Bonding with Bunnies

b_girl

Hi everyone,

Love reading everyone's pet posts, especially those about bunnies!
Have seen a few posts about rabbits and their owners and it seems that these owners have a great bond with their bunnies and I wanted to ask for any tips.

We have 2 house rabbits, Bonnie and Mabel. We've had them about 5-6 months and adore them! We spend time with them down on the floor and stroking them which they appear to enjoy and will occasionally lick our hands/arms (which I think is a sign of affection?). However, they never really approach us for attention and just seem happy to play or lounge together in their own area of the living room (though they have access to our whole place).

My question is how have you managed to build a strong bond with your rabbit? Is this bond something that can be made with all bunnies or do you think some just enjoy keeping themselves to themselves?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

krlyr

Are they both spayed? This can really help with female rabbits.

MrsDrink

I think the reason we have such a good bond with Bun is because he is a single rabbit. We're his company. Whereas your bunnies have each other. They're each others security and entertainment.
I also think rabbits are very cat like. Everything is on Bun's terms. Even like I've described elsewhere, we get on the floor drum our fingers on the floor and call his name. If he isn't in the mood for some fuss he won't react/come over.
Sorry not much help!!

PS piccies!!

b_girl

krlyr wrote: »

Are they both spayed? This can really help with female rabbits.

Thanks for your reply Mabel has been spayed a while ago and Bonnie was spayed on Monday so maybe this will help!

b_girl

MrsDrink wrote: »

I think the reason we have such a good bond with Bun is because he is a single rabbit. We're his company. Whereas your bunnies have each other. They're each others security and entertainment.
I also think rabbits are very cat like. Everything is on Bun's terms. Even like I've described elsewhere, we get on the floor drum our fingers on the floor and call his name. If he isn't in the mood for some fuss he won't react/come over.
Sorry not much help!!

PS piccies!!

Thanks for your reply
Thinking about it you're probably right. We had Mabel first and she used to come over to use and even come on the sofa to watch TV! But a few weeks later when we got Bonnie that stopped because she had a new little playmate.

I was going to post up some pics on your thread yesterday but couldn't work out how to do it. Will ask hubby to help me tonight! When I looked at your pics of Bunny (who is GORGEOUS btw!) I thought to myself that he could pass as my Bonnie's dad! She's a brown mini lop too and they look really similar

MrsDrink

Can't wait to see piccies

krlyr

You could try interacting a bit more, e.g. make time to groom them once or twice a day, play games with them (one of mine loved 'fetch' with a cat ball witha bell), and food is a good way to bribe animals too - when you give them their veggie rations for the day, hand feed it instead of popping it in their cage, for example.

http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/gettingtoknow.asp

b_girl

krlyr wrote: »

You could try interacting a bit more, e.g. make time to groom them once or twice a day, play games with them (one of mine loved 'fetch' with a cat ball witha bell), and food is a good way to bribe animals too - when you give them their veggie rations for the day, hand feed it instead of popping it in their cage, for example.

http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/gettingtoknow.asp

Thanks so much for these ideas! Going to try them all out this evening especially like the one about hand feeding!

spike7451

The is some good advice here on the ASSISI website (the sanctuary I volunteer at) by Cery's who is in charge of the rabbits.

http://www.assisi-ni.org/?cat=69

Ellie83

I agree with others. Once they get a partner, rabbits tend not to "need" their humans that much. Before we got a husbun for our little female, she used to follow us everywhere, especially my husband. To the point that we had to be very mindful of where we stepped! But after being introduced to her male companion, she changed.

It's funny that MrsDrink compared them to cats as that's exactly what I wrote a few minutes earlier on the rabbit picture thread!

I always lie down on the floor when I want to interact with mine. Or on the sofa and then come and investigate. Then don't like it when I tower over them (unless it's food time of course )

SueMaggie

This is a great site http://language.rabbitspeak.com/ which tells you alll about bunny body-language and what they mean when they do particular movements.

I used it a lot when I had an only house bunny, Mac, now long-departed. He was very clear about the heirarchy in the house - my husband, then Mac, then me, so if hubby wasn't around Mac felt it was his duty to keep me in line!