• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

How active are your older rabbits? UD I'm so stupid!

Tinsel

Wise Old Thumper
Mulberry (6.5 years) has been less active since being ill, understandably, but her partner, who is 5, only goes out for an hour per day and seems to sit/sleep in the shed the rest of the time. Is this normal? It's been more marked since it got colder, but that coincided with Mulberry being ill, so if she's out of the shed now she tends to get chased, whch is obviously not an incentive to venture out. Am just trying to figure out what is age-related/illness-related/weather-related and behavioural eg Merlin may be staying in the shed more to "guard" Mulberry.... So many variables... :?
 
Last edited:
It could be that they're saving energy to keep warm - mine aren't old (we don't think, we're not actually sure how old they are) but they dont do much in winter, I panicked last year when they didn't. Hope all is ok x
 
It could be that they're saving energy to keep warm - mine aren't old (we don't think, we're not actually sure how old they are) but they dont do much in winter, I panicked last year when they didn't. Hope all is ok x

Thank you. The younger ones are much more active, but that would be true of people too....:?
 
Both my oldies (heather is nearly 10, Dudley is 9) are pretty active, Dudley is calmer by nature, but heather is still incredibly boisterous and loves jumping on and over things, she is always on the move. I would be concerned if this is a change which has happened after illness as it may suggest that they are still not really at 100% fitness and are perhaps feeling the cold much more.
 
Both my oldies (heather is nearly 10, Dudley is 9) are pretty active, Dudley is calmer by nature, but heather is still incredibly boisterous and loves jumping on and over things, she is always on the move. I would be concerned if this is a change which has happened after illness as it may suggest that they are still not really at 100% fitness and are perhaps feeling the cold much more.

Thank you. I am concerned it's illlness-related, but am aware that there are other factors beyond the illness, like the fact that Mulberry has lost status as top female bun in her area of the garden :cry: (taken over by Fairytale, the little minx!) and that she may feel nervous about venturing outside the safety of the shed for that reason. We're getting a second opinion at 6.30 but wanted to have as much info as possible before then that might be relevant....
 
Mine are heading for being old and ranging from 5.5 years to 7+ years and all are very active, even outside in the winter. Sky has gotten more active has he's gotten older because I've got on top of his health issues.

I would say a check would be sensible.

Mine only slow with a health problem to be honest.
 
My Poppy who is 6.3 years, kind of goes through periods of laziness followed by periods of being more active, (however, I would say mine are generally lazy), Peter who is 3.8 years, does less than Poppy. I would say the periods last days/weeks at a time of either one.

I havent really seen a pattern to it, sometimes when she's having a quiet time I become paranoid that she's poorly but normally she doesnt develop anything in particular (she has on-going teeth issues so these are always having to be controlled & I suppose could be a contributing factor.
 
Mine are heading for being old and ranging from 5.5 years to 7+ years and all are very active, even outside in the winter. Sky has gotten more active has he's gotten older because I've got on top of his health issues.

I would say a check would be sensible.

Mine only slow with a health problem to be honest.

Thank you. Mulberry has been seeing a vet twice a week, and we know she has health problems; am just trying to figure out how much of her behaviour is health-related and how much is based on the shift in group dynamic... Certainly I haven't noticed older buns being less lively in the past so maybe if we can get on top of her health issues, as you did with your bun, she'd improve. She's currently on three antibiotics and I would be nervous about withdrawing any of them. :(

ETA Thank you Janey. Will continue to monitor.... :wave:
 
my 2, Gypsy 8 years and 8 months, and Storm 7 year old French lop, have slowed down a bit. Storm still has his mad moments of dashing clumsily around and throwing things, but he likes to laze around. come to think of it I think he's always been a lazy lop :? Gypsy is still active but slower. I think maybe her EC last year took a lot out of her though, she seemed older after that and also has arthritis :cry: To be honest the slowing down has happened gradually. It's only when I think back to how crazy Gypsy was as a young bun that I realize how much she has changed, but again, part of it is age and part of it the EC.
 
my 2, Gypsy 8 years and 8 months, and Storm 7 year old French lop, have slowed down a bit. Storm still has his mad moments of dashing clumsily around and throwing things, but he likes to laze around. come to think of it I think he's always been a lazy lop :? Gypsy is still active but slower. I think maybe her EC last year took a lot out of her though, she seemed older after that and also has arthritis :cry: To be honest the slowing down has happened gradually. It's only when I think back to how crazy Gypsy was as a young bun that I realize how much she has changed, but again, part of it is age and part of it the EC.

Thanks. These are both lops. It's really hard to know what's age-related and what's illness and what's behavioural... :?
 
I have had a little bit of a surprise shock. I put my two out in September after living inside. Cutie-pie who is 7 in a few months was not the most active of buns. Never saw her jump up on anything in 2 years.

Have now discovered she loves it outside and for the first time, jumping up high. Everytime I open their door she dances around and is the most active I have ever seen her.:love:
 
I was just about to say Flash is 5 and active, but I've just checked and he's actually 7 in a few weeks :shock: He's just as active as my one year old, he's always chasing her trying to hump her :roll: And there's a fairly high ledge in the hutch which he jumps up and down from with ease. He's always been quite slow, no matter how hard he used to try run away from me he was always so easy to catch :lol: So yeah he hasn't slowed down at all really
 
My Dee is approaching 6 years old in February and is getting less active by the day. If we had more money I would buy a single storey hutch as she struggles with the ramp, and she lives on her own which I feel awful for as it is, she could really do with a companion but we cant afford one :(
 
I have had a little bit of a surprise shock. I put my two out in September after living inside. Cutie-pie who is 7 in a few months was not the most active of buns. Never saw her jump up on anything in 2 years.

Have now discovered she loves it outside and for the first time, jumping up high. Everytime I open their door she dances around and is the most active I have ever seen her.:love:

Great that it's given her a new lease of life.


I've been pondering this all day and suspect I've inadvertently made Mulberry and Merlin, to a lesser extent, more sedentary myself :oops:. Instead of having to go outside to graze/find their hay I've been bring Mulberry indoors for meals/meds, or taking food and hay out to the shed (where Merlin has enjoyed the waitress service too). So she's had no reason to move around at all. As an experiment tonight I brought her in and didn't put her food down - she immediately chased me round the kitchen until I did! :shock: The septrin she's been on in the last few days has definitely helped her a lot, so some of it IS physical, but I do think she's simply not needed to move and that's part at least of why she's been less active.

Given that it's colder and she's not 100% I think that staying in the shed for the winter is a sensible option and then hopefully in the Spring I can reintroduce her and the group will accept her back again, albeit she may have to accept Fairytale as top female bun. :?

But we're off to the vets soon, for a second opinion, and I'm hoping he'll say she's in better shape than she was when she saw my other vet earlier this week. Fingers crossed!
 
Great that it's given her a new lease of life.


I've been pondering this all day and suspect I've inadvertently made Mulberry and Merlin, to a lesser extent, more sedentary myself :oops:. Instead of having to go outside to graze/find their hay I've been bring Mulberry indoors for meals/meds, or taking food and hay out to the shed (where Merlin has enjoyed the waitress service too). So she's had no reason to move around at all. As an experiment tonight I brought her in and didn't put her food down - she immediately chased me round the kitchen until I did! :shock: The septrin she's been on in the last few days has definitely helped her a lot, so some of it IS physical, but I do think she's simply not needed to move and that's part at least of why she's been less active.

Given that it's colder and she's not 100% I think that staying in the shed for the winter is a sensible option and then hopefully in the Spring I can reintroduce her and the group will accept her back again, albeit she may have to accept Fairytale as top female bun. :?

But we're off to the vets soon, for a second opinion, and I'm hoping he'll say she's in better shape than she was when she saw my other vet earlier this week. Fingers crossed!

Good luck at the vets.

Bunnies can be so lazy and have noticed that especially inside. Why do they need to do anything when its nice and cosy and warm. They get their food on a plate. ;) Everything is washed and clean for them and they have their own toilet. So different from the wild.
 
Good luck at the vets.

Bunnies can be so lazy and have noticed that especially inside. Why do they need to do anything when its nice and cosy and warm. They get their food on a plate. ;) Everything is washed and clean for them and they have their own toilet. So different from the wild.

Thank you!

Yes - although Mulberry is still based outside in many ways since her illness she's being treated as an indoor bun. But I think, even given that, she's not as lively as she could/should be. I keep remembering what Parsnipbun said though - recovery from myxi takes months not weeks. It's just balancing current quality of life with all the potential years ahead of her. :?
 
Thank you!

Yes - although Mulberry is still based outside in many ways since her illness she's being treated as an indoor bun. But I think, even given that, she's not as lively as she could/should be. I keep remembering what Parsnipbun said though - recovery from myxi takes months not weeks. It's just balancing current quality of life with all the potential years ahead of her. :?

Oh of course, it will take a long time to fully recover and get your energy back after an illness like myxi. She probably needs to rest more often than normal.

I was really surprised given that it can be so cold outside, how the other 2 have adjusted. I was feeling bad and maybe it wasn't the right decision, but they have taken to it, like ducks to water. Bandit most likely has spent most of his life outside anyway, but putting an older bunny outside really had me worried for a few weeks. It was still warm at the time but had my doubts. Now everytime I see them, they really were so much happier and active. Bandits young, so that was to be expected.

Actually not long after I posted my first post on here, I went out to give them their lunch, and although I had seen Cutie-pie on the base yesterday, she actually jumped on to it in front of me. Another first. She made it look so easy.
 
Molly is 7 and a half and Faline 6 and a half and Molly is a lot more sedate than Faline. She still charges around like she always has, being naughty, destroying things, binkies like mad! molly doesn't really like to leave their room that much and only really runs around to get near food. But he's been like that since he was about 3.
 
Back
Top