Chasing at food time

[BellaRabbit]

Hello all,

Have asked a couple of questions recently, which of course BB has been able to help with!

when I get home from work, my rabbits know they are going to be Fed. The female likes to run circles around me and jump around, but my
Little guy just sits patiently waiting by the bowl. This doesn’t happen all the time but sometimes when she is running around he will sort of lunge for her. I have never seen him pull any fur out or bite her (she doesn’t act like he is biting her). She will sort of look at
Him and then continue and then sometimes he will chase her for a couple of seconds. They have been bonded about 2 months and get on perfectly all the time, this only happens sometimes during feeding time.

After it happens he usually goes to the bowl first to eat and then she will follow and they eat together. Any idea why they may be doing this? Is she just annoying him or is he saying the food is mine first haha. I would say she is the dominant rabbit as when they push their heads together he always gives up and grooms her. He also follows her around a lot and copies what she is doing

Any advise appreciated

[Gina.Jenny]

maybe try spreading the food about a bit? i don’t used bowls with either of my pairs of buns, just sprinkle pellets and scatter veg over the floor

[Mikey]

My Blue was very bad with this. Always had to take the first bite and the last bite of whatever food they were given, even if he wasnt hungry. He would chase the other two away, eat a bit, then leave and the other two would eat, then afterwards he would chase them away again to eat a few more bites, then be done. We stopped this by feeding Blue separately for a while. Still in the same cage, just on the lower level over the top level. Now theyre all fed on the lower level of the cage, and Blue couldnt care less. It took about a month for Blue to get used to it though. I also dont use bowls and do what Gina.Jenny does; that way they arnt fighting over the bowl or pressing their faces together

[BellaRabbit]

Thanks both for the advise. I will try and not use the bowl for feeding and see if it fixes the problem. He only seems to do it when I feed them some pellets, as when the bag rattles she goes crazy and i think sometimes she might startle him when she is speeding round the room.

[Gina.Jenny]

If the bag rattling cues problems, transfer the pellets into a container, open the lid very quietly and see if that helps too.

[Azerane]

Posted By Gina.Jenny on 4/28/2016 12:23 AM

If the bag rattling cues problems, transfer the pellets into a container, open the lid very quietly and see if that helps too.

Haha, that works for about a week until they learn the sound of the new container I tried that trick with Bandit once. Also, he just used to know if he saw me moving towards where I got the food from, around when it was time to be fed.

[Author]

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