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Does anyone elses buns not play with toys?

R

Rabbers

Mama Doe
With everyone talking about how their buns play with their willow balls etc, I am getting more and more concerned that my two are boring or depressed!

I have given them willow balls large and small, pine cones, vine balls, willow ring, tubes filled with hay, sea grass things, boxes.... everything! And the only thing they played with was their treat ball (basically cos there was food) and one vine ball which they destroyed.
Nothing else was touched much. They do like to run in the garden though and eat leaves!

What else is there to occupy them or are they just boring?

Could it be because I only got them when they were 4 years old and maybe they weren't encouraged to play?
Or is it that they are getting old?

Or am i just worrying too much? I worry that they are bored while I'm at work :roll: :oops:
 
well two of mine LOVE toys, there run looks like a playground, my other two, only like tunnels!

have you tried giving them a tunnelt o play in?
 
ooh that would be good for when they have free time in the garden. I might get one this week. Thanks!

Any more ideas for small toys they can have in their (large) hutch?

I think I need to use the treat ball more :roll:
 
My lad played with toys, I always heard his ball being thrown about and the chube being chewed, but then we got his lady friend and it all stopped. I have CCTV set up at my hutch and watch them regularly and they run about after each other, sleep, groom and eat. I like to think that he just isn't bored any more and now he has company there is no need for toys as they entertain each other. They do chew the vine balls though.
 
I have found that some buns like baby rattles, the louder the rattle the more they like it. My lot have one rattle that has several keys hanging from a ring and they just love bashing it against the floor and throwing it around :D :lol: You could try sitting on the floor with them with a couple of rattles and explaining how the rattles work. I have done this with several buns in the past and they soon got the idea how to play. Don't be discouraged though if your buns are not interested as not all buns are keen on toys. Rabbits who have never had toys are often slow on the uptake and may just prefer to lounge around contemplating the meaning of life :lol: :lol:
Taz
 
The jingle ball used to get thrown around when I'd confined Charlie before he wanted to be confined, now I take the opportunist approach and shut the hutch door at about 10.30pm when they've taken themselves off to bed.

The old hutch has become a bit of a playground, they run through it when I leave the doors open and jump onto it a lot, they love the tunnel and treatball and have a good munch on willow/vine balls/seagrass mats.
 
Pippa and MJ don't 'play' at all, with anything. MJ likes tunnels but shredded the green one so I had to take it away. I think they must be bored but they seem happy enough together :?
 
All mine adore their toys. Reuben is infatuated by his tunnel warren and hay balls :D Jack constantly plays with his rattles and jingle ball. Spuddy and Rad will chew on willow balls and wooden bricks etc. My frenchies are always playing with their giant ball. I know something is wrong if I dont hear one jingle in the garden when I come out :lol:
 
My two totally destroy anything that is put in their cages - willow balls, willow wigwam, willow rings - but put the same things outside their cages and they don't touch them. I think there are so many other things to explore and destroy (carpets, doors :roll: ) that toys must be very boring.

Bella loves to have the middle bit of a toilet roll filled with hay - she spends ages getting the hay out.

And they both love their chube - Bella lies in it when she's out of her cage, but T prefers to dash through it and round and through it over and over until he's worn out and flops. My previous bunny got through loads of chubes but Bella has only just realised that it could also be fun to chew it. T just chins it madly after Bella's been lying in it!! :lol:

Rebec :)
 
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Mine doesn't play with toys either, the only thing he likes is a paper bag filled with hay, I think thats only because it has food in it. And even then he just wonders off. He's got a very short attention span and is quite funny to watch when he rediscovers the bag or the piece of veg he just left.
 
Mine like tunnels, and Snoopy likes to eat hay from one of those balls that hang down from the top of the run. Cardboard boxes are fun, too. But they totally ignore small toys like willow balls, etc.. Their food bowl is good for playing frisby, they think.
 
that's what mine do - play frisbee with huge ceramic bowls.

So maybe they like to make their own toys. :rolleyes:

Luciuslop -I think i must have two philosophers contemplating the meaning of life :D :rolleyes:
 
I find that with the plastic jingle balls etc, if i put soem bits of cabbage in the holes of the ball it becomes the best play toy! without anything tasty, mine ignore it.

I bought some toys, like rattales etc from PAH and they didnt take any interested. I tied some string to the toy, and then to the roof of the run and they were actually jumping around trying to get it! and then they pulled it down and were so proud of themselves!
altho be carefuyl if you buns like to nibble string, mine dont but i kno sum that do!
 
dont worry you arent alone ... very rare mine play with toys unless I am down on the floor playing with them myself and then its only cos I have the toys that they take them off me and play for all of 2 seconds... I think toys are more amusment for us than them sometimes :lol:
 
My Netherland Dwarf can not be bothered with toys at all..... no sticks.... no wood... nothing that requires some part of effort... (I think he too lazy)

Monty the lop though, likes to toss things about... rip... chew... push and pull..... funny how like us rabbits can be so individually different ...
 
Mine don't like toys much. They chew their hay rack and throw their toilet roll around and that's it. They chew all wooden things in their space and eat apple leaves that have blown against the run and they eat it through the wire mesh. I'm getting them a few toys for Christmas and a tunnel, so hopefully, they'll like that.
 
Lionel doesn't really play with his that much, he does push the ball around every now and then but isn't really that interested!
 
mine hardly play with toys either - tthey will eat willow balls (yep actually eat, ull go out the next day and half the balls gone) but thats about it, they have big plastic balls with a bell inside that I got in a bunny pack from the vets when they were babies & occassionally thy'll chuck them but think its more just when its in their way :lol:

they really dont bother with anything else
xxx
 
Bobby LOVES his jingle ball, nature ball and chube. He needs a new jingle ball though. He threw it so hard on the concrete or something and there's a big crack in it. He came with the ball when I got him from the rescue :lol:. He's always playing with it. I walk up the garden and all I hear from the shed it "jingle jingle jingle THUD" When him & Nibbles are in the run, he won't het her near the chube, although it's hers! She does whatever Bobby does, but she can't get her little teeth round his jingle ball to chuck it around, but she nibbles in the nature ball with him.
Biscuit likes her big green plastic tube, and her (now dead) cardboard box house I made for her. I cut a door hole in it, and she made the back door and windows :lol: Sadly, it didn't fit in her shed hutch, so it stayed in the run over night and the cat decided he wanted to be a rabbit, and ruined her box :( She doesn't play with anything else though. She'll attack the throw and cushions on her sofa though :lol:
 
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