free range

[DawnT]

Question; do buns take cues from other buns.  Oreo (always free range)  Bubba about 9 months free range caged for 2 years for safety reasons.  Anyway Oreo is not afraid of anything, noises don’t bother (not even the sweeper coming towards her)  Bubba on the other seems to be afraid of his shadow. By now I would have that he would be comforable being out in the open but he seems to be out of site a lot.  Oreo will lounge in the middle of the living room

[Sarita]

Yes, but it may not be the cue’s you wish them to take. Rabbits are good at teaching rabbits the good things and the not so good things. So they may take on some of the “bad” habits from each other…that’s not to mean that they won’t take the good habits as well.

[Dee]

Our male rabbit, BunBun, is outgoing and brave and not jumpy at all, while our female, Nelli, is so parinoid and nervous that we can’t even pet her half the time. We’ve had BunBun since about July 2008 and Nelli since about Sept 2008, and they’re both kept in the house. We got rid of their cage after a few months because we didn’t ever put them in it. They get lots of attention and love, but their personalities have stayed the same- Bun is our “love bunny” who grooms us and is also the gaurdian bunny who will hop after a mouse and lunge at the vacuum. But Nelli still spends much of her day hiding in her cardboard “house” and startles over every little thing- she just isn’t a calm bunny. She imitates Bunbun in lots of ways- it’s adorable how she follows around after him, especially since she’s bigger than him now. Little, sleek BunBun goes hopping daintily around the house with big, messy, furry Nelli galloping along behind him. BunBun goes to the litterbox, so does Nell- BunBun starts tearing up a book, Nelli helps- BunBun begs for treats, Nell begs alongside him. Sometimes she will let us pet her, especially if Bunbun is being petted too, but she will probably always be shy and scared of noises and people. The strange thing is, the day Bun was in the hospital with GI stasis, Nelli acted completely different. She was so much friendlier and less skittish- maybe she missed Bunbun and turned to us for support. It was weird though.

[Elrohwen]

Yes, they do take cues from each other.

Otto was always too afraid to jump on the couch when he was a single bun. We got Hannah, who loves the couches, and within a couple months Otto was jumping up there too. They also lead each other in bad behaviors – Hannah will pull aside a bunny proofing barrier and Otto will be the first one through, even though he never could’ve figured out that barrier on his own.

Still, a nervous bun will always be nervous. He might become more confident, but he might never be comfortable laying exposed out in the middle of the room.

[Author]

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