Why does my bunny act like this in the early hours?

[catherine91]

I have a lovely 6 month old dwarf cross house bunny. He has been neutered. His temperament in general is very good, he’s totally laid back and very friendly. He doesn’t get shut in a cage and has the run of my bedroom 24/7 just at the moment until I move where he will have his own room, with his new wifebun who I’m currently in the process of adopting from a rescue.

If I spend most the day in the room, he rarely bothers me apart from for the occassional nose rub. However, when I go to bed, he is so well behaved all night – he’ll either just be entertaining himself with his hay toys or tunnels, or even sometimes just spreads out at the foot of my bed. But when the sun rises, he goes nuts! He comes up to where my head is and digs as if trying to get under the covers, digs on my head, neck, chews my hair…. and if I do let him go under the covers, he does the same to my legs, feet, nips me too! and if I try and pick him up and put him on the floor, he lunges and grunts at me, and if I prevail… just jumps back up again anyway. It only stops when I get up, I even feed him and give him more hay when he starts doing it but it doesn’t help, and draw the curtains and basically… act awake! Write now I’m sitting up in my bed with laptop, and he’s left me alone… but I’m still in bed!

I’ve tried so long to figure out this behaviour – is he distressed? Or does he want attention? He has plenty of enrichment, wood and cardboard to chew, tunnels, hidey boxes… I’ve tried stroking him when he does it but he just grunts at me. Is it that he wants me to be awake with him at dawn too?! I’m hoping the behaviour will subside once I get the doe in here with him, but my little wake up call is driving me a bit crazy, complete with wounds!

I’d love to hear from anyone who could help out.

Catherine

[jerseygirl]

Rabbits are what is called crepuscular; meaning most active at dawn and dusk.
They are sort of hard wired this way. In nature, it’s when the light is dim so risk from predators is lower. So they come out to feed, exercise and socialise at these times.

House rabbits sometimes adjust their high activity times to other times depending on the household schedule though.

I don’t think your little guy is upset by anything. It’s just when he’s got energy to burn.
My bedroom rabbit does this too! I usually can distract him by giving pellets and loading up his hay. Sometimes I allow him to go off into other bunny proofed areas so that he’s out of my hair.

Your bun might start to mellow a bit as he gets older.

[catherine91]

Thank you – a very reassuring answer! 

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