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Bella and I seem to have made some kind of breakthrough, in the last few days. She’s desensitized, it appears… somewhat, anyway.. as she’s been romping and stomping around the house with lots of confidence… and NO tummy troubles! Yey!
With all this new confidence, she’s started head butting us. LOL! What exactly is the meaning of this? It seems to be a “hello.. I’m here.. ” type of thing… but could it be more? Does she want something? And if I comply with her, will this instill head butting as a means of “getting her way” ? Will she be bold enough to head butt our guests, too?
Thanks!
it could just be that she wants attention….
My bun does it for a variety of reasons. He’ll come up and do it just to say hello (he’ll especially do this to my feet). He’ll also do it if he thinks I’m in his way at all, especially if I’m sitting up against the couch and he decides he wants to run along it. And sometimes he does it when I’m not paying attention to him and he wants food or pets. He has head butted my parents when we went to visit them! Haha.
Last night I pushed him back and asked him how he liked it. He just stared at me. Lol
I let him do it because I don’t consider it a “bad” behavior like nipping. If he nipped, I would deal with it, but I personally find the head butting cute. If he followed the head butting with nipping, I would let him know that it was unacceptable.
I’m glad Bella is doing better.
Sometimes it does mean, give me attention, here I am. I think it’s a positive thing though, not necessarily a bullying thing.
It also could be that she wants to see what type of response she gets from you – if it’s pets, she’ll probably continue butting her head against you.
For Coco it means
“Hey. Stop whatever you are doing and give me a proper and prolonged head rub”
If I stop before she feels I have performed adequately, she will bump me again.
She has also given me the “Hey – move out of my way” bump followed with light nip.
Then there’s always the Secret Guide to Bunny Talk we all read…lol The Lanquage of Lagomorphs website
http://language.rabbitspeak.com/rabbittalk.html
I wish they would create an App that would translate for us
Monkey loves head butts. She head butts me every time I hop into ehr pen. She usually does it as a Hello, sometimes if I am too close to the side of the pen she’ll nudge me to let me know she can’t get behind me, and will keep nudging til I move. She nudges her bowl when its empty, thats hilarious. Moose head butss too, usually only when I’m in his way lol. He head butts my hubby just for the sake of it.
ALL of the ABOVE …these all seem to be Bella’s intent …sans nipping/biting. She and I haven’t had to have that talk since the first 2 days of her arrival, fortunately.
We’ve turned the head butting into a game, this morning/afternoon… she’s butting my feet as I sit here, so now it’s butt the foot.. chase the foot!
My husband was following her down the hallway and she turned to head butt him.. so he reached down to give her some lovin’ ..
I’d say, we are being trained very well… thank you very much!
..and thanks for that link! I wonder if I can count this language toward being multi -lingual ..haha!
My bunnies also do the head-butt to notify me that I am in their way, and if I don’t move then they start digging, and if I STILL don’t move I get nipped
The only way to stop the whole process is if I just start giving them a head rub, then they usually settle into a bunny loaf and are content. Glad to hear she is training you well!
Then there’s always the Secret Guide to Bunny Talk we all read…lol The Lanquage of Lagomorphs website
THIS is quite possibly the best website for any rabbit owner to read. I re-read probably twice a year
And I totally agree-a head butt, just as any other animal does it (cat, dog, etc) means ‘HELLOOOO LADY give me scritches and treats’
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my bunny buttons not really head buts me but sticks her head under my hand for a pat on the nose. she gets really annoyed if you pat her for ages and she gets all cozy and warm and then you stop. she immediately gets up like, HEY! PAT MORE! MORE I SAY MORE! its cute.
http://language.rabbitspeak.com/rabbittalk_intro.html GREAT WEBSITE! IF I HAD NOT READ IT I WOULD BE CLUELESS! RECOMMENDED BY FAR!
have fun speaking rabbit ![]()
OH I AM SO SORRY! I DIDDNT NO IT WAS ALL READY UP THERE! THE WEBSITE! SO SORRY! any way is say TWO GREAT BUNNY MINDS THINK ALIKE! not that mine would be good cause i didnt see it up there… sorry, for spoiling your forum q. :'(
you certainly didn’t spoil anything BunnyGirl….lol
Sometimes all of us pop up with the same post, just shows how popular it is
nose pats to you! Kathy
oh i fell horrible now.
Buttons come here…
I love ‘nudging’ ![]()
I love getting Little Bunny Head Butts!!!!
Like the others said – My buns head butt: when they want attention, just to say hi, and I want to pass.
Part of the fun of buns is figuring it all out!!!
My boyfriend and I have taken to headbutting each other recently… I think we spend too much time with Felony.
…I thumped at my hubby the other day when he was being annoying… I got a weird look. I been around the buns too much too lol.
LOL @ MB
Lol Hooty and MB! I should try headbutting hubby.
Has anyone else pushed their bunny back when you get a headbutt? I do that with Otto sometimes. Lol. Not hard of course, but after he pushes me a few times I’ll take a finger and just poke him in the butt and ask how he likes it. He either stares at me disapprovingly, or binkies away.
My boyfriend will get on the floor and headbutt Felony… There might be something wrong with us.
Well if we are stuck in traffcx and start head butting people ahead of us to move then well…. you know…. maybe we forgot peoplespeak![]()
or go into work and start head butting your boss for a raise lol Hey I wonder if it would work![]()
I love it when Ruby head butts me. She does a lot of that. Cotton not so much . Unless I am sitting at old faithful the desktop then he comes and butts my feet.
hershey hardly ever butts
poor girl doesn’t know how to speak bunny
in the case of my litlle sister though…… we always butt heads ![]()
Posted By Aminah Undone on 01/19/2010 12:43 PM
Will she be bold enough to head butt our guests, too?
She could…but what fun! I actually have a friend who has a very friendly bunny to anyone who enters the house. Comes right over, nose pokes, and then sit and waits for you to give him a head scratch. I just loved that! My bunnies are not fond of new people. Though they are pushovers within just about 20 minutes if you have treats. But they would never walk up to a new person right away, give them a nose poke and asked to be petted.
