Can bunnies detect emotions? Especially negative ones?

[PetuniasMama]

So I have an 18 week old dwarf bunny and she is really hard to bond with. But just recently, she’s been more touchy-feely with me, always on my lap or chest , jumping on my shoulders, and letting me actually feed her with my own hands. In the same time frame she’s been doing this, I’ve been feeling more depressed and stressed out, so it’s leading me to believe it’s because of my emotions. Does anyone else’s bunny do this with them when they’re feeling down?

 and this is my baby Petunia.

[Nishi]

That’s sweet! She is adorable. I really think most animals, especially mammals, are capable of picking up on emotions. So why not buns?

My eldest Kyuubey never thumps at anything– except when I cry. It’s so strange, it must be very distressing to him. The first time he thumped repeatedly until I stopped, but I didn’t figure out it was the crying until it happened on a second occasion. He also wouldn’t stop until I calmed down. My other two buns just thump randomly to signal annoyance or minor fright but this was different.

[Bam]

Most mammals are really good at detecting state of mind/emotions in other animals. They read us like we can never read them. We humans rely so much on spoken language.

When I had a crazy bad migraine that lasted more than a day last summer, my bunny Yohio was so crazy sweet to me, he lay down at the foot end of my bed and stayed there all day, all quiet (he’s normally a very active and inter-active rabbit), like a little yellow watch-dog. It was really comforting.

[Sleepy]

Adding onto agreement on buns picking up on negative emotions. I do believe they can care enough to respond when you’re hurt, just in their own way.

With one of our old buns, I had a panic attack in front of him once. Usually he got fussy about being held for long but he let me hold him and pet him for a long while until I calmed down. Then once I was completely better, he went back to his normal self of being a diva at being held.

[Theodorusrex]

I agree with all that’s been said here. Theo will often ‘stand guard’ for me when my anxiety is bad and will come lay on my lap to calm me down. One time I was really stressed with a massive paper I was writing and he lay at my feet for literally hours.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Ditto. I think all animals are much better than humans at detecting emotions. Humans rely too much on verbal communication. Animals are so much more intune.

[FloppyBunny]

They definitely pick up on our emotions. My boy bun will run away from anyone who is stressed or feeling negative. SOMETIMES if I’m really sad he’ll stay and cuddle, but only if I’m really sad. If it’s just a bit he’s like “see you later when your better!”. If I’m in a good mood, he’s so happy to see me and cuddles a lot. My girl bun is a new addition, but so far she doesn’t run away when I’m stressed, she’ll stay beside me to be pet and calm me down. She’s still getting used to her new home, but when I was sad she stretched out beside me for the first and only time, which made me happy that she’s starting to trust me more. They notice it, but their reaction depends on their personalities.

They pick up on a lot of things. If I’m lightly stressed by say something that happens in a tv show (like suspense, etc.) they will stand on guard and scan the room to see what is stressing me out. If I don’t like someone, they don’t either.

My boy bun can even tell kids from adults (even the bigger kids like 13-14). He acts completely different and will tolerate a lot that he never would from an adult. They often pet him weird or too hard (before I tell them how to), but he’ll stay and come see them. With adults, he’s much more wary and won’t come see them. He’ll observe and stretch himself out to get as close as possible without moving his feet, but that’s it. It’ll take him at least a day to accept pets from new adults, but with kids he comes right away.

[DorothyTheMiniSatinBun]

Dorothy will be in the middle of playing or hiding in her favorite spot, but if I hurt myself, cough really hard, or say… fake cry because I want to see her reaction (guilty!), then she comes running. Sometimes she will lick my toes, which is her favorite way of showing affection. But sometimes she will just come running out and sit and stare at me, almost like “… What the heck is up with you? Are you okay?” Buns as a whole seem to be really smart and inquisitive, so I don’t know if it’s that they pick up on your emotions as much as they pick up on tone, sudden change of behavior, things like that.

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