help with understanding my bun? :)

[monroeville]

hi there!! 🙂 i’m not a first-time bunny owner,  (I have a sweet boy I’ve had for 6 years back at home with my family, and I’ve gotten a new bun to have with me in my apartment). i’ve had cybil for a little over a week now! she’s a 3 yr old one-eyed lady <3 while it is unsurprising that she is so significantly different than my other bun, roger, it is making it a bit more difficult to understand her .

 

shes a sweetheart (even beginning to groom my baby blanket and my arm after being here for 3 days), but she is so, so incredibly sassy. i first started getting nervous when she began to jump on my bed and absolutely TUG on my comforter and my plushies, when I try to take them away she goes with them, and when I nudge her away, she circles back. she has gotten a bit better with this!! and isn’t waking me up every 2 hours throughout the night by being rambunctious, haha 🙂 but I have had to hide all of my plushies under the comforter for safety. i have ordered a cloth forage/snuffle mat so she can have something with a similar texture that she Can chew . is there any advice to ensure she does stop chewing on my beloved plushies though? 🙂

there are some other things, like trying to rip hay/pellet bags open, thumping and/or nipping (which can follow me trying to nudge her away from chewing on things/not feeding her when she wants/simply being in her way), but i can definitely see that’s just part of her personality and her being a little diva, but is there any particular way to navigate that? 🙂

she also seems to really not like when I’m away. if i go out shopping for a couple hours, she deeeefinitely seems (playfully) mad at me and starts acting up a bit more. which is okay! i get it LOL but i’m afraid of her getting lonely when classes start up again 🙁 il be gone for probably 12-ish hours a day (leaving at 9/10 am and coming back at 11pm, perhaps coming back for an hour or two between classes and work) and i’d really hate to have a depressed, lonely bunny on my hands. of course as she learns my schedule she can sleep throughout the day, im just incredibly worried about it 🙁 i’ve been considering whether or not i should get her a bonded friend later down the line to help with this worry.

more on loneliness, when i leave the room to watch tv with my roommate, i leave her in my room and i can hear her scratching on my door and she also gets more sassy much like when i’m not at home for a couple hours. i don’t let her out because there has been some difficulty socializing her with my roommate’s cat—cybil seems unbothered, charging up to her (in her foster home she had 2 kitty friends), but the cat (shortcake) definitely seems unnerved–while she doesn’t hide from cybil anymore, she has either begun to try to play with her/be territorial (perhaps a mix of both) and will charge/chase her and swat. through her body language, she just seems mostly curious/unsure and isn’t doing it out of aggressiveness. while miss shortie is fully vaccinated, has her nails trimmed, doesn’t seem to be swatting with her claws and cybil doesn’t seem to be phased–im worried something will happen 🙁 is there a “best way” to introduce a cat and a bunny and ensure they can get along/tolerate each other?

 

i know most of this is just a learning curve of miss cybil and i getting to know each other ‘s personality and routines, and she’s trying to test some of the boundaries, but i would greatly appreciate some advice on how to go about certain things 🙂 thanks so much !!

[Bam]

Congratulations on your new bunny!

It sounds to me like she’s a perfectly normal bunny girl with quite a bit of bunnitude! I’m afraid you’ll need to keep your stuffies out of her reach though, I dont know of any other way of stopping a bun from chewing what they want to chew when the human isnt around. Your plushies probably has a lot of your scent on them, so to a bun, they are high value.

She’s still settling in since you’ve only had her a little over a week, and from what you describe, it sounds like she is doing great. She seems to be an outgoing and social girl. She scratches at the door because she thinks sth fun is happening on the other side, and she wants to be a part of that. I can see how you’re reluctant to let her out though, since the cat-situation could become troublesome though, unless the two gets an appropriate introduction, and I hope someone with cat-rabbit experience will see this thread and offer you some advice! We have had quite a few members whose cat and bun have lived peacefully together.

As for when you go back to school, your bun could probably benefit from a bunny friend since youll be gone so many hours. A bun will sleep/lounge for most of the day and adjust its active time to when the human is home, but you’ll need your sleep too, and a rabbit that’s very active in the middle of the night is not really ideal for a person who needs to be rested and alert for school in the morning.

 

[DanaNM]

Agree with Bam, it sounds like she is doing well and is just learning your routines. I think keeping her away from the plushies is the right move, and if you need to keep her away from you while sleeping that would be OK too. Sometimes having a bun get full free-roam is overwhelming to them at first and can make them a bit territorial, so you also might find she is more calm if you confine her to a pen when she isn’t supervised, and then let her roam the full area when you are with her. Keeping the cat and bun separate when unsupervised is also the safest thing until they are calm around each other.

Also, is she spayed? Some of those behaviors sound a bit hormonal. If she was recently spayed her hormones could still be settling down (it can take up to 4-6 weeks).

Have you considered trying to bond her with your other bun? Not sure what the full situation is with that though.

As for boredom busters, doing some experimentation to find toys that she loves will help. I like to rotate toys, so they have certain toys when they are enclosed in their pen and then others that they only get when they are out free-roaming (this helps protect your furniture and belongings because they have “exciting” toys).

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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