How Do You Know if Your Rabbit Is Unhappy
Exercise I accept an unhappy rabbit? I hope they're okay! You think, staring at your grumpy-looking fluff monster sleeping in their cage, getting yourself worried.
Does that sound kinda familiar? Is this something you practise? Don't worry, yous're not solitary. We've all been at that place, we've all done that. It's all office of beingness bunny parents.
In fact, I would say that one of the most challenging things about caring for a pet rabbit is trying to effigy out what they're thinking and whether they're happy or not.
But the truth is, rabbits have their ain fashion of telling you lot when they're unhappy – you just have to acquire their language. One time you do, your worrying can end…mostly.
In that location are 4 chief ways rabbits tell you they're unhappy:
- Thumping.
- Growling.
- Squealing or Screaming.
- Kicking Dirt in Your Face.
Let's go into it a bit more than.
First Sign of an Unhappy Rabbit: Thumping
Danger
Ane of the about common means your trivial fluff monster volition tell yous whether y'all have an unhappy rabbit on your easily is by thumping.
This behaviour is a throwback to the wild, where their instincts tell them to warn other bunny's of danger or when they're scared of something.
In the wild, this bunny warning system would've been much more effective considering wild rabbits live underground (in Burrows, which grouped together are known as Warrens, cheers Rabbit Facts article!) and the vibrations would travel further and would warn more of their community of the danger.
Not quite as constructive if my boy Ronnie does it on the the couch considering we're cooking garlic (he actually hates garlic).
Even so, when Ronnie does it on a hard surface (similar our wooden panelled flooring or the plastic flooring of his muzzle) we know near it – the neighbours probably do too.
Ronnie warns of u.s.a. all kinds of dangers:
- Funny smells from the kitchen (cooking, I assure yous).
- When we bang around in the pan cupboard or under the stairs.
- When kids chase him.
- When cats walk past.
- When my wife annoys him.
Merely thumping isn't just most danger.
Disapproval
In some cases, rabbits can as well thump if they disapprove of something.
Just the other nighttime, my wife grabbed Ronnie and placed him on the couch to take a picture of him. Of course, his first instinct was to run abroad only my wife caught him and put him back in a specific spot.
This happened a few more times earlier he thumped and she finally took her picture.
Male child, was he grumpy with us later on. I can't really blame him – I'm exactly the aforementioned whenever she tries to get a picture of me too. Like father, similar son.
However, this is pretty much the merely scenario that I tin think of in which Ronnie has thumped for a reason other than warning the states of danger.
I'm sure there are other occasions where Ronnie thumps purely out of disapproval, only they're very few and far betwixt. From everyone else I know who have rabbits, it'south pretty much the same with their bunny's too (if at all).
2nd Sign of an Unhappy Rabbit: Growling
When rabbits are angry or stressed or if you're invading their territory, rabbits growl.
With my rabbit, Ronnie, it'south usually when my wife is annoying him, or when we have to go through the trauma of getting his nails clipped.
For some rabbits, if whatever's causing them to growl persists, aggressive behaviour may follow. We oasis't experienced such behaviour with Ronnie, simply nosotros've heard of other rabbits doing this.
Growling is also a very mutual thing for unspayed female rabbits who instinctively want to protect their cage and/or territory (more on this in our Should I Neuter My Rabbit? commodity).
Tertiary Sign of an Unhappy Rabbit: Squealing or Screaming
When rabbits bleat or scream, it usually means they're in great danger, like existence caught by a predator and permit me tell you, it's absolutely spooky.
I know, because last summer I experienced it first hand.
Ronnie and the Cat
Information technology was a hot evening and nosotros had the living room window open, hoping it would cool us down a little. Similar almost evening's, we'd as well opened Ron's cage and the trivial fella was darting around the living room, upwards the stairs and everywhere in between.
Ronnie is usually a brave i. When faced with doggo's, the lad doesn't bat an eyelid. He tries to kiss them mostly or tries to smashing smol puppers in some cases likewise. 1 time, he jumped on a canis familiaris's back to play with her.
Merely cats are a whole unlike story. This one night, when a neighbours cat decided to bound through the window, all hell broke loose.
I remember it in boring motion: out of the corner of my eye, a tabby-coloured blur dived into our living room living a homing missile.
Ronnie reacted faster than all of us and darted up the stairs, preferring the higher ground.
The cat chased him.
My married woman yelled my proper name, just I'd already left the couch and was darting upstairs after my boy and his hunter, contemplating kicking the fiddling tabby shit up the arse.
At present, I should point out that I'm not particularly a fan of animal cruelty, simply if anyone or annihilation attempts to hurt my boy Ronnie, they're getting a kick up the arse. Anything.
As I was running up the stairs, trying to take hold of a concord of Ronnie and get him to condom, both he and the cat darted back downwardly the stairs, past me.
My wife was waiting. She scooped up Ron in the blink of an eye and left the cat looking bewildered. Well, until I turned around and ran back down the stairs yelling at the lilliputian shit. The cat scarpered; jumping dorsum through the window and ran off into the nighttime.
But the damage was washed and Ronnie was terrified.
He had thought information technology was the true cat who had got him; he idea the predator had got him, and then he screamed and went potent. The sound of it was chilling and heart-breaking in equal measures; the poor little man was absolutely terrified and resorted to his last line of defence against the predator.
I go emotional just thinking about that dark. Poor trivial Ronnie was terrified and god only knows what would've happened if the cat had gotten to him.
It'due south been a good while since this happened, but Ronnie will no longer dart up and down the stairs like he once did. He'southward e'er very cautious and alert and I don't know whether that's going to change.
I just hope nobody reading this will ever have to feel a rabbit screaming like this; information technology'll break your heart.
Top tip: if you do detect yourself with an unhappy rabbit, we've found that bunny treats assist. Here are a couple that Ronnie loves:
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Oxbow Cranberry Elementary Rewards Baked Treats
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Supreme Petfoods Russel Rabbit Crunchers with Carrot
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Rosewood Naturals Treat Double Woodroll
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Fourth Sign of an Unhappy Rabbit: Kick Dirt in Your Confront
Another sign that your niggling fluff monster is unhappy, is if they plough their backs on y'all and effectively, "kick dirt in your face".
In Ronnie's case, it'south mostly sawdust in the bottom of his cage if y'all're invading his territory likewise much. Usually, information technology's after we clean out his cage and he doesn't like the fashion nosotros've bundled his toys and he wants to make a point of it, before going to find someplace to hide and be grumpy.
Kicking dirt in your face is usually a sign they're unhappy with you almost something, in Ronnie'south instance it's always territory related, but the activeness stems from the wild in which rabbits did this to distract predators before escaping.
I estimate in rabbit language, the phrase has evolved over fourth dimension to hateful "get off my land" or something like information technology.
Decision
So what can we learn from this commodity?
- Rabbits accept their ain special style of telling u.s.a. when they're unhappy.
- There are 4 master ways of demonstrating this, which are: thumping, growling, screaming and kicking dirt in your face up.
- Nobody should ever have to hear their bunny scream.
- Ronnie doesn't similar cats.
- Don't go out your window open in the summer if your rabbit is out and there are cats in the expanse.
- I will kicking anything upwards the arse if it messes with my boy Ronnie.
A Happy Bunny
But what well-nigh a happy bunny? Well, we have an commodity for that besides: xiv Signs You Accept a Happy Bunny.
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Further Reading
- https://world wide web.bunnylowdown.com/happy-bunny/
- https://www.bunnylowdown.com/rabbit-facts/
- https://www.bunnylowdown.com/nigh/ronnie/
- https://www.bunnylowdown.com/should-i-neuter-my-rabbit/
- https://www.bunnylowdown.com/healthy-rabbit-toys/
- https://www.bunnylowdown.com/rabbit-behaviour-what-is-my-bunny-trying-to-tell-me/
- https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-does-information technology-mean-when-rabbits-thump-their-foot/
- https://myhouserabbit.com/rabbit-behavior/binkies-nose-bonks-and-flops-bunny-behavior-explained/
- http://www.bunnyhugga.com/a-to-z/rabbit-behaviour/rabbit-noises.html
Kris has had (and loved) Bunnies nearly of his adult life - he's even looked afterward friends fur babies likewise! He knows what makes them tick...and what makes them binky!
Source: https://www.bunnylowdown.com/4-sign-you-have-an-unhappy-rabbit/
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