Scratching and head shaking

[mjlevie]

A couple of my rabbits have been scratching infrequently and don't seem to be too terribly uncomfortable. Also a couple of them started shaking their heads a little as well. Again it is infrequent. I checked their ears and they look clean and there is no visible sign of mites. So my question is is some scratching and head shaking normal?

 

[Little Bay Poo]

I guess it all depends on what you mean by infrequent. If it's only once or twice a day, I'd say that's normal.

One of my bunnies has a tendency to do this a couple of times a day...at most 3 or 4, and he's perfectly fine. However, it's usually for a known reason...like I've just pet him on the head and he doesn't like it so he shakes his head and scratches his ear. Or he'll shake his head if he's getting ready to binky. He's only done it a few times randomly, but I'm guessing it's cause he had an itch.

When my other bunny shakes his head that means he's happy to see me. It's as close to a binky as he'll ever get

I don't have experience with ear mites so I'm not sure how often the scratching would be for that, but some other members would know.