Question about rabbit hierarchy and humans

[sarahthegemini]

This might be a bit of an odd Q but bare with me! When you have two (or more) buns, one dominant and one submissive, do we as humans need to play up to that hierarchy? For example, do I need to treat my dominant bun as the top bun to keep things simple or am I supposed to treat them completely equally? What I mean is, when I hand feed them treats for example (well dandelion and plantain) Buttercup usually gets given her piece first because she will take it from Peanut if I feed him first lol. She is top bun. This got me thinking tho, is it better for the rabbits in question to be treated according to their hierarchy OR is it better to treat them the same (hand them treats at exactly the same time) to keep things sweet for both buns, especially the submissive one. Would this help keep the submissive bun happy and less likely to want to change up the hierarchy? This probably makes no sense lol but any thoughts on this?

[Mikey]

I go by alpha status, unintentionally kinda like you mentioned. Blue needs food and treats first, or else he will steal from the others. If Blue feels like Im not giving him enough attention/he feels like Im giving the other two more attention, he will either start mounting them for dominance, or he will get upset at me for not petting him more

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Mikey on 3/09/2017 9:44 AM

I go by alpha status, unintentionally kinda like you mentioned. Blue needs food and treats first, or else he will steal from the others. If Blue feels like Im not giving him enough attention/he feels like Im giving the other two more attention, he will either start mounting them for dominance, or he will get upset at me for not petting him more

Ah you reminded me of something else – Buttercup loves attention and hates the thought of missing out on something, so if I’m giving Peanut a little attention, she’ll come booming over as if to say “hey what’s going on here?!?” She can be pretty boisterous so often Peanut will just sort of wander off. Then I feel guilty that he was sort of pushed out. 

[Mikey]

Posted By sarahthegemini on 3/09/2017 9:54 AM

Ah you reminded me of something else – Buttercup loves attention and hates the thought of missing out on something, so if I’m giving Peanut a little attention, she’ll come booming over as if to say “hey what’s going on here?!?” She can be pretty boisterous so often Peanut will just sort of wander off. Then I feel guilty that he was sort of pushed out. 

Is she ok if you pet them both at the same time? Thats usually what I end up resorting to and it seems to work well. 

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Mikey on 3/09/2017 1:06 PM

Posted By sarahthegemini on 3/09/2017 9:54 AM

Ah you reminded me of something else – Buttercup loves attention and hates the thought of missing out on something, so if I’m giving Peanut a little attention, she’ll come booming over as if to say “hey what’s going on here?!?” She can be pretty boisterous so often Peanut will just sort of wander off. Then I feel guilty that he was sort of pushed out. 

Is she ok if you pet them both at the same time? Thats usually what I end up resorting to and it seems to work well. 

Yeah, she’s okay with it, as long as she’s getting some attention she’s happy lol. It’s just Peanut usually gives up and hops away. He’s quite timid and at the moment I’m taking things slowly regarding petting him so I usually wait for him to approach me. This is working really well with his confidence but of course it means waiting for him to decide to come back to me so as not to overwhelm him. It’s tricky trying to give them both attention at the same time because of this but I do try! 

[senatcha93]

http://www.bunnyhugga.com/a-to-z/rabbit-behaviour/rabbit-hierarchy.html
This perfectly answers your question. Pay close attention to the lower part I am interested in this myself as I think my bunny believes he is top bunny and I try to change that but sadly haven’t found anything yet on how to become top bunny lol

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By senatcha93 on 9/14/2017 5:56 AM

http://www.bunnyhugga.com/a-to-z/rabbit-behaviour/rabbit-hierarchy.html
This perfectly answers your question. Pay close attention to the lower part I am interested in this myself as I think my bunny believes he is top bunny and I try to change that but sadly haven’t found anything yet on how to become top bunny lol

I don’t really believe rabbit hierarchy extends to humans in that way, meaning you don’t have to assert yourself as top bun because they don’t really see us in that way.

[joea64]

When Panda and Fernando first came to live with me nearly 4 weeks ago, Panda was feeling a strong need to assert herself as dominant in the pairing, likely in large part because she was feeling the absence of her other three kits who had recently been adopted out and it was down to just her and her son Fernando, and also to relieve the stress she must have been feeling over the change in residence. This expressed itself in daily or near-daily episodes, usually at nearly the same time during each evening play session, where she would mount Fernando from front and back. Fernando usually accepted this in good part though he’d occasionally move away if Panda got a bit too vigorous with her front-mounting. She was also quite reserved, even stand-offish, at first, much more receptive to verbal attention than physical (always shying away when pets were offered), and could (still can, sometimes!) be quite demanding about (verbal) attention and treats, to the extent of nipping. I had to “Eeek!”/”No!” a couple of times when she nipped too hard.

Over the last week or so, this dominance behavior has gotten a lot less frequent, in fact, I don’t remember seeing it at all over the past several days. I take this as an indication that she’s feeling more relaxed about her status and has become comfortable, happy in fact, with their new home (she bunloafs and bunny-rugs on pretty much a daily basis, multiple times, when I’m around to observe, and has engaged in several Bunny 500’s and binkies as well). She was quite skittish about being petted in the early going, and I wonder if (following the Bunnyhugga article) she may not have been miffed about the attention I was showing to Fernando, who’s always been the more outgoing and demonstratively affectionate of the pair), but recently she’s begun to be easier about accepting pets. She’s still quite a nipper, though!

[Deleted User]

I have a similar thing with Asriel and Bombur! Bombur will definitely end up being the dominant one. Whenever I’m giving Asriel any kind of attention he stares at me through his cage and then won’t come near me the first 15 minutes he’s out. I end up giving Bombur more affection cause he is the more affectionate bun. Asriel always ends up looking sad when I’m snuggling with Bombur, but Asriel will only accept nose rubs. So idk

[joea64]

Posted By Asriel and Bombur on 9/14/2017 10:18 AM

I have a similar thing with Asriel and Bombur! Bombur will definitely end up being the dominant one. Whenever I’m giving Asriel any kind of attention he stares at me through his cage and then won’t come near me the first 15 minutes he’s out. I end up giving Bombur more affection cause he is the more affectionate bun. Asriel always ends up looking sad when I’m snuggling with Bombur, but Asriel will only accept nose rubs. So idk

In Panda’s case, she has a tendency to give me the cold shoulder for a couple of minutes – or, I should say, in bun terms, “cold bum” – if I offer to pet her, or worse yet from her perspective, actually touch her on the forehead or back. You can almost hear the haughty sniff of (possibly assumed) disdain! In fact, I’m beginning to think that if Panda were an anime character, she’d be the tsundere type.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundere

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