user 13875
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- Jan 27, 2012
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Hi, first time poster, just here to ask a few questions about my rabbit. There's a lot of resources around the net that give good information on rabbit's behavior, but it's very broad, and while I can get a vague idea of what's going through my rabbits head, it's not 100% clear as a lot of the information conflicts.
Basically I've had my rabbit, Tofu, for about a year now. Generally she's always been a little unfriendly, however over the past few months it's evident that she trusts us, her owners (while still being very nervous around strangers, although I'm told this is natural.)
She also won't let us pick her up, ever. Despite trying to make her comfortable with this, especially earlier on in life by trying to carefully pick her up, still close to ground level, she has always objected to this and flails wildly when we try.
But most confusing however, is her general behavior, especially outside her cage when we let her run around the living room. By definition a lot of her behavior seems as though she's both happy and upset at the same time.
She will generally dash about, binky and roll when she's outside, which I've been told reflects a happy rabbit, however there are a few things that make her appear quite agressive or nervous. To begin with, there's a certain patch under the table she constantly likes digging, something she will do for up to 10 minutes, before she gives up.
Also we have a few rabbit toys that she seems to like (and constantly marks by rubbing her chin on them) however when she's outside, if we move one around playfully, she will thump her foot, makes a low pitch grunt, pounce on it like a cat, followed by some sniffing or marking of it. This seems to be very aggressive/angry behavior, however it's always followed by more running, rolling or whatever. The grunt she makes however is dull and short, very different to some of the ones she has made when she's clearly angry, such as when she's in her house and we "invade her territory" if we are cleaning around it.
Finally there's a few objects she enjoys "humping". Usually fluffy objects such as slippers. At first we were shocked, thinking that the pet store got it wrong and she was in fact a he, although some sites have claimed that both male and female rabbits do this from time to time. We are getting her spayed later next month so we'll be able to find out for sure the gender.
Overall we're pretty confused about what's going on in her head. Ideally we'd like to a) show a little more affection. (She clearly trusts us, as in will often run around us, allows us to stroke her and so forth but doesn't really show any signs of affection towards us such as licking.) b) be more comfortable with us picking up up. and c) just figure out exactly what she's feeling. Considering she shows a mixture of positive and negative signs at any one time, It's confusing as to know if we are taking care of her properly.
Thanks, and sorry for the essay!
Basically I've had my rabbit, Tofu, for about a year now. Generally she's always been a little unfriendly, however over the past few months it's evident that she trusts us, her owners (while still being very nervous around strangers, although I'm told this is natural.)
She also won't let us pick her up, ever. Despite trying to make her comfortable with this, especially earlier on in life by trying to carefully pick her up, still close to ground level, she has always objected to this and flails wildly when we try.
But most confusing however, is her general behavior, especially outside her cage when we let her run around the living room. By definition a lot of her behavior seems as though she's both happy and upset at the same time.
She will generally dash about, binky and roll when she's outside, which I've been told reflects a happy rabbit, however there are a few things that make her appear quite agressive or nervous. To begin with, there's a certain patch under the table she constantly likes digging, something she will do for up to 10 minutes, before she gives up.
Also we have a few rabbit toys that she seems to like (and constantly marks by rubbing her chin on them) however when she's outside, if we move one around playfully, she will thump her foot, makes a low pitch grunt, pounce on it like a cat, followed by some sniffing or marking of it. This seems to be very aggressive/angry behavior, however it's always followed by more running, rolling or whatever. The grunt she makes however is dull and short, very different to some of the ones she has made when she's clearly angry, such as when she's in her house and we "invade her territory" if we are cleaning around it.
Finally there's a few objects she enjoys "humping". Usually fluffy objects such as slippers. At first we were shocked, thinking that the pet store got it wrong and she was in fact a he, although some sites have claimed that both male and female rabbits do this from time to time. We are getting her spayed later next month so we'll be able to find out for sure the gender.
Overall we're pretty confused about what's going on in her head. Ideally we'd like to a) show a little more affection. (She clearly trusts us, as in will often run around us, allows us to stroke her and so forth but doesn't really show any signs of affection towards us such as licking.) b) be more comfortable with us picking up up. and c) just figure out exactly what she's feeling. Considering she shows a mixture of positive and negative signs at any one time, It's confusing as to know if we are taking care of her properly.
Thanks, and sorry for the essay!
