Bunny will not walk on hard surfaces

Hi!
This is my first post here, I have a beautiful lionhead rabbit who is approx 8 years old, who is for the most part happy and very healthy but she has some strange quirks.
The strangest thing she does (aside from being addicted to eating paper and cardboard, she is mad for it and has recently demolished an entire cardboard box over a few weeks - but that's a topic for another post), is she refuses to walk on any hard surfaces. She will only walk on grass or carpet.

She is a house rabbit (although sometimes I take her over to my nans and we let her run around in the garden which she likes), and the majority of my apartment has wooden floors. We always wondered why she wouldn't roam the whole place - it took us a while for us to realise what was constricting her to one area. She simply does not like hard surfaces. She is so picky about going on the floor that there have been times where we could see she wanted to go somewhere but wouldn't and we have had to lay a mat down for her to cross.

If we pick her up and put her on the wooden floor she will freeze, look around and then very slowly start inching her way back to safety of the carpet, usually pressed very closely against a wall. She stays in our bedroom which is quite large and she runs around and jumps on the bed, but she won't come out except to use her litter tray, which she will leap into to avoid much walking on the floor. Sometimes we'll pick her up and bring her through to the living room where she will sit on the sofa or run around on the rug. I know that if our whole apartment was carpeted she would go wherever she pleases.

It is quite funny really and we joke about her being a special snowflake and a princess, but does anyone know why she might do this? I hope that this isn't actually distressing for her or a serious behavioural issue?

KGJxx said:

Hi!
This is my first post here, I have a beautiful lionhead rabbit who is approx 8 years old, who is for the most part happy and very healthy but she has some strange quirks.
The strangest thing she does (aside from being addicted to eating paper and cardboard, she is mad for it and has recently demolished an entire cardboard box over a few weeks - but that's a topic for another post), is she refuses to walk on any hard surfaces. She will only walk on grass or carpet.

She is a house rabbit (although sometimes I take her over to my nans and we let her run around in the garden which she likes), and the majority of my apartment has wooden floors. We always wondered why she wouldn't roam the whole place - it took us a while for us to realise what was constricting her to one area. She simply does not like hard surfaces. She is so picky about going on the floor that there have been times where we could see she wanted to go somewhere but wouldn't and we have had to lay a mat down for her to cross.

If we pick her up and put her on the wooden floor she will freeze, look around and then very slowly start inching her way back to safety of the carpet, usually pressed very closely against a wall. She stays in our bedroom which is quite large and she runs around and jumps on the bed, but she won't come out except to use her litter tray, which she will leap into to avoid much walking on the floor. Sometimes we'll pick her up and bring her through to the living room where she will sit on the sofa or run around on the rug. I know that if our whole apartment was carpeted she would go wherever she pleases.

It is quite funny really and we joke about her being a special snowflake and a princess, but does anyone know why she might do this? I hope that this isn't actually distressing for her or a serious behavioural issue?

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It is not at all unusual for a Rabbit to feel nervous of hopping on a hard floor. There is very little traction from such a surface and this can make it feel rather like we may when we walk on ice. Can you get some cheap mats to scatter about so she can hop on those ?

Also, as Rabbits age they can start to get a bit arthritic, obviously having a stiff/sore back/hips would make hopping on a low traction surface even more uncomfortable. As you say your Doe has never liked hopping on hard floor I doubt that the reason is due to arthritic pain. If it were a new behaviour that she has just started then pain/discomfort would be something I'd want to rule out by getting her checked over by a Vet

KGJxx said:

Hi!
This is my first post here, I have a beautiful lionhead rabbit who is approx 8 years old, who is for the most part happy and very healthy but she has some strange quirks.
The strangest thing she does (aside from being addicted to eating paper and cardboard, she is mad for it and has recently demolished an entire cardboard box over a few weeks - but that's a topic for another post), is she refuses to walk on any hard surfaces. She will only walk on grass or carpet.

She is a house rabbit (although sometimes I take her over to my nans and we let her run around in the garden which she likes), and the majority of my apartment has wooden floors. We always wondered why she wouldn't roam the whole place - it took us a while for us to realise what was constricting her to one area. She simply does not like hard surfaces. She is so picky about going on the floor that there have been times where we could see she wanted to go somewhere but wouldn't and we have had to lay a mat down for her to cross.

If we pick her up and put her on the wooden floor she will freeze, look around and then very slowly start inching her way back to safety of the carpet, usually pressed very closely against a wall. She stays in our bedroom which is quite large and she runs around and jumps on the bed, but she won't come out except to use her litter tray, which she will leap into to avoid much walking on the floor. Sometimes we'll pick her up and bring her through to the living room where she will sit on the sofa or run around on the rug. I know that if our whole apartment was carpeted she would go wherever she pleases.

It is quite funny really and we joke about her being a special snowflake and a princess, but does anyone know why she might do this? I hope that this isn't actually distressing for her or a serious behavioural issue?

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Hi there and welcome to the forum :wave:

It's absolutely normal for bunnies not to want to walk on hard surfaces. Once they get used to them, they can usually be OK, but if you think about it, they get no traction from a hard surface as they would from a carpet. This means, as a prey animal, they wouldn't be able to get a scoot on and run off to safety. Inbuilt mechanism

I think what I would do, especially as she's getting on a bit, is put a few rugs down for her to hop onto, to help her get around a bit better. She may not show any signs of arthritis now, but perhaps in a year or two she may value having something a bit more 'certain' to step on. In addition, this would help her bones and joints, as they wouldn't 'slide' on the hard surface and cause her any pain

She sounds to be a much loved bunny!

I shall look out for your next post regarding her eating habits!

It could be a variety of reasons, could she have sore hocks?

But bunnies often don't like wooden floors as there is no grip so when they try to hop they end up slipping

Maybe put some rugs or mats down to create a little pathway for her? It might make her feel a bit more comfortable

Hi! We have a system of cheap rubber backed door mats from wilko's (about £3 each I think) that act like stepping stones between rugs in the kitchen and utility. We call it the bunny drawbridge as they will and wait for us to put them down when we open the utilty room door. We once had a rabbit who wouldn't do doorways. Handy as we always knew where she was but literally had to lift her from one room to another. Never worked out why that was!

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Hello

My younger bunny didn't know what to make of our tiled kitchen floor and it was literally like watching bambi bless him. I got a towel out that was old and I didn't mind if it got peed on and put two near each other on the main area of the walkway. This helped him get grip and after a while (I think because the towels aren't totally stationery) he got the idea of how to move around by taking his time. Now we have nothing on the kitchen floor.

Because your bun is older though as others have suggested something more permanent like a mat or runner rug a long thin one to cover more area might be good to protect his legs and prevent falls etc.

I hope this helps

Thank you for your replies everyone!
It sounds as if this is quite normal then, which is good to hear. I have never had a rabbit before her (rescued her from RSPCA 4 years ago) and I don't have any others, so I wasn't sure whether it was normal behaviour or not. It's certainly not something I had heard of before!
She is quite happy and doesn't seem to be in any sort of pain or discomfort (she is in exceptional health for her age) but I would like to see more of her around the apartment, so I have been thinking of making a path out of carpet for her, I just need to find the right sort of mats or rugs to put down.

KGJxx said:

Thank you for your replies everyone!
It sounds as if this is quite normal then, which is good to hear. I have never had a rabbit before her (rescued her from RSPCA 4 years ago) and I don't have any others, so I wasn't sure whether it was normal behaviour or not. It's certainly not something I had heard of before!
She is quite happy and doesn't seem to be in any sort of pain or discomfort (she is in exceptional health for her age) but I would like to see more of her around the apartment, so I have been thinking of making a path out of carpet for her, I just need to find the right sort of mats or rugs to put down.

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You're welcome


She is lucky to have someone like you looking after her