Bad eye sight or something else

[Hermelin]

Hey everyone :3

I have a question about rabbits with red eyes:

Do they have worse vision with their eyes than other rabbits?

Because I own one mixed breed holland loop with red pupils, he’s quite jumpy and can’t handle fast movements. He will attack when he get scared but when he notice it’s a hand he stops and want to be petted/groomed.

Even after a few months of trying to socialize him, he’s really jumpy and easily get scared. He’s more scared than my bun that don’t have good hearing.

Just wondering because I know of animals with albinism don’t fare well with light and often have worse sight than normal. If it’s so for rabbits too, I would love having tips on helping him become more secure than he is now.

He have lost many bad habits but have come to a wall with how jumpy he is.

 

[SableSteel]

Rabbit's don't generally have problems with albinos like other species do
Some albino rabbits have some depth perception issues and are prone to "scanning" their head back and forth to try to make up for that, but most do just fine. I do rabbit hopping & agility with my red eyed rabbits.
Your rabbits eye color seems to be a combination of the vienna gene and sable gene, neither of which usually cause eyesight problems. It's likely that he's just more jumpy by nature.

 

[Hermelin]

If he’s more jumpy and scared than other rabbits. What can I do to help him get used with things.

I’ve gotten bitten a lot and I mean a lot by him.

I know fast movements (fast for him) and moving my hands in front of his face even though I come from the side, I will get bitten. He will stop attacking when he notice what it was.

 

[somebunnylovesme]

I assume you have your bunny alter because you have another rabbit in your home. Some rabbits don't like pets. I had one that was high energy and too busy for them but occasionally he would stop for them. A few things you can try:

What you can try is lie down on the floor and let him come to you and sniff you. You can have treat in your hand but with they can run off with it.


Another thing you could try is , when you come to the side to pet him you could pet him on the head and say " Do you want some pets." If he nips or lungs at you stop. When you try to pet him again say" Do you want some pets" then your bunny overtime will get it and what is coming. I did that with my rabbits and it worked. They knew what was coming and would put their head out if they wanted pets.

It sounds like your rabbit is having a little bit of trust issues, but looking from the picture he still wants to be loved.

 

[Hermelin]

He’s quite speciall between treats and cuddles, this boy will choice cuddles. Instead of the other 2 rabbits in my house that will take the treats without stopping.

You can hold a treat in front of him and he won’t take it until you stopped cuddling with him or he wants to do something else.

He have quite a lot of energy when he’s in the pen, but will come to me and seek attention.

I can also carry him around and he will be calm and do the purring sound rabbits do. But picking him up, you can only do it in the cage, outside the cage or in a travel cage won’t work.

He will always greet me when I go to the cage and he will get excited.

But if he get too scared he will go back to the insecure rabbit he was when I got him and it will take around 2 weeks for him to come out again.

This happened during Christmas something scared him and I had to start everything from the beginning.

Don’t know why he’s so scared and jumpy, my other two rabbits are so calm and love people. I have a great bond with them and get a lot of kisses and no problem picking them up.

 

[somebunnylovesme]

Well you could try asking him for pets when your holding. Say this to him when you're holding him and say" you wants some pets" pet him once then stop, then ask him again "you want some pets" then pet him again and repeat. When he is on the ground ask him if he wants pets. Put your hand on the towards the side of his face not too close and have him come to you.

I know it sounds crazy to talk to your rabbit. Rabbits are very smart and catch on. If an owner can teach their rabbit to spin in a circle with a treat in their hand. Try this method that I'm talking about and see if it works for you. It worked for my bunnies and it builds trust.

 

[JBun]

Yes, rabbits with red or blue eyes can sometimes be more inclined to nervousness because of their vision difficulties. I had a red eyed white holland lop, and she was a more nervous rabbit. She would startle easily at sounds and smells, and she would initially lunge at my hand until she realized it was me. So I had to be slow and more careful when I initially approached her.
http://www.vgr1.com/vision/

Something that may help is having a bonded bunny partner(spayed/neutered rabbits) to help keep your bun company and provide a sense of security(though my bun would still get nervous even having a bunny buddy). Also talking to your rabbit as you approach so your bun knows it's you coming, which may need to be done loudly if your bun also seems to be hard of hearing(which some of them can be). Also keeping things in your buns environment in the same place. So some of the care used to help blind rabbits, can also apply to helping REW rabbits with poor vision.
http://www.disabledrabbits.com/blindness.html
https://rabbit.org/life-with-a-visually-impaired-rabbit/

 

[Hermelin]

Thanks, for the tips. I will try and see how it goes. Hopes he will become more secure.

Next week he’s going to get a new hutch which is attached to pen. So everything will become new again but it will be better than what it’s now.

 

[Vulcan]

I have a holland lop, Vulcan, who has been acting funny, and I'm wondering if he might be getting some problems with his eyesight. Today I found him in a corner of his pen, in the wide open even though he has five hides in his pen, and he flinched when I pet him, something he's never done before. After the initial flinch, he didn't react, and while my presence didn't seem to make him more upset or scared, he didn't relax either. I got no response when I dished up his daily ration of pellets, but he did react to his veggies. Crossing his pen, he acted scared of everything, as though it was all completely brand new.
Two days before this, he hid from my sister. It took four hours before he came out of hiding and came to be with me as I watched a movie in his pen.
He's 7-8 months and I've had him since he was 10 weeks. I've never seen him act like this before.
Vulcan does get surprised easily, despite my ritual of loudly saying his name and talking when I enter my room where his pen is. He can be wide awake, grooming himself for example, and even if I say his name loudly and stomp my feet, he doesn't seem to realize I'm there until he looks up. I have read that this isn't uncommon for lop-eared rabbits, but figured I might as well mention it.