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What can i do to entertain by rabbits?

melaniejb

Mama Doe
I'm a little bit worried that my rabbits are bored. All they do is sit around or eat, anything else and they are just not interested!

I've bought the tubes to run through - they hate them and will only be lured through with food!
I've filled toilet rolls with hay but the buns are only interested if tempted with food...they will then eat the hay but will not persist if the hay is hard to get out! :roll:
I've made little houses out of boxes to hide in - they will go in but prefer to be sprawled on the carpet.
I've bought balls, rattle, hanging things...you guessed it, they are only tempted if the ball is a 'treat ball' or if I have rubbed food over the toy... :roll:
I've also given them magazines/yellow pages/toilet rolls to destroy but the closest contact the buns have had with them is when they walk over them!!!

Do you see a theme emerging here??!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Anyway, do you have any ideas which might not invove food but will keep them interested for more than 1 second?!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :roll:
 
Do your rabbits like hay, if they do get some straw toys, digging mats, etc.

My big girl Candy is a bit on the lazy side and also loves to eat and I have found that straw toys, (flip and toss) that kind of thing are great cos she can eat it easily as well as play with it. She also loves cardboard crisp boxes filled with shredded newspaper, she digs the paper and then eats it.

None of it last very long, as she has to have a lay down to recover from all the exercise but she will return to them once she has had a rest.

Best exercise for her is being chased by her boyfriend Dobbs, now that dose go on for ages.
 
I've tried the same with my bunnies, but they're happiest with anything hay related! Boxes full of hay, plant pots for them to chuck aabout. The little bunnies love launching themselves off the top of the hutch, and Ruby loves to dig.
They have willow balls, bark bites, tunnels, steps with straw mats on, they chuck their treat balls in the waterbowl!
The only thing that is successful is Squidgy's treat ball as we put his Pellets in there and he loves it.
 
A single sheet of paper gives my poppy hours of entertaiment.
Especially when she stands on it mid run and does a roll over :lol: :lol:
 
Try thinking from their point of view :) Bunnies are built to forage for food, dig warrens, sleep in them and make more bunnies. You've provided them a safe and comfortable warren, food arrives in front of their nose at regular intervals and hopefully you've solved the baby issue to so that pretty much just leaves sleep ;)

If you want them to be more active, which I agree is a good thing for their brains and bodies, you have to make life a bit more difficult!

Food makes the best 'toys' because usually most of a rabbits time if taken up with finding and eating it. So, chuck out your food bowls, from now on if they want dinner they have to go out and forage for it :shock: The tastier the food the more they have to work for it.

So for hay, perhaps they just have to pull it out of a toilet rolls tube or reach up to pull it down through the bars at the top of their cage. Pellets are only available by chasing their treatball around, chewing their way into a box or digging their way down and sorting through a box of hay.

Greens, they again could stretch to reach, thread a carrot on a chain and hang it, let them puzzle out how to eat it as it swings. Maybe they have to jump on a box to reach a leaf or search the entire room to find all the slices of carrot.

Most bunnies munch hay all day then spend 10 minutes eating their way through a bowl of pellets/veg. Aim to make it so they spend atleast a couple of hours over their pellets/veg. Think of it as a challenge, the faster they work out the ways your hiding things and making it difficult the more clever you have to be inventing things.

Tam
 
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