Lazy bunny?

[Dymii]

 Is it healthy for a rabbit to spend most of their play time sleeping? Sprinkles over the past few weeks has, when play time comes, only run around a little bit before finding somewhere to go to sleep. He likes to sleep under a desk and will stay there for hours. It’s a bit frightening because he almost looks like he is dead sometimes (feet in the air, completely stretched out). I’ve got a few theories, but I’m not sure about it.

Perhaps he is bored? He doesn’t like toys very much. When he was younger he would play with most toys we gave him, but now he turns up his nose at all toys –homemade and store bought. He doesn’t like to interact with us so we try not to bother him too much. He has the maze haven, but I think when he goes in he mostly sleeps in it as well. 

Does he just not have enough energy? He isn’t eating as much as we think he should. He has access to hay at all times but doesn’t eat much unless he is using the litter box. He reacts enthusastically if we bring out the treats or his pellet food, but then only picks out the ‘treats’ that come in the pellet food. He eats some of the plain pellets, but mostly throws the bowl into his water so we have to clean and refill both. We give him greens daily, but he doesn’t eat much of them either. I try new combinations of things from the list every time we go to the grocery store. 

Maybe he doesn’t have enough room to stretch out in his cage? His cage is one we bought when he was a baby and is no longer big enough for him to stretch on the side he likes to sit on. He could feasibly sleep laying across the middle, but we’d have to take out his food and litter box for that. We can’t afford to buy a large cage, thought we’ve just bought a play pen to attach to his cage, perhaps it will help. If he isn’t sleeping well because of a lack of room in his home, that could explain him sleeping during play time.

 

A lot of these thoughts didn’t occur to me until I was writing this post, but I just thought I would post this here and see if anyone has any ideas. He doesn’t appear to be underweight from feeling his spine, so I’m not positive that is a problem. Any comments would be appreciated. Oh and his next vet visit to check on his teeth is supposed to be in 2-3 weeks, so if he hasn’t improved by then I will be asking the vet as well. 

[NewBunnyOwner123]

If he is a adult it can be quite normal. I’m actually waiting for the day for my buns to just CALM DOWN.

Also the time of day can play into effect. From like 1-6 my buns spend most of their time lounged out or Even in their cage relaxing despite the door wide open. They start getting crazy again around 8 or 9.

If he is still eating and pooing and enthusiastic about his meals I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Bring it up to your vet in 2-3 weeks time to see if e has some input but I don’t think this warrants you to make an earlier vet appointment unless he shows some sign of distress. But him flopped out, relaxing and sleeping sounds like a pretty content, happy bunny!

How old is he?

[Dymii]

He is, we think, about 9-10 months old. We got him as a tiny tiny thing from the pet store just after Thanksgiving, but they didn’t know how old he was. We assumed around 6 weeks because of his size.  He was neutered several months ago. I have a tendency to let him out between 10 am – 2 pm because that is when I am home. On nights I don’t work, he’s out for much of the afternoon as well.
I’m glad to hear he is probably okay, it was just a bit worrisome for us.
I changed up his food a bit after this post and gave him celery leaves and sliced carrots into skinny pieces that might be easier for his tiny little mouth. I gave them to him while he was laying under the desk and he tipped out the bowl and started eating, then threw the bowl around a little. Now he is laying down again, so I guess he is just fine!
We are still going to try to make sure he has a bigger habitat for when we aren’t home, it may just take some time!

[Dwarf Sparrow]

10am-2pm is prime nap time for rabbits, who are most active at dawn and dusk

(And I’d suggest talking to your vet about switching Sprinkles off of the pellet mix- usually the “treats” that are in there are not actually healthy for bunnies)

From you avatar he looks like a gorgeous bunny! You should come join the August picture thread and show him off ^.^

[Dymii]

Well that makes a lot of sense! We tried once before to switch him to straight pellets without treats mixed in, but he just stopped eating. That terrified us so much that we pretty much give him anything he wants now! I will speak with the vet though, perhaps there is a healthier alternative

I’ll see what picture I can dig up Thanks!

[Dwarf Sparrow]

My bun resisted the pellet change, too. But don’t worry- they won’t starve themselves. And if they get really hungry on their self imposed hunger strike they might just eat more hay, which can’t hurt them

[Dymii]

Thanks! When he started ‘starving himself’ we started giving him more greens and he ate those really well. We had to change bowls because the original bowl was wooden and got a bit of mold on it from the water, and after that he wouldn’t eat greens much anymore. He still will only eat a little, nowhere near what he used to.

After he got neutered he wouldn’t eat either, the vet said his gut shut down from stress and they had to do emergency work on him. That’s another reason we’re afraid to deprive him of food! I’m going to start measuring the amount of pellets we give him as well, to see how much he really is eating (after I scoop it all off the floor that is).

[Dwarf Sparrow]

Does he throw his food bowl around often? Maybe you could get a sturdy ceramic one that would be harder for him to pick up and throw around. Measuring the food is definitely a good idea- it helps keep the potions consistent (obviously) and helps you notice if he’s eating less.

If it makes you feel any better, Merida turned her nose up at the healthier timothy pellets for a few days after I stopped giving her the alfalfa & seed mix. (I tried the gradual mixing of old and new like the bag & everyone else suggested, but she would nose through the pellets to pick out the alfalfa and seeds/treats and leave the timothy pellets behind!) Now she comes running when she hears the bag, and looks around for the timothy pellets like they’re treats!

[WhoppieKnows]

It sounds like to me your bunny is pretty happy.
Basically, there’s 3 types of ways for buns to lay.
Sleeping but still very aware of surroundings: laying straight up, all feet folded under the body, still resting but ready to move. (it sounds like this is how your bun sleeps in it’s cage)
Sleeping/Relaxing, more at ease with surroundings: laying on one side, with front feet and toes poking out exposed, and with back toes and feet either kicked out stretched to one side, or possibly even straight behind it almost as if saying,”hey, I’m ready to be thumped now!”
Very relaxed/sleeping, completely unafraid of surroundings: bunny laying down, or even will ‘plop’ down on it’s side, completely on one side with all four feet stretched out, even possibly will roll over and lay somewhat on it’s back with toes in the air, this means your bunny loves you and everything around it right now

[Dymii]

Dwarf Sparrow – He turns his food bowl over immediately every time we give it to him! We got some small plastic bowls because his original food bowl was a big plastic one that was supposed to stick to the side of his cage.. but he didn’t like it much. His water is in ceramic and he doesn’t move it much, so I’ll be looking into that next time we go to the store! I’m going to talk to the vet about switching pellets as well.

WhoppieKnows- Thank you! I’ve read about some of those laying down poses before but it’s really easy to understand when you say it like that He’s sitting like the first one right now and does often. We call it his ‘puffball’ pose, or if his ears are straight back we say he is brooding. Either way, he does appear to be pretty happy right now!

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