Is this normal?

[oregongirl25]

So I spent roughly 2.5 hours bonding with Flower last night. Letting her run around, explore, holding her etc. She kept thumping her feet against the ground and tried to hump me? What does that mean?

 

Anyways proceeded to go to bed at 9pm ish, around 1am she was making tons of noise in her cage and woke me up. So I figured since I was up I would let her play around for a bit. She played for 20 minutes ish? She didn’t want to go back in her cage. So I waited until she hopped back into her cage (she always runs around and then retreats back to her area). When I closed the door on her she went basically crazy? She was like flying around the sides off the cage spazzing out. Making a huge ruckus. She wouldn’t calm down. I opened the door and tried to hold her to calm her down but soon as I put her back she started doing the crazy spazzing out thing again. I was worried she was going to hurt herself… She was going way too fast and banging into things. So I put her in the kennel I brought her home in with some hay and pellets. I left her in there for a couple hours. It was the only safe option.  Is this normal behavior? Did I just spook her by closing the cage door on her? I figure it was less scary than trying to “catch” her…

[Sarita]

It may be normal for her. Some rabbits hate being caged.

As for the other behavior, she just sounds like a very strong willed rabbit who likes attention.

[Monkeybun]

Bunnies are mainly awake at dusk and dawn, so her being up and wanting to play at 9pm is normal. Her crazy run in the cage could be playing, my 3 adore racing around wildly, Monkey usually runs into walls. She’s not so graceful when running

Have you seen binkies? They often freak people out, wondering whats wrong with the bunny, when its a normal thing for them. They have fun! Flower could have also been doing binkies in the cage. With her being locked in, the cage was the only place she could play.

Of course, with me not being there, it could also be the door suddenly being closed did freak her out. Hard to say.

How large is her cage? If she is wanting more out time, you could get an exercise pen and attach it to the cage, my 3 all have pens to play in

Now… the humping could mean she is ready to be spayed, and is in love with you Or.. she is claiming you as hers, and is dominating you. Bunnies are funny

[oregongirl25]

Her cage is the Marchioro 120 cage, so 47in X 22in X 22in. If she eventually litter box trains I will expand her area permanently. However, for now she pees every where ha.

I just wanted to make sure that she wasn’t going crazy on me or something. I’m thinking she hates being caged or I scared her. I watched a video on binkying (sp?) and it didn’t look like that…

[LoveChaCha]

Is your cage covered with bedding? That could be an issue with why she is peeing everywhere.

[Monkeybun]

Store bought cages are too small for bunnies, regardless what pet stores say. Bunnies alot of time out of cage if they have a cage that small. If she pees on the floor, you can put a washable blanket down or something, so she can still get exercise out of cage. 4 hours + a day is recommended for play time out of cage.
Spaying will help the marking and litter training alot, so look into that as soon as you can. There are several good bunny vets in my area if you want more options

[oregongirl25]

Well I came home from work today and little Flower has discovered how to escape from her cage too. Uggg! So I’ve got that to take care of too.

And I have some newspaper on the bottom since she kept peeing but otherwise there was just the litter box and her bed in there. However, she kept splattering the pee everywhere so I added the newspaper.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

One thing that helps calm them down at night is a routine. Lights are on and a radio or TV during the day to encorouge them to be awake, then night time ritual -like a clapping of hands, bed time, in cage, veggies given, lights off. Predictability increases compliance

Try to avoid what you did-which was let her out when she blew a fit. THat’s considered a positive reinforcement-a reward for behavior-out time for throwing a tantrum-and that will mean she is more likely to do this in the future. I know it keeps her quiet but it teaches her to bang around to ask to go out. So avoid this and follow a routine of keeping her awake during the day, and a bedtime routine and you should be sleeping soundly in no time!!

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