or if he wants to be showered with love 

[Jessie]

Aww haha. Poor Bombur. Even when hes trying to be serious and mad hes still cute. Haha.

Maybe cookie would walk away when bored. But a near 4 year old is never boring I guess. Their favorite thing (besides taking a nap and sharing an apple) is to take this big ball (one of those cheap ones in towers at walmart) and take turns knocking it all over the place. She laughs, he binks. Although he has rebounded off of her a few times and knocked her over (like a 6 pound bunny karate kick lol) in his excitement in our narrow hallway. She was not happy. But he quickly made ammends with a head bump and a quick groom of her hand. The only thing he does that drives me nuts is try to chew peoples toe nails. Little weirdo.

[LBJ10]

I agree with the others. There are stereotypes for certain breeds, but a lot of bunnies don’t fit their stereotypes. A lot of this is because rabbits are not bred for personality traits. At least they weren’t for a long time. Things have been changing in recent years.

My boys:

Leopold is a Holland lop. He fits the typical “lazy lop” stereotype. He is very mellow and laid back. But you have to remember he is also deaf, so I think that is definitely a contributing factor. He likes to lounge around a lot. He gets excited, but he doesn’t show his excitement like other rabbits. He doesn’t binky and his “bunny 500s” are like a gentle lope around the room when he thinks he’s getting fed. That’s as excited as he gets! LOL He is very bossy when it comes to me and our other rabbit. Since he is deaf though, I think some of his bossiness is due to his inability to communicate otherwise. He can’t be subtle. So he pushes and shoves, tries to snatch things, etc. Leopold is very curious though and has no fear. He likes to explore and he likes to play with tossing toys.

Wooly (Mr. Wooly) is a Jersey wooly. He is a dwarf breed and he is a bit high strung in certain aspects. You do not touch his chest, tummy, feet, or rear. No, no, no, no, no. But he can be very sweet at times and ask for pets on his head. He can be a bit lazy as well, but some of this could be because he has some special needs (tooth root issues which lead to chronic sinus problems and more or less facial paralysis). He can be mischievous, but he is a follower not a leader. In order words, he can be naughty, but Leopold has to give him the idea first. Wooly does get stressed out more easily, particularly by loud noises. So I do have to worry about that occasionally. Otherwise, he’s a pretty easy going bun.

[Mikey]

LOL! Cookie and your daughter have an awesome friendship Its very sweet they can make up from their little misunderstandings so quickly with some snuggles

[joea64]

As I learn more about the personalities of my two, it appears that Fernando is definitely the more laid-back of the two, in that he doesn’t binky or 500 like his mother, at least not so far. His “default” position is a sort of relaxed-but-attentive sitting-up posture where he’s resting on his rear haunches, his pink eyes looking slightly sleepy with his ears in resting-back position. He can maintain that pose with a remarkable, in fact Zen-like, stillness for up to half an hour or even more if he’s not disturbed or something doesn’t catch his interest; in fact, I’m not altogether sure by a long chalk that he isn’t meditating! Interestingly, he often appears to cant one ear forward and the other back, I believe this is a sort of mild-interest position in rabbits.

[Author]

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