My bunny is nervous.

[bunbunlovers]

I have two bunnies. One mini lop and another Dutch dwarf mix. We adopted them about 4 months ago. Minnie (the female lop) is very calm and she doesn’t “jump” as easily as Bob, our male. They both like their new home, but it seems as if Bob still has nervous days. Sometimes when we open the door to their area, Bob jumps and gets startled. Minnie just keeps on eatin hay or something. It’s kinda weird. He seems fine. He gets plenty of human interaction everyday. (they both do) He’s not depressed either. I don’t know whats going on. Also, he has smooth/cool floor “phobia” . Minnie doesn’t mind it, but Bob doesn’t enjoy the feeling of it. Any helpfuls towards both of these questions?????

[TheNibbler]

Maybe setup a towel for Bob to play on, where he can exit onto the floor on his own free will, and will get used to cold floor eventually. My bunny doesn’t like smooth floors, but isn’t scared of them anymore since we’ve given him newsprint to step on. He still prefers staying on his towel, but will run on hardwood and tile now.

[Dwarf Sparrow]

It might be as simple as a personality difference, or maybe Bob’s previous home wasn’t as loving as his current one and he has some bad memories.

My Merida was very skittish on the tile floor too (luckily the kitchen and the bathroom are the only rooms without rugs); out of curiosity I started leaving her maze haven out on the kitchen floor (if you don’t have one, it’s kind of like a cardboard box but without a floor), and she seemed willing to deal with the slippery tile in order to play/hide in the maze. Now she’s a lot more confident on the tile (both good and bad news for me, lol). I wonder if something similar might help Bob? Somewhere to hide and feel safe, but also get used to being on the tile?
I agree with Nibbler though for giving him something less slippery to hop on, especially if most of the play area is tile.

[Elrohwen]

It might just be his personality, or that he needs more time to settle in. One of mine will always be jumpier than the other, and sometimes she gets spooked over things one day that don’t bother her the next. As prey animals, they need a quick startle reflex to survive, so it’s not unusual to see.

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