Normal new bunny behavior?

[inspectorGadget]

Hello! A little over a week ago, we adopted a 4.5 lb REW named Gadget. He lives in a decently sized pen in my room, about 1 1/2 X-Pens, though we let him out 5+ hours per day. He’s been very sweet and easy to care for, but yesterday he suffered a bit of a shock. Not a huge deal, but a family member fell on his pen, (he wasn’t in it, thank god!) effectively damaging his territory and messing it up. The fall bent one unit of the caging and the door. We ended up taking those pieces off and using the extra already overlapping 2nd X-Pen to replace it, clipping it closed. That day, Gadget got aggressive. He thumped his foot at us three times while we were trying to fix his pen, and once when I hammered the bent caging with him in the room.  That mistake was not repeated. He’s claimed the small area behind his pen as his territory as well, and lunged at me when I tried to enter it to keep him from eating our carpet. He also lunged when I put my hand on the ground to offer grooming!

Maybe this is just normal bunny behavior, but he also rattles his cage/water bottle very frequently, which is even worse now that there’s no door to rattle and he moves the whole pen! He lies around almost all day, though I’m fairly sure this is just because he’s crepuscular, but it’s still a bit concerning. Especially when I hear him grinding his teeth! His droppings are frequent and normal, and he’s not hunched over at any time. He sleeps mostly on his side shifting places for long periods of time.

Can someone let me know if this is healthy rabbit behavior for it being the first week? Thank you in advance!

[jerseygirl]

Thanks for adopting a REW !

He’s claimed the small area behind his pen as his territory as well, and lunged at me when I tried to enter it to keep him from eating our carpet. He also lunged when I put my hand on the ground to offer grooming!

He probably reacted this way because he cornered himself in, so his only defense when you approached was aggression. Did you put your hand directly in front of his face by chance? It’s a blind spot for them and often we’ll get lunging reaction from them.
I’d say perhaps the pen changes have upset him a little but he should come back to himself. He sounds a little territorial of his space there. It is important they have their safe zone, but at the same time, you don’t want them to become extreme about it.

Since you’ve only had him a week, he’s still learning to trust you. He sounds like a confident bunny that had just slipped into “prey species” mode for a bit. Continue on as you have been with him and I think you’ll see the sweet guy come back.

p.s. Now I have the theme song from Inspector Gadget stuck in my head. Thanks for that!

[jerseygirl]

Re the rattling, is it just the bottle or he does this to pen bars also? You could offer a bowl of water instead. You may need to cover the lower half of the pen sides with something like corflute if the rattling is particularly annoying. Then provide him with something else to keep entertained. Maybe use zip ties to secure a hay mat to a board and sit that on the pen floor. Then he can pull at that instead.

[Love4Bunny]

I wonder if it’s a “new bunny acclimatising” thing. Thor lunged at me twice, and bit me once in the initial stages of adopting him. He never did this when I fostered him. Of course, I had to administer ear mite meds and Metacam (?), so he was probably lunging because I was entering his territory, and even growled at me once (so trippy to hear a rabbit growl). I figured out how to coax him out of his cage and also pick him up for bunny burito-ing (which he caught onto quick smart).

I’m sorry the cage got damaged, but I’m so glad the rabbits weren’t inside. I recently fell over inside my ex-pen and it sandwiched on top of me. I had to call my husband to help. But the bunnies were fine (SO glad!!). Crysta hid cos she was outside pen cage, but THOR just jumped on top of the grate on top of me while I was stuck inside the folded pen, like I was a step, and hopped off! (what a punk, doesn’t even stop to help his mum up!

[jerseygirl]

Ive had a few falls over pens and barrier before also. Ouch! Dangers of having a house rabbit I suppose!

A few of mine will still lunge or growl at me on occasion even though Ive had them for years. They know it’s an effective way of communicating with me lol. I know their triggers so I can usually avoid setting them off.

[Bam]

I agree with what’s been said, I too have a bunny that used to growl and box, but he did it less and less with time and now he almost never does it. So I just want to add that if a bunny is lounging in a relaxed position and grinding his teeth, it’s called a tooth-purr and means much the same as when a cat purrs: contentment. Tooth-grinding with pain is louder, choppier, more of a chatter and the bunny isn’t lounging relaxedly. It’s not hard to tell apart if you’ve heard both, but hopefully you’ll only ever have to hear the content, happy sound =)

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