bunny tips over food bowl

Hello everyone,

I have a female bunny (2 months and 3 weeks old). Lately she's been acting kinda weirdly. She's been tipping over her food bowl and dragging it into her house. She's been dragging other things into her house too (such as toilet rolls and pine cones). I've read in other forums that if the bunny is tipping over his/her food bowl it means that he's/she's bored and needs some toys to play with in her cage. Still, I would like to know if my bunny does that out of sheer boredom or there's some other explanation. And what about that dragging things into her house? Does that mean that she's bored too or she's just being rebellious? (because every time we put the bowl in the right place and tell her not to do that, she goes and drags the thing in her house again)

Thanks!

Hi,

Welcome to RU

I can't imagine there's a sinister reason for this, although someone else may think differently. Bunnies can be quite particular when it comes to feng shui!

You hear a lot about rabbits who go mental when you change their bedding because you will never put it back 'just right' lol.

I'm sure she's fine. Sounds like she might be bored though. Does she get a lot of playtime outside her cage? Chance to exercise and play?

:wave: Don't worry about her moving the bowl around. A bowl isn't necessary anyway. Just sprinkle her pellets (assuming you feed pellets not muesli) onto her hay instead to encourage foraging.
Just a couple of questions....

Do you feed unlimited hay?
What quantity of pellets do you feed?
How much time out of her cage does she get daily?

The thing is, your rabbit won't understand what you say when you tell her not to do something, all she knows is she wants her bowl in her bed and she's going to put it there :lol:
It's possible she even sees it as a game - you put the food bowl somewhere and she drags it back.

Her hutch is her home and you should just let her have it how she wants it. Scatter feeding her pellets would probably add a little interest to her day so it wouldn't be the worst thing if you just let her play with the food bowl and put her pellets around her cage.

It's possible she is bored. Rabbits thrive having lots of time to exercise (an attached run or bunny proofing a room, with 24 hour access, is ideal). She would also probably really appreciate a friend once she's old enough to spay - rabbits are very social creatures and love companionship.
Toys can also help - things like tunnels or a box full of newspaper to shred and dig in are great.

Frankie does this item moving thing and I'm pretty sure he does it for entertainment lol. He's one of those OCD bunnies that hate it when you clean his house and gets very stampy if the room he enters is different in anyway (for example, if we moved the wash basket to do laundry)

I found that when I'm heading off to work and he has to go back into his hutch he doesn't rock the bars to get out if I take all his toys and scatter them around his hutch to keep him occupied. I'm probably being really mean by doing that but it's better than him being bored waiting for me or my housemate to come home and let him out again. (which is usually 2 hours at the most)

(edit for typos)

My bun used to tip his bowl over and throw it about :lol: he doesnt anymore and the thing that has changed is that he gets a lot more exercise, so I think he was just bored.

Have you thought of using a treat ball to give her her pellets? That way she plays, exercises and eats at the same time

Also is she eating a lot of hay? She should be eating about a pile the size of herself, preferably more, every day, the reason I ask is that as grazers, rabbits are meant to spend most of their day eating, so if they are not doing this they naturally get very bored. If she is not dont worry just yet, there are plenty of things we can help you with to encourage her to eat more hay.

It sounds like she is just having some good fun. She is still very young and everything is very new to her. Sights, sounds, smells.

Some bunnies do love to mess things up, throw things around. Basically being mischievious. :lol::lol:

Bunnies' personalities differ so much. Like us humans.................some well behaved................some naughty.

She is too young yet to be spayed. Her behaviour could be her effort at playing house!!!!

I am sure you will keep a close eye on her.

Any problems, just ask on the forum.

Good luck. x

I've just found this thread after searching for something that Pepper does. She likes to drag her empty food bowl and sometimes other things backwards into the cage. It's so cute to watch! I was just wondering if it was usual rabbit behaviour but seems like it is

The best one was when she tried to drag a shoe box into a tunnel and it was a very tight fit but she persevered! I actually took a video of it but she was already in the tunnel by then and the camera is very wobbly due to my laughing!