Can’t make her play!

[Ana]

Sorry for posting twice today, but I’m worried about my bun.  Evie is 8 months old, I’ve had her for about a month, and she doesn’t really play.  She’ll jump a little, scamper a bit, and she’s super curious, but she lies down 90% of the time she’s out to play.

 

Is she okay?  I want her to be healthy and exercise.  How do I make her play?  I’ve tried every toy possible, making her move, etc.

[Cassi&Charlie]

It’s hard furbaby because some rabbits aren’t interested in playing. Her curiosity is probably a good thing to make her play, can you set up boxes or something that she’ll be dying to explore? My Charlie isn’t very playful and he prefers to lounge around rather than play so I hide his food around the place and make him run around trying to find it.
Does she like to destroy things? Does she like tunnels? Jumping? Its a lot of trial and error I think and just because they like it one day doesn’t mean they’ll like it the next day!
Charlie’s favourite thing right now is toilet rolls so I stuff them with hay and lettuce so he sometimes gets boring hay but sometimes gets lettuce and it keeps him playing for a while.

[Binkles]

Lol. Binkles was just like that. She was what I like to call a ‘no bull’ bunny! I would dangle things in her face and throw towels on top of her, but she’d just give me that wide-eyed ‘What do you think I am!?’ look and hop off. Her favourite pastime was absolutely lounging.

But she did like destroying things. Especially chewing baseboards and digging carpets!

One good way to get your bun some extra exercise time is to hide her treat in something -provide a challenge for her.

[MarkBun]

Some buns don’t want to play. You can keep trying putting out other toys and see if one catches her fancy but some buns would rather just be ‘couch potatoes’.

[Deleted User]

My first bun Fu loved to play toss with me, I would roll a wire ball to her and she would toss it back. When she got tired of entertaining the hooman, she would toss it behind her.

Shadow is not for toys. When he is in his room for the night he will toss a ball for a minute. ( I suspect it is in his way) If I roll one to him he looks at me like I am crazy. He likes tunnels and climbing, so he has lots of tubes and castles. Working on the maze haven for him.

[Balefulregards]

Coco is just now starting to do anything that I truly call “play” – but she has her own style, and preferred play time. For her, it is first thing in the morning. She will grab the pinecone and toss, race and run. But she has zero interest in the digging box I made for her…or the baby rings…or he phonebook.

Oddly, she DOES like it when I dance around her, as it seems to signal it is playtime, and only in the last few days has she seemed to be “asking” to play.

I suspect it is a very long process for rabbits to be relaxed enough to play – if that is their personality. And believe me, I never knew rabbits had SUCH personalities until Coco came along.

[JK]

Edson really doesn’t play at all. Some buns are just like that.  She’s still young.  I would not worry about it.

[Sage Cat]

There is another post on this page called “Your bunny’s play style”.

There are a lot of great ideas on how to get your bun to play – check it out!

🙂

[Lightchick]

I asked the same question when I first got Lizzy. I wasted tons of money on chew toys and wooden blocks and woven balls and tubes for her to run through. I saved and stuffed papertowel rolls. I dangled things from the top of her hutch. She doesn’t care. She looks at me like I’m nuts for foisting such garbage on her!

When I first got her, she was absolutely NOT motivated by food. She still isn’t a big chow-hound, but I have found that she’s gotten more interested in looking for treats. She doesn’t do a happy-dance-of-joy at feeding time, but she does like to hide, and she likes to be annoyed when things are in her way, so I made her a diggy box out of a cardboard file box with a lid. I cut a hole in the side, filled it with shredded newspaper, and I dump a handfull of pellets in every couple days or so. She crawls in a couple times a day to fling newspaper out (she doesn’t really dig…she just tosses offending objects out of her way!), finds a pellet or two, and then goes back to lounging. This is as close to playing with toys as she really gets.

Everybody assured me when I first got her that she was normal…I don’t know that I think of her as “normal,” but I have definitely found that not-liking toys isn’t really a problem!

Oh, and she runs the Bunny 500 several times a niight, stops abruptly, which causes the throw rug she’s on to slide across the hard-wood floors, and then slam her into the dining room table. She’s a klutz. This is her idea of a good time!

[Cassi&Charlie]

The bunny 500! Layla does that, slammed into a wall yesterday because she didn’t quite make the turn fast enough but she doesn’t seem to mind. She’s a bit hopeless that way.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Lionheads are super laid back (usually) breed characteristic. Kahlua reminds me so much of yours. Kahlua LOVES to throw things, just put something under her chin and it goes flying!! But other then that, lounging with one of her boyfriends is her fav thing

There are different kinds of play-exploring, digging, chewing, binkying, running the bunny 500, tossing/throwing. Your bun may not have found his forte yet!

[msarro]

Layla ignores toys except for very rare occasions – I’ll occasionally hear her toss her carrot rattle in the middle of the night. However when she’s out for “play time” its more, “lets see how many times I can make daddy run back and forth across the room” time. Every bunny has their own style of playing

[Author]

Messages