How Can You Tell If A Rabbit Is Depressed???

[LillyBear]

I am currently bonding my rabbits.. and after reading Binky Bunnys journal I am getting worried since her rabbits became depressed.. what are the symptoms of rabbit depression??

[Scarlet_Rose]

I think that this write up, sums it up pretty well;

http://www.muridae.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html

I find that Bonsai usually flops in the litter box and props his chin on the side and gives a "oh woe is me" look or there is also a spot on the second floor he will flop and hang his head over the edge with his head dejectedly down resting on his paws.

[BinkyBunny]

The problem with my rabbits is that they also had previous health issues that they were dealing with.  Rucy had a jaw abscess, and Bailey has ecuniculi.   The stress of bonding ended (because they were not bonding very easily – month after month after month with little progress – that this ended up doing more damage to their health.  

For Rucy, she did also become depressed.   She is a spunky independent girl with a definite opinion.  She became more shy and much less opinionated and spunky.   I didn’t want to take that away from her just because Bailey wanted to boss her around all day. 

Some rabbits do sulk, sit in their cages, stop eating etc.  For me, Rucy would still eat and explore, she just became much more low key and less active.

It is normal for bunnies to get stressed out and sulk sometimes during bonding, but it became a long term thing with Rucy (months).  And she would be completely different when she didn’ t have to deal with Bailey.

[LillyBear]

^^ Thanks guys.. I just wanted to be sure.. since they are in separate pens right now.. about 1ft. away from eachother.. so they can see eachother all the time.. so when I pet Lilly, Henry gets the saddest eyes and he hops over to look. Since I don’t know Henry that well (Ive only had him 2.5weeks) I wasn’t sure if its only momentary sadness or he is very sad about Lilly. When I pet Henry, Lilly starts getting upset and will scratch, growl, move her pen around just to get attention. They BOTH want to be the dominant bun.. and I just want to make sure nobody is getting TOO sad. Henry grooms Lilly when they are together.. but Lilly hasn’t done it back, although she REALLY seems to enjoy it since she lays FLATFLATFLAT on the ground when he is grooming her!! Ive never seen such a flat rabbit!! But since she isn’t giving back.. I want to be sure Henry isn’t depressed.. he is generally always very quiet.. so its hard to tell! Though his grooming is a good sigh i imagine?

[Scarlet_Rose]

No problem! Grooming is a good sign, it would be really ideal if she would groom him back though to show some affection.  He could be depressed beause they are separated (maybe he really likes his spunky gal) hopefully Lily will warm up to him and not try to be so dominant.  In order to pair them, he would pretty much have to be a very submissive rabbit for it to work.  By all means take it slow.

[MooBunnay]

Thats so exciting that Henry is grooming! I think that the fact that he has a girlfriend and a family all of his own is probably very happy for him right now, he is probably loving all of the attention, and he must really like Lilly to be grooming her already. I have a boy rabbit that flattens just like that and doesn’t move, its pretty funny to watch. Maybe as they spend more and more time together Lilly will start to groom him back as well. It usually takes bunnies little time to come around, but when they do they become GREAT bunny mates!

[LillyBear]

Well.. they spent their first night together last night!! this morning.. all is well!! it looks like everything is gonna be fine!

[osprey]

Yay LillyBear!  Bonding is so stressful, for the buns and their humans.  Soooo, fess up.  Did you sleep next to the pen last night?  I always do that for first nighters.  No like I’d hear them fighting anyways, but it makes me feel better.

 

[Gravehearted]

aww, I’m really happy to hear they were bonded well enough to spend the night together safely.

[skunklionshow]

I’m so glad that bonding is going so well.  A lot of the behaviors that you described sound like Jessica and Leo during their bond.  Granted it didn’t take too long for me to bond them, but they both seemed sad when they weren’t together.  I let them each have their own hip hop time and Jessica would just sit next to Leo’s cage.  She didn’t do any of her hip hopping.  I thought that was a good sign that they could hip hop together.

Its funny b/c Leo was always a submissive bun in our therapy program.  He kept mostly to himself and was always so laid back.  I thought Jessi would definately be the domininant bunny in the house.  But she to becomes a bunny pancake when he’s around.  So I take it all as a good sign.  I’m so glad that the bonding is going well.

The hubby & I caught a bit of an animal vet show and the bunny lady said that bunnies mate for life.  I didn’t realize that, so we feel really happy that Leo and Jess have each other!

[Scarlet_Rose]

Congrats, that’s great news LillyBear! I hope it continues to go so well!

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