Sammykins: ranch houses only

[RabbitPam]

 I’m just wondering if any of you have had a bunny for a while who never, ever leaves the ground floor. Since I got Samantha, she has run, jumped in binkies (with really good height to them), zoomed in Bunny 500s and in all ways seems very healthy. Her back feet stuck out in what I can only describe as 2nd position (3rd with her butt in between) in ballet. The vet said to watch her to see if it led to any problems but it hasn’t seemed to. She also will periscope with no trouble.

But she never jumps up on anything. Just remembered, she tried the couch once as a teen, didn’t seem interested and never came back. So she could, just won’t.

The reason I mention it is because we just got a Cottontail Cottage  and I am super curious to see if she ever tries the second (never mind the 3rd!) level. 

Miss “totally timid” did not venture into the doors for a day. I even put a very tasty willow ring in the center that she’d been chowing down – nothing but suspicious circling. Then last night I stuck my toes inside and wiggled them at her from the opposite hole. She came through it and let me pet her with my toes.  So, I put in the willow wreath again and she went inside to eat it. Success! 

This morning, she ran around briefly then I called her for breakfast, but couldn’t find her. I was standing next to the Cottage and Peek A Boo! Out popped her head. So we have now learned that it’s a good bunny place.  I would love to have her climb up the ramp. I set a branch of willow on the second level just in case.

Should I be concerned yet? I rather expect she will have leg trouble later in life, but it would be nice to break this resistance to levels if it’s a phobia. I trimmed her front nails yesterday and she resisted so much that I didn’t do the back. I got upset. then she was extra sweet to me about an hour later as if to say “I do feel better now, I’m sorry I upset you.” She knows she has some new toys and treats she’s enjoying.

So, has anyone overcome a floor-level bunny successfully? 

[jerseygirl]

Could it be more related to her vision perhaps? Say, if she can’t gauge well the level she wants to jump to?

[RabbitPam]

Guess that’s possible, but she’s never tried and missed. When she was young and jumped up on the couch I was on, she had no trouble that I recall. How else can I check her vision? Or depth perception?

[jerseygirl]

Not sure…

One thing I suppose you could try is changing surface texture of a level and also colour and see if that helps. I’ve been considering this for Jelly. It’s opposite to Sammy though. He jumps up to level fine but he dithers a lot coming back down. I had wondered whether having a light colour surface on the floor instead of grey would help him.

[RabbitPam]

Well, she hasn’t yet tried the ramps, which are brown (and look really steep to me) so I will wait to see if she tests them. They do look silppery too.
I may put a banana slice on that level and see what she does.

But the point about grey is interesting, since I got an area rug next to me here to entice her out since she won’t walk on tile EITHER (what, is she messing up her pedicure???), and she never sets foot on it! She loves the ratty burbury carpet we have been living with here. Even sleeps on it happily under her basket. Maybe a swatch of that eventually for traction.

[Monkeybun]

Smudge doesn’t like levels much. With the condo the girls had, sometimes she would hop up, but would get too scared to jump back down and would wait for me to pick her up and put her on the floor. She is much happier with having half the computer room floor to flop on

I think some bunnies just prefer being on solid ground

[Stickerbunny]

Powder prefers ground floors, there isn’t anything wrong with him and he CAN jump up if he feels like it (he jumps on the bed when he has access, but nothing else interests him and then only to wake up the slaves) he just prefers to lounge on the ground. Stickers likes to jump over everything and is always getting on my chair, boxes, hay containers, etc. Just differences in what is fun imo.

[piperknitsRN]

My bunnies periscope around, but have never once leaped on the bed, chairs, or couch.  I don’t encourage them, either, while I have no problem with them doing so, I’ve noticed with more adventurous bunnies (aka Flip flop, the acrobat) this can lead to naughtiness.  It may be she just prefers to be a land lubber ;-).

[Michelle&Lolli]

Lolli prefers to have her feet firmly on the ground. She has attempted to jump up on things such as the couch. But that was only cause she thought I had food for her. She jumped up on Eddie’s wood box and couldn’t seem to figure out how to get down. I was surprised Eddie didn’t nip at her to make her get off cause that was HIS BOX….even though he did nothing with it. Males. lol

I did have one of those cottages and she would climb all the way to top. However, the cardboard doesn’t provide good traction, so she kind of scrambled down. I don’t think she cared for that very much but she would still climb all over it. Until she decided to remodel second floor which include complete removal of said floor and ramp. LOL

She has never been too interested in climbing all over things. So maybe that’s the case with Sammykins.

One thing to watch if she does go all the way to the top – Both lolli and Eddie decided to jump from the top. Scared me half to death and I think it did the same to them because after that one jump, they never did it again. So depending on how brave she gets, Sammykins might try that too! Just an FYI. Or my bunnies were just……dumb? LOL

[Elrohwen]

If we didn’t have Hannah, Otto would never jump on anything. It took him weeks to find the second level in his maze haven and he still never went on the roof. The couch was positively off limits for him. Hannah jumps on anything and everything and she got Otto following her and I reinforced jumping on the couch by giving him treats (now I can’t keep him off of the couch … lol) I don’t think anything is wrong with Sammy if she never jumps on anything – at least if we’re judging normalcy by the things Otto does 😛

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