Bunny Screaming

[Marzipan The Bunny]

Help! My three month old baby bunny just started screaming when i took him outside! He was on a harness and he was eating grass and was perfectly fine and he was even doing some binkys here and there. When he was near the fence in my backyard he suddenly started running really fast (and i mean SUPER fast) all the way across my backyard and swiftly ran underneath my deck. I was still holding on to the harness and trying to pull him out when he let out the most horrifying scream i had ever heard! I called my sister and we worked on trying to pull him out. When we took him back inside he just hopped to the living room like nothing happened and layed down. I got him to walk with the help of some lettuce and checked to see if he broke any bones because i had heard that bunnies only scream whenthey are in pain and he slowely started to walk. He seems fine now but i was wondering why he screamed. He is a pretty brave bunny who dosent even get startled at very loud noises so i am very concerned. Sorry if this post was too long but i am just really scared

[sarahthegemini]

Bunnies scream when they think they are about to die so chances are something really frightened him. 

Side note: Please do not try and pull him about by his harness, that is incredibly dangerous.

[BinkyBunny]

Double check for bee stings as well. Dittoing Sarah on this — Sometimes if something frightens a bunny — could be something he saw that you didn’t see or scent from an predatory animal and he panicked. That is very scary for sure! Pulling on the harness then may have made him feel “caught” which then of course heightened his fear. I agree too that that is dangerous, not only because the panic could turn into shock, but if he chose to fight the tug, he could have hurt himself. Luckily things turned out okay. This might be a bunny that likes to hang out more indoors! I know most of my bunnies are like that. I only had one that really enjoyed exploring outdoors. The rest were more freaked out than anything. It’s not for every bunny.

Watch to make sure he is eating and pooping fine for the next 24 hours. Give him lots of love and comfort.

[Marzipan The Bunny]

Update: ive been checking if hes eating, pooping, etc for the about ten hours and he seems fine. He is walking perfectly fine, is eating lots of hay and pooping normally. I will DEFINETLY avoid pulling on his harness from now on. I never acknowledged the dangers of pulling on it. We just recently got our backyard fenced because coyotes kept coming into our yard. I think he might have smelled the coyotes or something and ran. Will keep checking on him but he seems to be back to his silly old self. Thank you so much for replying!!

[BinkyBunny]

That’s a good update. Glad to know that all is okay now. What a scare for you all. Regarding the coyotes, I think you might be on to something. Since coyotes mark territory, it could have absolutely been a “scent” scare. Good info for many of us to learn from.

[kurottabun]

It’s a probably a good idea to keep him indoors from now. Bunnies are actually alright if they stay indoors 100% of the time – especially if there are predators like coyotes around somewhere outside :s

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