Bunny crying?

[Mariagrazzia]

Hi everyone, my rabbit makes this weird crying noise when he’s sleeping or just laying down. He’s not in pain because when I approach him and pet him he stops. He is eating normal and drinking water, pooping and peeing normal too. He also doesn’t make the noise when my other bunny cuddles up next to him so is he just whining? I’m adding a link to a YouTube video I found where the bunny makes the same noises mine does but mine does it when he’s laying down so it’s not an issue of me handling him wrong. Any ideas what it could mean?

https://youtu.be/1u-2EalfAyU

[Bam]

This is absolutely very, very unusual. Normally buns don’t vocalize like that – but they can cry out very very loudly when they are in motal fear. That’s a longer lasting, shrill cry though. It’s evolutionary “purpose” is for the predator to let go of the rabbit.

Rabbits’ vocalizations have to be interpreted in context. In some cases it’s clear what they mean, like rabbits that growl (and charge). In other cases, it’s less obvious what they mean. Some honk when they are happy (expecting a yummy treat f.ex) or make a little twittering sound when they eat or drink or groom themselves. They have the antatomical capacity for vocalizations, but most don’t use it much. It probably pays off to be mostly quiet in the wild.

If your rabbit seems fine while he’s making the noises, and he’s eating, drinking and pooping like he should and is normally active and has no symptoms of respiratory distress (such as sitting with his head tilted back or trying to breathe through his mouth), I can’t think of any illness that would present itself with whining. It seems you’ve ruled out obvious pain and severe fright. You could of course get him checked by your vet, if you have a bunny savvy vet.

[Rookie]

is he sleeping when he does that? could be nigh terrors? I know Rookie grinds his teeth in his sleep. maybe your bunny talks in their sleep. but when you touch or pet him then you calm him down and jolt him out of that dream maybe?

[Mikey]

Seconding night terrors or nightmares. My Blue has bad nightmares sometimes where he cannot calm down and will make a lot of weird frantic noises while making very loud thumps. Usually waking him up, petting him, and talking to him softly calms him down in a few minutes

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Mikey on 2/18/2017 12:00 PM

Seconding night terrors or nightmares. My Blue has bad nightmares sometimes where he cannot calm down and will make a lot of weird frantic noises while making very loud thumps. Usually waking him up, petting him, and talking to him softly calms him down in a few minutes

That’s really interesting, well I mean not for the bunny obviously but I had no idea rabbits could have nightmares. Thankfully your boy calms down within a few minutes. 

[Mikey]

Posted By sarahthegemini on 2/18/2017 12:07 PM 

That’s really interesting, well I mean not for the bunny obviously but I had no idea rabbits could have nightmares. Thankfully your boy calms down within a few minutes. 

Yep! It happened a lot more when we first got him, but thankfully has started to happen less and less over the past year. Still, about once or twice a month he will have a nightmare that really gets him for a few minutes

[Author]

Messages