She’s fiesty today – Play Styles

[Balefulregards]

Coco seems to have re-discovered her love of biting THINGS lately. Not people…but Things.  As this is her play style, It reminded me to change her set up. I find when she is bored, she gets fiesty and bites things she knows are off limits (Like the  wooden bed frame) Often she will do this right in front of me, which indicates “Hey – Human. Give me a Problem to solve before I make some for You”.

This morning, I put a fresh phone book in her digging box, and also retied the hemp barrier with new additions ( a grass mat and a round piece of cardboard) to stimulate her mind. She likes things “just so” and will work to get her paths clear all day. Jackson is my loafer Bun and watches her with interest, but doesn’t need to join in.  He is a Thrower, so I have lots of different sized willow balls and other things from him to toss with his teeth.

This reminded me though about the differences in Bunny Play styles – so I though to maybe have a little discussion and suggestions section for the various play types in Buns and what we do to keep them busy and minds active. As we all know too well – a Bored Bunny is a very naughty bunny indeed.

[Quantum]

Bean is more of a “people mover” than a “toy mover”. All evening long it’s, *Bonk!* “Move your ankles!” *Bonk-bonk* “Not *there*, you fool!!” *Bonk!* “What is with you people? Can’t you see that’s where I want to be??!?” And then, when you’ve driven your humans to distraction and they’ve finally put their feet up, you flop where their feet were and demand pets. Cardboard is for occasional chewing up and phone books are for occasional shredding, but bonking people’s ankles and making them move (over and over and over and) is fun!

[Cassi&Charlie]

My buns love the Bunny500 round and round the couch and dining room table. Layla also loves to sneak up on me and chomp on my ankles when she thinks I’m not looking. Charlie is a paperbag and cardboard box destroyer so I like to hide treats in boxes and stuff paper bags with hay to keep him amused.
I also lay newspapers on the floor for them to shred, otherwise they shred my curtains!

[Monkeybun]

Monkey loves running. And nudging. She’s happy to sit there and poke us with her nose when we are on the floor with her. She has no interest in chewing on stuff other than her nommies, doesn’t dig unless its in her shredded paper bag, only tosses stuff if its in her way, just running and jumping and nudging. She’s funny

[Adalaide]

Freya is really wierd, she digs a lot. She can shred 1/2 of a 2 inch phone book in a week. She also trying to dig a hole in her box that’s by the end of the couch. She also runs the Bunny 500 which is hilarious. She’ll circle the room 5 or 6 times and just stop and then sleep under the couch for an hour. She tosses toys but doesn’t usually chew on them a whole lot, but she does love to chew furniture.

[Elrohwen]

I had to laugh at your description of her biting things. Otto absolutely does this if I anger him. For example, if I leave magazines or a boardgame on the shelf under the coffee table, he’ll start chewing on them (understandable). If I push them away, he’ll get frustrated and take a bite at the coffee table itself. He never ever chews it, so it’s like he’s biting it to show his frustrating that I pulled away what he was chewing on. Silly bun.

He likes to throw his rattle thingy, but only in his cage or maze haven where dropping it makes a lot of noise. He won’t do it at all on the bare floor or carpet.

He likes to rip at cardboard and occasionally his phone book (I usually have to pretend to read it first to get him interested).

If I have an afghan across my lap, he’ll run up to it and try to pull at the pieces of yarn. I say “no” and push him away and he binkies off in happiness. Then he comes back and does it over and over. *sigh* I figure it’s easier to pull up the afghan when I get sick of the game than it is to actually discipline him.

For playing with me, he loooves doing anything involving clicker training. I’ve taught him a few tricks and every time he sees the clicker he runs over and starts doing his tricks as fast as he can. Lol. It’s so adorable! And often when I try to stop our session, he’ll keep standing up or spinning around to make me keep going.

ETA: Quantum, Otto does the ankle bonking too. No matter where I put them, it is clearly the wrong place.

[Author]

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