Is this chasing mean or playful?

[Liung]

Lahi has been chasing Delilah a fair bit recently, and I honestly can't tell if it's friendly or not.

I've posted a video on my bunny blog, so you can see precisely what's happening.
http://lahi-n-delilah.tumblr.com/post/131641304797/more-recently-lahi-has-been-chasing-delilah-a

Indications that it might not be friendly:
-Lahi's ears are back
-Sometimes he gets a tuft of Delilah's fur (not seen in video)
-Delilah thumps her foot occasionally (not in the video, that day she thumped just once at the beginning)
-Once, when he started towards her, she swiftly turned and jumped onto the couch as if to seek refuge (also not in the video, happened before I started filming)

Indications that it might be friendly:
-Lahi's ears are not totally pinned the way I've seen during legitimate fights
-Moreover they're generally only down during the initial charge, and pop back up while running (as long as they're not running under things)
-When Delilah melts into the ground and refuses to run anymore, he doesn't bite her at all. He makes little charges, clearly trying to get her to run, but when it doesn't work he grooms her face and eventually wanders off.

My tentative hypothesis is that Lahi's playing but Delilah's not? But it's so hard to tell when it comes to Delilah because there's no real ear cues.

 

[Watermelons]

Are they both fixed?

 

[Liung]

Yes, should have mentioned that. They're both altered, have been for many years. Lahi is a neutered male, 9 years old, Delilah is... Uh, I'd have to look it up but I'm pretty sure she's about 5. They've been bonded... Almost 4 years now, I think. Delilah came to me at about a year old, having spent the first few months of her life raised by dogs and the rest of that year suffering almost total neglect and minor starvation. She's gone a little strange because of it.

 

[ladysown]

that is a NOT friendly chase. Rabbits ripping around having fun act differently than that.

The lop's body behaviour is "AH!!! What was that about!!!!" something in their dynamic is changed... could be the dwarf cross??? has a health issue of some sort and it's affecting behaviour patterns.

 

[Liung]

Lahi's had a LOT of health issues, but between that and his age I am justifiably paranoid about his health. I took them both to the vet at the beginning of the month "because nothing has gone wrong in ages and that makes me suspicious".

It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

My vet (very rabbit-savvy) pronounced them both extremely healthy, and Lahi's good health was especially amazing in light of his previous medical history. He does have a small tooth spur forming, but it's not big enough to be causing problems yet. Lahi's response to discomfort is to stop eating, and he's still got a good appetite for now.

Now, one thing though, Delilah for many years now has had an awful habit called "social barbering"; instead of grooming, she tears Lahi's fur out. He got some really bad bald spots and it was driving me up the wall trying to make it stop. Separating them wasn't (and still isn't) an option: Delilah goes insane by herself, and Lahi gets depressed and flat out stops eating. He's less than 5lbs and really can't afford to lose weight.

Lahi always tolerated the fur pulling with a sort of resigned air. He would maybe move away when she started pulling too hard, but for the most part he just let her. For actual YEARS.

Until, suddenly this year, he didn't... He started pushing her off, and nipping her. He stopped putting up with her nonsense, when she got pushy and and hogged the food, she got nipped. When she walked all over him to get somewhere, she got smacked. Lahi started telling her to groom him, and chasing her when she didn't.

To be honest I was kinda happy. Delilah still doesn't really know how to be a rabbit, and after Picca passed there was no one particularly interested in teaching her.

And here was Lahi, growing a pair and smacking some sense into her! She actually learned to respect him a little!

Of course, respect = kinda terrified of him. For a while, every time he made any quick motion towards her, she'd get out of his way in a hurry. And at that point, Lahi stopped. He'd taught the lesson he wanted to, and he was done. Delilah now has a healthy respect for Lahi, and doesn't metaphorically walk all over him. He went back to his air of resigned tolerance to her crazy shenanigans.

No medical issues precipitated any of this, that I can tell. All the medical mayhem was last year.

So that's why my hypothesis is that Lahi is playing, but Delilah isn't.

Lahi isn't biting her at all, and when she refuses to move, he grooms her face and moves on, though he returns to try and get her to run again. The most he does to get her to run is bump into her. He's not growling, either.

Delilah, I agree, has a bit of an "OH **** OH **** OH ****!!" face going on, and I think that she believes that she's about to get beat up again, and doesn't realize Lahi isn't nipping her at all. She's got an EXCELLENT memory for unpleasant things... She was spayed at a year and a half, and hated being given antibiotics so much that years later she still flips out if you touch something to her mouth.

So, I dunno. Do I let it continue? I honestly don't think I could make them stop even if I wanted to. They have a long, proud history of completely ignoring my attempts to make them do anything they don't want to. As long as they're not actually fighting, and are still bonded and cuddling otherwise... Delilah loves to play, and if she gets with the program she'll want to do this 24/7.

 

[Liung]

So someone named "akayeh1" messaged me on Tumblr what they thought, and they believe that Delilah is enjoying herself. They said:

"I spent eleven glorious years with a minilop and while I didn't see the whole play session, the video shows some serious lop earmarks of play.

First off, lops are love gluttons and will submit to having a cat pet them even when 99% of that petting consists in beating them on the head! (We had to painstakingly teach the kitten how to NICELY pet the bunny since NO amount of water could keep them apart!). The black bun could have landed on the lop's head a dozen times and the lop would have said "Thank you. Can I have more?"

When they first started running laps, lop stopped and flipped an ear forward. A forward ear cuddles the cheek. It's rare to flip two ears forward, but not that rare. (I have a Jersey Woolly now and I have to laugh because he's so easy to read after my lop--however once you learn lop you can read EVERY rabbit!).

At another point, loppy stops in [her] tracks looks over [her] shoulder saying "Are you still following me?" Having played many hours of tag and follow the leader with Gregory teaches you to look for and love that teasing glance. It's about five to ten minutes away from a binky if you keep doing it right! (Or a whole room full!)."

So I still don't know myself, really. I'm fairly confident that Delilah has zero clues what is going on (making up for her lack of ear cues is a very expressive face), but what about Lahi? I've seen him fighting before, and this isn't it. But neither does it look particularly friendly to me, other than the lack of outright violence.

 

[JBun]

It doesn't look to me at all like play, but it's also not necessarily real aggression or a fight. It looks more like he is telling her off for something. Hence, the slightly aggressive chase, but not attacking, heading her off so she changes direction and can't run away, and the ramming into her with his nose, are all dominant rabbit behaviors to put another bun in their place.

Then she stopped backed into a 'wall', and when he ran up she put her head down and submitted to him, essentially saying 'I'm sorry, you're the boss', which is why he then stopped harassing her. You can tell by his overall body language that he's not messing around with her, and by her body language that she knew she was in trouble.

She was somewhere he didn't want her to be, was doing something he didn't want her to, getting pets when he wanted them, etc. You have to catch what was going on preceding the chase in order to figure out what sparked it. But that is certainly no type of bunny play I have ever seen, but it looks just like a reprimand from a dominant bun, that I have commonly seen in my rabbit groups.