Is my bunny being playful or frightened?

[Meowzii]

I have a 4 month old Holland lop named Momo, she has suffered a lot of illnesses already, such as a stroke, head and eye spin, epilepsies, forced feeding, and many more unfortunate events. Still, she’s going and our love to her is only getting stronger.

After 2 months of battling, she’s finally getting back to her old self, she even started doing binkies again – they’re a bit sloppy though.

Sadly after the stroke she doesn’t like getting picked up anymore, she bites and struggles. Feels a bit personal.

Now I was just cuddling her and attempted to pick her up, she bit me in resistance, but did a binky and jumped around after. This confused me a little as I thought she’s sadistic now. I did a bit more of playing around and learned that this might be fun for her. (?)

Back to my original question. I keep my hand at a distance and sort of do little chubs while avoiding her bites, she jumps around, turns and repeat. I have a feeling I’m training an attack bunny. It does seem like she enjoys it, she tries to bite, binkies away and waits for an another attack of some sort. She does make some interesting noises while at it and she has never made a sound before – it sort of sounds like a soft puppy squeaks, not sure.

Either way I can tell if she’s playing with me or feels really threatened. Besides this she is very cuddly and is always happy to see me, so I guess she doesn’t hate me.

I will try making a video of it, because I don’t want to accidentally make her feel very endangered, I really hope this is all fun and games for her. Thoughts?

[sarahthegemini]

Poor baby, she’s so young to have such difficulties already. Glad she’s on the mend tho

I don’t know whether she’s being playful but sometimes binkying and kicking back legs around can actually be a defense move or a “you’ve annoyed me” move. I get the leg kicks (and sometimes tail wagging!) when I bring them back from the vet.

What sort of noise, is it a grunt or a honk? A video will definitely help!

[Sirius&Luna]

I agree, it sounds confusing!

I remember hearing somewhere that while binkies are playful, they are also practise for escaping predators in the wild. I’m not sure how true that is, but it would make sense that it could also be a defence mechanism.

I would say if she keeps coming back to you, she probably isn’t scared. But if you’re following her, and she keeps binkying away, maybe she is.

My Luna binkies away when I tell her ‘NO’ for chewing on something etc. I like to think its her laughing at me, but it could also be anger at not getting her way.

I used to have a very vocal bunny who would make soft happy squeeks when he was being stroked. I’ve never heard that from a bunny before or since, but I 100% know he wasn’t scared or threatened, so I do think some bunnies are more vocal than others and do make happy noises.

[Hazel]

Sounds to me like you’re making her mad. Binkying is generally seen as a sign of a happy bunny, and usually that’s correct. However, as S&L pointed out, these behaviors are merely practice runs for when the real thing happens. Wild rabbits will “binky” when they’re fighting with another rabbit. They’ll jump up high to avoid an attack. Rabbits have a blind spot in front of their face. You making fast movements in front of her with your hand is startling for her. Rabbits actually will speed across another’s path right in front of their face when they’re trying to start trouble. She’s probably thinking you’re being aggressive. The sound she’s making is most likely a growl. And she binkies to avoid your attack, just like a wild bunny would if another was harassing it. I’d stop doing this, she’ll end up thinking you’re not trustworthy, and you’re likely to get bitten.

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