Bunny Rolling on his back?

[Nutmeg]

Our young Male (9 weeks) bunny has taken to Suddenly flopping over on his back and rolling around, back and forth, in the litter box (Picture a dog rolling around on his back in the grass LOL) and then just snuggling down on his side for a nap. 
He’s done it 3 times now – and ONLY in the litter box. 

** He does share the “Play Land” Litter box with the young female he is currently separated from until they are old enough to be neutered/spayed & then bonded – could he just be really LOVING her litter smell? LOL Ewww. haha.

Does anyone else’s bunny do this? I’ve searched Google and this forum with out finding much. I’m hoping it’s a sign of how comfortable he is that he’s showing his belly like that. 
But I’ve never had young rabbits before, and two weeks ago we had to put down our senior rabbit for a brain tumor and seizures, so I kind of freaked when he first did as I had a bit of flash back of my other poor bunny. 

So I’m hoping you guys can ease my mind that he’s just a bit strange – Happy, but strange lol. 

[Mikey]

Sign your bun is very trusting around you/in your home, and found a super comfortable place to relax All three of my bunnies do it, but my bunny Blue does it more than the other two. Its super adorable because it just looks like he got hit with a very small invisible car LOL

[Nutmeg]

Thank you so much Mikey! that is SO Amazing to hear!! 
Can I ask you a separate question? I have seen your reply’s on bonding bunnies and your answers are always amazing and I was hoping I could pick your brain?! 

Ok, so after our senior bunny had to be put down, I was very depressed. My hubby decided a week and half ago to surprise me with 2 young dwarf rabbits. SURPRISE – ones a boy and ones a girl. He is now 9 weeks old and she is 13 weeks old and they just loved being snuggled up together! I’ve never had young rabbits, let alone two!
So despite how cute they looked together I instantly went out and bought a second cage and they are now each in their own cage with a large shared play area that they go in one at a time (not together).

So here is my question, Is this ok? Based on what I am currently doing – and is currently working – in an attempt to help the bonding process go smother once they are spayed and neutered in a few months. 

1. Both cages are inside the bunny play land, but about 2 feet away from each other.

2. When they each come out for their separate play time the can still smell and sniff each other through the bars of the one still in their cage.  *** This is ONLY when I am with them to make note if their is any annoyance / aggression / territorial behavior between them through the cage bars *IF I ever see that I will make it so that the cage the one who is not out in is fully removed from the play area, as I don’t want any negative emotions between them. 
But so far They just sniff at each other every once and a while and then the one who is out go about their play time and the one inside goes back to eating hay or taking a nap. 

3. I will feed them their nightly veggies side by side on ether side of the cage and play area (Depending on who is out) so that they are eating almost beside each other. 

4. They have a shared “outside” litter box that they each use during their play time. There has been ZERO territory marking in the shared play area in the forms of poop or pee. They do the odd chinning if I put in something new, or on me lol, but that’s it.

5. Every few days I change either the cage they are in or the litter boxes from inside the cages. They are mostly litter box trained and did not see any obvious territory markings – they odd poop still sqweeks out, but nothing that seem’s intentional – and they both seem to care less about the change or the other bunny’s sent in their area. 

*** I know this can all change once the hormones really get going, which is why it’s always supervised even while they are separated by the bars, but I’m hoping if this harmony lasts it will make bonding them (which is all new to me) a bit easier when the time comes. 

Do you think I am ok to carry on like this as long as I see no aggressive / territorial behavior from them? As right now I’m seeing none. 
Thanks Mikey!!!! 

[Wick & Fable]

May I present, misternoodlesoup … the source of all my life’s envy and jealousy: http://www.instagram.com/p/BcZ74OmHhTc/?taken-by=misternoodlesoup

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Deleted User]

Wick: LOL that’s hilarious. Asriel does that sometimes, but he freaks himself out and is like “holy crap I rolled on my back. no no no no no” xD

[Nutmeg]

OMG Wick!!! hahahah that is hilarious! Maybe I should teach mine to roll all the way over like that!!!

PS – I LOVE the name!! My hubby and I are still trying to agree on the names for both our new ones. ( I swear if we had a kid they wouldn’t have a name until they were 3 years old lol)
But so far it looks like: Penelope and Rupert (Rupert has an inside joke)

And Asriel and Bombur – LOL

[ThorBunny]

Hi Nutmeg!

I don’t have a ton of bonding experience, but just wanted to chime in that bunnies have been known to mate through cage bars!

I’d make sure they are separated by a few inches when out for free play time to prevent an oops litter The rest of your setup sounds good for pre-bonding.

Also, CUTE! Mr. noodlesoup… And I love the name Rupert as well!

[Mikey]

LOL that video is hilarious! That little bun is so calm and proud of himself once he rolls back over

Im sorry to hear about your elder bunny You did good to separate them early! I think what youre doing is fine as long they cant reach one another while youre not there watching them. While in my apartment, this is what me and my partner did with our three (bonded pair + single). They shared the living room as a play area, but had to be let out separately. BUT, when hormones came up in our single bun, there was a scuffle when my partner and I werent paying full attention. Badger (single bun) ended up trying to fight through the bars and ended up losing a chunk of skin with one of the other two nipped a little too hard. I really recommend if you allow them to share while theyre hormonal, that you add an extra layer between bars to really ensure they cannot reach one another.

[Bladesmith]

Oh yeah.  we get a lot of that flopping here.

Shameless hussy.

[Nutmeg]

Thank you so much Mikey and Thorbunny!! And OMG what a cute bunny belly!

That’s what I was worried about is when the hormones come out to play. There is over half a foot high of plastic wall at the bottom of the cage, so unless they get very creative their “privates” can’t even come close to reaching lol. But it does add something else to watch for hahaha.

Everything seems fine now – she’s fully litter trained, he still likes to mix up his “corner” (only in the cage) but there is ZERO territory markings in the shared play area (100% in to the shared litter box) other than the odd chinning and they could care less when I switch their full cages or litter boxes from inside them. The LOVED each other so much when my husband brought them home (snuggles, grooming, sharing food) that I felt bad separating them hahah. Currently they will sniff at each other through the cage bars now and then go back to what they were doing like its nothing. Rupert even grabbed a piece of hay that was sticking through Penelopes cage bar when she was eating and she just looked at him and went back to eating right beside him. 
It’s so strange to think of them doing a full 180 and being aggressive, but I know from other peoples posts to expect it. 

Mikey – thanks for letting me know about your single bun’s experience when his hormones came up. That sounds horrible! Thank you for you allowing me to learn from your experience. Did they hold a grudge after? 

[Nutmeg]

Ps: this is them sharing a carrot as a treat when I got home from work before they were officially separated that night. 
(His boys still have not dropped, but was told he was a boy – he is a month younger than her) 

[joea64]

Fernando gave me a big warm fuzzy last night by flopping onto his side in the condo cage during the evening floor session, literally six inches away from my face, and reacted contentedly to my petting him on his forehead (while Panda was a foot or so away noshing on the salad, paws in the bowl as usual). In fact, both buns have been flopping out pretty much every day lately, particularly after they get their evening oats snack – crunching oats makes them feel gooooooooooood!

[mschoonover11]

Haha

Toby does this all the time. He did it yesterday and 3 seconds later, he jumped up and was like, “well that was embarrassing”. Ah, I just love rabbits and their odd but adorable body language. It’s just so entertaining to watch!

[Mikey]

Quick note that they are not dwarves. Their ears are too big and their faces are not flat. If he got them from a pet store, most pet stores dont know breeds so they claim smaller buns as “dwarves” even when they are not.

They sound sweet together and its great you know that it is very likely a time in the near future where they will need to stop interacting for a while. Until then, as long as youre with them the entire time, I think its alright Just be cautious and ready to separate if either of them start to show even the smallest hormonal signs.

Nope! Badger is my single (single for health reasons, though) and Blue is bonded to Bombur. When Badger tried to fight Blue through the bars, Badger was mostly scared because I dont think he was expecting Blue to do that. Likewise, Blue just sulked like he does when he knows he nips too hard. Both buns were pet afterwards, and Badger was cleaned up. Through Badgers healing, we had their cages next to one another again to prebond. When it came time to putting them together to bond, the scaredest one was Bombur, lol. Blue and Badger sniffed a little, humped a little, then started grooming one another. I was very lucky that no grudges were involved with my buns after the bloody fight

[Nutmeg]

Posted By Mikey on 2/27/2018 11:10 AM

Quick note that they are not dwarves. Their ears are too big and their faces are not flat. If he got them from a pet store, most pet stores dont know breeds so they claim smaller buns as “dwarves” even when they are not.

OMG Mikey? Really? EEp – what are they?? I’m not familiar with bunny breeds. Our senior was our first one – adopted at 4.5 years old.

I don’t particularly care, in the fact that I would love them if they turned out to be the size of horses lol, but I know my hubby really wanted the dwarves as we are limited to the space for the free-roaming so he figured they would “have more room” being smaller LOL. So I just want to inform him from a place of education – as he is already madly in love with them too. 

I’ve attached a few more pictures that show their face (as best as what I had on my phone – I’m at work). Could you confirm breed based on these angles? (The one of them checking each other through the cage was actually the very first time they were separated, and was obviously supervised as I was taking the picture hahaha) 

This is Rupert: He is 9 weeks old in this picture to help for size

[Deleted User]

They are so so adorable <3

They look similar to a Dutch, but I don’t think that’s what they are. They could be a mix of something.

[Deleted User]

Your bunnies look like my Daryl, who was also sold as a dwarf, but like Mikey said the lack of the flat face and bigger ears means he is not. But he is still quite a small boy, so I wouldn’t worry about size. I presume bunnies like this are just a mix. I’m not very clued up on bunny breeds, except the “super cute” breed(all of them) so I haven’t identified what Daryl has in him, although personality wise he’s quite uptight and more nervous than my other bunny which I believe is a nethie trait. It’s funny because when I got my second bunny Trixie, I was told she was a lion head, and whilst she has sort of a mane, she is twice the size of Daryl and looks nothing like what I’ve come to realise lionheads look like. so again I think she’s a mix of goodness knows what. I was also told she would stay small but now she’s a year old and three times the size she was when she got her. It’s really crazy how pet stores think they can sell something without giving correct information. To me I’m not bothered because a bunny is a bunny but for some people it can come as a surprise.

[joea64]

Trying to figure out what breed a bun is can be annoyingly complicated sometimes! I agree that yours are probably a mix of Dutch and some other, smaller breed. My own Panda and Fernando are probably – that’s as definite as I’m willing to get – purebred Polish buns, since they have pretty much all the hallmarks of the breed except that their ears don’t touch along their length when relaxed the way “show-length” Polish rabbits’ ears should. My guess is that Panda was sold by the breeder since she didn’t meet show standards, which can be quite exacting, and then given up to the shelter, possibly when it was discovered she was pregnant with her litter (of whom Fernando is one).

[Nutmeg]

Thanks Asriel & Bombur and Eddyw111 (and Mikey from before)
I google searched images for dwarf bunnies and see what you mean by the bigger ears and flat face being missing from them.
And I see what you mean by the “Dutch” based on, especially Penelope’s, fur colouring/markings.

They weren’t from a pet store, in the sense you mean – as in I adhere to “Adopt don’t shop” as there are so many animals out there needing a good home – but my husband went to our local small town pet store – who only carries fish and “Oops” Pets for sale as far as live animals go.
So I’m betting that he was told from whoever surrendered the babies to him that they were dwarf – which he then told my hubby.

But I’m like you Eddy – I only know the “super cute” breed lol, Howerver I would like to know just for knowledge sake if possible

This forum is awesome! Thank you everyone for you past posts and future posts

[Mikey]

Agreed that they look like dutches. They could even be false dwarves (since netherlands can carry the ‘dutch’ markings) or even be a mix with dutch markings. Either way, Im also jumping on the “super adorable” breed type They both look like super sweet hearts!

[Nutmeg]

Thanks Mikey! I’ve never even heard of false dwarves! So much to learn about bunnies haha. 
And they both are very sweet 

They will both now jump up to sit up on my leg to eat their veggie night time treat (I sit cross legged on the floor for each of their play time) – They will let me pet them, as in run up, two or three pet strokes and run away – but still no laying down for rubs or kisses yet. 

She is SUPER smart – too smart for her own good. She almost got out on me last night. I was going to open the top of her cage to put extra hay in before bed… she saw me coming and timed her jump just for when I was lifting the lid – If I hadn’t gotten the door to the connected play land shut she would have been off to the races lol. 

I swear they are both deaf sometimes though – especially him. As they will be getting in to something they shouldn’t OR about to do something they shouldn’t (You can tell by the way they are looking at something haha) and I’ll stomp my foot or yell “Hey” or clap my hand and they don’t react to me at ALL lol. My previous bunny would at least stop to look at me before going back to trying until I did it enough times she got annoyed and stopped – not these two! They don’t even bat an eye at the vacuum lol. 

I know it’s “selective” hearing as they can here their hay bag opening a mile away lol

[Deleted User]

Bombur gauges my reaction while being naughty. It’s so cute and funny. He’ll look at me, proceed to do something naughty, I firmly say no, he stops to look at me, continues to be naughty, the process repeats for a bit, until I eventually get up. The second I’m up he scurries away xD Asriel only listens when I do a firm countdown. When I get to 4, he usually high-tails it from whatever it was.

Asriel also jumps out of his cage, constantly. Every morning when I feed him, and at night when I top up his hay, he bounces really quick, and the next thing I know half of a bunny is in my arms and the other half is trying not to fall back down xD Bombur’s too chubby to jump high, and his EC makes his back legs a little weaker.

[Nutmeg]

Awww Asriel and Bombur – that is so cute!! 

You’re lucky – I wont even get a stop and look…. just 100% ignore and ZERO reaction until I get up hahha 

[mschoonover11]

They could be a mix of like dutch and dwarf. Anyhow, whatever breed they are, they’re still super adorable. All bunnies are!

[Nutmeg]

They really are Mschoonover11 – the bunny in your picture is so fluffy and cute!! 

[Author]

Messages