Climbing on Me

[JessicaEasterRabbit]

Good Morning,

My daughter (16) and I recently rescued a rabbit from the humane society in our area. She was thought to be four months old at the time and they had spayed her.

She is very loving, curious, and wonderful.

I do have a question about how she behaves with me versus my daughter.

We both spend time with her. For my daughter she will play, lay on, and loves to be be pet.

She does all the same things with me expect she likes to climb up me to sniff my head. She does not do this with my daughter.

Yesterday when I leaned over to fill her water dish she jumped on my head. It did startle me but I let her climb down on her own rather then scaring her.

I haven't been able to find anything to describe this kind of behavior. She isn't aggressive with us. She does nudge to get attention or for us to get out of her way, lol. She hasn't nipped either of us.

I am worried that I am doing something wrong. We are first time bunny caretakers so I want to make sure she has a safe and wonderful place to live in.

 

[JBun]

I can't say exactly why your bun would want to jump on your head, though I can make some guesses based on usual rabbit behavior. It could be your bun feels safest with you and likes to be near you. Snuggling up near the head and under the chin is a common place they like to snuggle up to, at least for buns that actually like to snuggle that is. It could have to do with your hair, as rabbits are usually pretty interested in hair as it's more like what they have, fur. It could be the smell of the hair products you use that your bun is interested in. Whatever it is, you're not doing anything wrong and it doesn't sound like entirely unusual rabbit behavior. Rabbits will sometimes do unexpected things like this, and it can take some time for us humans to figure out what it is they are trying to communicate with us.

You might be interested in this link. It has some info on the different ways rabbits communicate with each other and with us.
http://language.rabbitspeak.com/

 

[lilnaugrim]

Yeah, that sounds like fairly normal behavior as far as I know, and for the reasons that JBun already outlined for you!

My bun climbed up onto my shoulders when I was sitting down against the door. He simply wanted to get out of the room and explore more and so he thought that climbing up onto me would give him some sort of advantage to get through the door lol. Bunnies do like to climb and I've seen them utilize Cat tree's happily and more than my actual cats do lol. So it could also be that she just had an urge to climb to see what was up there, or to see if she could get into another area by being up higher. They can certainly be characters at times!

 

[JessicaEasterRabbit]

Thank you for your replies. She's been a joyful addition to our house and is so cute.

I just want to make sure I've got a safe, fun, and interactive home for her where she can be herself while being safe, lol.

I had no idea she'd be as much fun as she is. All the information out there on how to not expect her to be like a cat/dog/other pet really had me thinking she'd just kind of be there. She does like her alone time and will go "home" when she wants her space but she also does like to interact with us as well- just on her terms.