Odd behaviour while eating

[Rach]

Recently I’ve noticed that when my bun straightens up while eating, his front paws are padding the floor. I can’t see any reference to this on any website and wondered if it’s normal, or if anyone knows why he’s started doing this. His paws look fine, no inflammations or wounds. Just odd he seems to be marching on the spot…I’ve got him booked in for a worming and health checkup at the vets on Monday, but should I be getting him in before this?

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

[Bam]

Could this be sth like when a puppy dog pushes at the mum’s teets with its feet to get milk out? Some puppies preserve this behavior for a long time, long after they’ve left their mother. It’s more of a reflex than anything else. I don’t know the term for it, but it’s like they are marching on the spot while they’re eating. It might have to do with the animal having been separated from its mum too soon, but it doesn’t have to be, my dog was with her mum until she was 10 weeks and she still did it sometimes. Cats do it too. 

How old is your bun?

[Rach]

My bun is about two years old, and is a giant rabbit. But he is a rescue. I’m not sure on the circumstances from when he was separated from his mum.

As a bit of background, in case this may help shed some light, I rescued him at the start of April from someone on the other side of our village who claimed he was vicious, he was in a small double cage (probably about the right size for a guinea pig or a dwarf rabbit) where the bottom was on the concrete slabs and he wasn’t able to stand up, so he was lying in his own urine and faeces. Hadn’t been fed in quite some time and no water that we could see. That very day we had to put him in a dog crate on the grass with a bowl of water while we went on a mass run to the nearest pet shop and get everything. Two of us got him in the shower and had to cut away a fair bit of fur around his bottom where it had matted and wasn’t letting him poo properly. Then took about 5 hours to get him dry with a mix of towels and hair dryer, with the focus on my hand so it wouldn’t get too hot for him. After that bit of trauma (bearing in mind I hadn’t heard he was vicious), I hand fed him while he was curled on my lap.

For the past few months he’s been fine, it’s only the last week that he’s taken to marching on the spot, which is why I’m worried.

[Bam]

Thank you for rescuing this bunny!

The first things to look at when deciding on a bun’s state of health is appetite and poop. Alertness, stance and tendency at interaction are also important. Sometimes a bunny that has gas pain can stamp its back feet, and that is serious, but walking on the spot with the fore-feet is not sth I recognize having heard of in buns.

A bunny that isn’t feeling well is reluctant or, often, completely unwilling to eat, will try to hide from sight and will lie or sit still and it will look uncomfortable, sometimes actively pressing its tummy against the floor. Often poop size and amount are diminished compared to normal.

If it’s anything like when a puppy “foot-walks” while nursing, it’s not sth bad at all, it’s associated with well-being and oxytocin-realease (“pleasure”-signal substance released in both mother and kit during nursing).

How does he seem to you? Can you hear any noise from his tummy? Does the tummy feel nice and soft to the touch?

[Rach]

Never intended to get a rabbit when I first rescued him, but when I got him I knew I just wouldn’t be able to leave him!!

Sometimes there is a gurgling from his stomach, but I put that down to the fact that he doesn’t eat a lot of hay. It’s always accessible to him but for some reason he leaves it unless he’s in the mood. The pellets he’s on are high in fibre but sometimes I have to hand-feed him those too. His tummy does feel soft to the touch.

He is a very big fan of kale (ripped the bag from my hands to get at it!), happily eats his treat sticks, I tend to give him one a day and it goes fairly sharpish. He’s active when he’s first outside but then settles down and relaxes, binkies often, flops often…he seems to be happy. He definitely poo’s for England!! I have so many photos on my phone of him just relaxing with his eyes closed or sleeping I feel a bit stalkerish!

He’s a very different Bun from when I first got him. Although if I don’t feed him by 9am in the morning I definitely know about it, he snatches the food bowl from my hand (even when I clamp down on it, he just keep pulling and pawing until I let it go) and tosses it! Mardy bun!!

[Author]

Messages