digging and lunging

[BEL]

Hello All!

So today my Holland Lop Nox ( 1 year old) was digging in the sheets and on a whim I started coping her and digging in the sheets too but when I did she lunged at my hand/hair ( I have long hair and it was hanging down). I can’t tell if it was playful since she didn’t come anywhere near actually scratching me or if it was aggressive and I shouldn’t do it again. Any ideas? Thank you for any help!!!

[Mikey]

Is she spayed? If not, its likely territorial. If she is, its possible your hair scared her, as rabbits have horrible eyesight.

[BEL]

She is spayed. So you think my hair just scared her? Thanks I will keep that in mind!

[joea64]

I personally wouldn’t call most rabbits’ eyesight “horrible”; it’s oriented toward spotting predators coming from a long distance/above them, and for seeing potential food sources (rabbits’ color vision is skewed toward blue/green). That being said, they don’t have good vision up close because their eyes are set in the sides of their heads, so that they don’t stereoscopic vision like humans. Therefore, they have to turn their head to get a good view of what they’re looking at, and they rely much more on their senses of smell and hearing, which, particularly smell, are better than humans’.

And THAT having been said, some rabbits – specifically albinos (red/pink-eyed whites) – such as my Fernando, really don’t have good vision because of the lack of pigmentation in their eyes. They don’t handle bright light well so one needs to be careful about that; it’s one reason why I set up their bunny condo so that the lower deck, with the litterbox and food dishes, is always in the shade, and that the window their condo is located under always has its blinds drawn. Fortunately, rabbits are crepuscular so Fernando doesn’t have to deal with bright direct sunlight during his most active hours.

[Mikey]

To me, their eyesight is pretty horrible. I havent met a bun with very good eyesight. All three of my bunnies have bad eyesight and none of them are albino nor carry the albino gene. If me or my partner are standing in a slightly shaded area, the bunnies will stretch wiggle slowly while sniffing rapidly to try and figure out who/what we are. Theyve been spooked by the trashcan in full light as well, because they didnt see it and ran into it.

As basic rule, rabbits cant see far away or in front of them at any distance very well.

[Deleted User]

I wonder if it is an eyesight issue that makes Ophelia freak out when I first walk in the door. Like “whooooo is this? Oh, it’s just my hooman”. Could it be that it takes her a second to recognize me? Or maybe it’s the sudden burst of light flooding the apartment when the door is open?

Anyway, I think you may have frightened her, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it’s territorial. My female Ophelia is spayed but when she would dig at stuff and I went to push her out of the way she would grunt or lunge at me. Once she scratched me and drew blood! I think she was attention deprived though, and it was making her upset. She has been 1000x better now that I’m back to spending plenty of time with her. But, I have really long hair too and I think that sometimes it catches them off guard when it swings down into their field of view from out of nowhere.

[Author]

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