How to play with bunny when he doesn’t like to play

[senatcha93]

My bunny doesn’t like to play with toys sadly…I purchased everything from bird toy to baby toy. He doesn’t like digging, chewing, tossing, knocking things over…It’s stressing me out. He’s just running around and digging+chewing the things he’s not supposed to, e.g. wall, furniture, blankets, etc. I don’t understand why he doesn’t play with his toys the same way. I build him a digging box, he just checked it out once and went off to dig elsewhere. He doesn’t chew his sisal rope or wooden toys but instead chews the blankets and bed sheets. He doesn’t enjoy his plastic toys or twig balls and ignored them straight away. He VERY rarely chews the cardboard box. I gave him a paper bag. He chewed and hopped in it for like 5 minutes, and ignored it as well. I’ve spent so much on his toys already. I really want to play with him but I don’t know how. He’s always loosing interest so fast with anything…

Hope you can help!

[Deleted User]

Well, rabbits don’t really play interactively with us like cats and dogs do. So if you are looking to play WITH your bunny, I would say that it’s not really something that they do with us.

If you just want your bunny to play with toys, well some of them don’t really like to play with toys. Quincy likes to chew my baseboards and walls but won’t touch any toys, cardboard castles, etc. Its just something that you can’t really change unfortunately.

You could try getting a logic toy and use food as a reward, but that’s not something that they can play with all on their own, since you have to get it out and set it up with food it in. I give Quincy a treat ball with pellets in it to keep him busy and minimize the time he spends trying to chew the wall.

[Miswhitness]

Can you give him an old t-shirt? Sticks from outside? 

Is he getting out enough energy during his peak active hours? Does he have enough space to run around? When my rabbit starts to get restless and/or destructive, I take her outside for a long walk. (use extreme caution!)

Are you constantly doting on your rabbit-petting them enough, etc? (no judgments, just wondering because sometimes rabbits get restless when they need more attention)

Are they food motivated? I will sometimes hang veggies from clothes pins on some string and mine loves to stand up on her back legs and reach for the food. You can also try hiding some treats around your house. 

I can understand your frustration, since it took me a long time to figure out what makes my rabbit tick. For her it’s having enough space to run around, lots and lots of attention, (seriously i’m always on the floor). Also, try giving her more places to hide. She likes cat tunnels, chasing t-shirts, going outside, and there’s this little cat toy she likes: it’s a ball made of straw. It has some beads inside of it, so it does make some noise, which keeps her interest.

Are you rotating the toys? Sometimes rabbits lose interest if you just throw down a bunch of toys. Rabbits are investigators, so there has to be constant novelty. 

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Sorry if it wasn’t helpful. I hope it at least got ya thinking! 

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