casu consulto
Mama Doe
Ooookay. Anyone here knows a lot about rabbit behaviour? I'll go searching the 'net in a minute, but seeing as many people here own a few bunnies, it makes snese to ask...
The scenario:
I placed my two rabbits out in the garden at 8:10am this morning. Because I've only have Amber, the spayed female lionhead cross since Saturday, she's in the smaller, older run, which we place alongside the new, larger one. Barney, the neutered dutch male I've had for just over a year goes in that one. They're getting quite good now, and rush to greet one another through the mesh, and mirror each others movements, etc. When I went out to attach water bottles to the runs, Barney was sat at the end of the run nearest to me, with his paws on his brick. He was very upright and alert, and he started thumping. This thumping wasn't as loud as it is when something genuinely scares me. When he's scared, he thumps and heads straight into his cardboard box. But he remained where he was, thumping, and making a funny little grunting noise. It was a sort of gentle noise. He did this a few times, and Amber was ignoring him and grazing, so she wasn't alarmed. I stood up and looked around the garden, wondering if a cat had appeared. We have four cats, and although Barney is used to them all, there's been a ginger stray visiting the garden recently and he doesn't recognize him and so can be a bit spooked. Nothing was in the garden, so I went back to talk to Barney. He thumped again, and was grunting quietly. So I put my fingers through the mesh, and he spun around and went all licky, then calmed down...
I know rabbits thump when they're scared. I've had a female rabbit who thumped when ever I made her angry - which was simply by daring to carry her from her run to her hutch. Are there any othe reasons a rabbit might thump? I know he's been doing a lot of showing off recently, flinging things around and doing jumps like some small pony... Could this be part of that?
The scenario:
I placed my two rabbits out in the garden at 8:10am this morning. Because I've only have Amber, the spayed female lionhead cross since Saturday, she's in the smaller, older run, which we place alongside the new, larger one. Barney, the neutered dutch male I've had for just over a year goes in that one. They're getting quite good now, and rush to greet one another through the mesh, and mirror each others movements, etc. When I went out to attach water bottles to the runs, Barney was sat at the end of the run nearest to me, with his paws on his brick. He was very upright and alert, and he started thumping. This thumping wasn't as loud as it is when something genuinely scares me. When he's scared, he thumps and heads straight into his cardboard box. But he remained where he was, thumping, and making a funny little grunting noise. It was a sort of gentle noise. He did this a few times, and Amber was ignoring him and grazing, so she wasn't alarmed. I stood up and looked around the garden, wondering if a cat had appeared. We have four cats, and although Barney is used to them all, there's been a ginger stray visiting the garden recently and he doesn't recognize him and so can be a bit spooked. Nothing was in the garden, so I went back to talk to Barney. He thumped again, and was grunting quietly. So I put my fingers through the mesh, and he spun around and went all licky, then calmed down...
I know rabbits thump when they're scared. I've had a female rabbit who thumped when ever I made her angry - which was simply by daring to carry her from her run to her hutch. Are there any othe reasons a rabbit might thump? I know he's been doing a lot of showing off recently, flinging things around and doing jumps like some small pony... Could this be part of that?
