Foster Bunny behavior

[Shawnee&Trevor]

I have not owned a bunny in years. My boyfriend and I decided to foster a bunny. She's a lionhead and lives in a cage but we pretty much have her free roaming. Every two hours or so we put her back in her cage so she can graze on her pellets and nap comfortably. When we first pull her out she will hope around a little bit, but then she goes to this one corner and stays there for a long time.

We know she's comfortable with us, she climbs on us, eats from our hands, grooms herself, flops herself out, etc. Is she just a lazy bunny? We have no idea of her age, but I would think she would be more active. She has a hay box, and paper ball, shredded paper. Do you think she just gets tired of being out? How should she be acting? I know she's confident in the area, the other day I took her into my bathroom with me, she cowered behind the toilet for a while. When I brought her into her space she jumped around happily.

Should I be worried about her activity level?

Also she does not seem to eat much hay while she is out of her cage.

 

[mdith4him]

What time of day are you taking her out? Bunnies sleep for most of the daylight hours, so if you're taking her out in the early afternoon she's probably still sleepy. With our buns, we usually just have their cage doors open and they can come and go as they please.

 

[ZRabbits]

mdith4him wrote:

What time of day are you taking her out? Bunnies sleep for most of the daylight hours, so if you're taking her out in the early afternoon she's probably still sleepy. With our buns, we usually just have their cage doors open and they can come and go as they please.

Ditto on the time of day. My boys are very active in the early morning, so they get their run then. I did the same as you, letting them out when they were sleepy, and they all did the same thing. Just sat there.

K

 

[LakeCondo]

My lionhead isn't very active, no matter the time of day. Her one strenuous activity is digging in her dig box. She likes to rip her own paper, so you could let your foster bun do her own shredding. Honey gets a long piece of brown packing paper, stands on part, puts another part in her mouth, & rips away.

 

[missyscove]

It doesn't sound too unusual to me as bunnies go. If it was a change from previous behavior it might be something to be concerned about but in general some buns are just laid back. Fiona used to tear around the house as fast as she could go whereas Timmy is much more content to just lie down and take it all in.

 

[Shawnee&Trevor]

We have let her out all times of the day, it does not really seem to make much of a difference. I've only had her since Friday so I would have no way to know how she acted before. But what exactly do you put in a dig box? just a bunch of pieces of paper?

Also, she does not really like to jump. She has a 4X2X3 C&C, it has two main levels and two sub levels but she never leaves the main level. So she does not move much in her cage.

Her play area is across the room from her cage so we can't leave the door open. We're going to build it so that she can get to it on her own soon though, my concern with that is that she only stays on the second main floor of her cage and I don't know that she would explore enough to figure out she could come and go.

 

[LakeCondo]

Honey's dig box has a bottom layer of bricks held in place with sand, when she gets down to the bricks, she helps trim her own front nails. As much as she was trying to dig into her xpen flooring, I thought she needed something more substantial than paper to dig in, so I got some litter that was completely different from what the litter box contain. Fortunately, she recognized the difference, perhaps because I put her hide box on top of it, with a small hole in the bottom [besides an entrance & exit] that she soon enlarged. Every few days, I reach in & put the stuff back, so she can dig it again.

Honey's not a jumper or climber either but with an xpen I really don't want her to climb. Maybe a ramp would help, if you don't have one already. Even on one level, if you add some filled food cans & line them up, she'll need to jump over them & get a little exercise that way. You might need to start with tuna cans or something of that size.

 

[Shawnee&Trevor]

That sounds really cool! How do you keep her from getting sand everywhere?

She has a ramp too but she never likes using it. I am going to try changing it around.

 

[LakeCondo]

The sand in just down between the bricks. I put in the bricks & poured sand in the spaces between. She WAS tossing the not-litter out of the box [even though it was a box with fairly high sides] until I removed some of it. Some still gets outside, so I have to put it back. But she mainly digs in the corner of the box furthest from the entrances, so it never is flung far enough for it to get out of the box.

I have no experience with a ramp, but maybe it needs to be wider & longer ie less steep.

 

[slavetoabunny]

Some bunnies just have different energy levels. My Noelle is a couch potato. She sounds just like your bunny. On the other end of the extreme, Tabitha is a high energy rabbit. Her nickname is Psycho Bun.

 

[Shawnee&Trevor]

Huh, I like the dig box idea.

Slavetoabunny, my sister's name is Tabatha so I had to do a double take on that one.

Does any think she could just still be settling in? How long does it normally take? She acts completely chill and relaxed in her play area, even while we're in there too. Could she still be getting used to everything?

 

[LakeCondo]

Yes, she could still be settling in. Plus they have their good days & their bad days, who knows why.

 

[Shawnee&Trevor]

What about her in her cage. She has four levels and she will not jump from one level to another. It's definitely a distance she can jump (she jumped an obstacle for free time that was higher). But she just stays on one level. How do I get her to go to the other levels?

 

[LakeCondo]

I don't know if putting her up on the 2nd level would make things better [as she'd have to go down] or just spook her.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

You just need to get used to each others cycles. Ours are less active in the daytime, but we keep there room on the dark side and they do explore and rest on their own schedule.