Toys

[lexyrose]

 Do your bunnies play with any toys?  Mine don’t. They just sit and ignore everything i’ve ever purchased or made for them? What is the deal?

[Isabelle]

Dutchess kind of plays with her toys. I tend to be the one who plays with them, and I get her interested, and she’ll sniff or push them around, pick them up and toss them, then go about her business elsewhere. It depends on the bunnie’s personality. You could try playing with the toys to try and get them interested in them. Rotating toys is also a good way to get interest, as bunnies will pick up on everything that has been changed and are eager to sniff out the new arrivals, whether they are brand new or just a new rotation of toys.

[Elrohwen]

My bunnies don’t play with any of the “toys” I’ve bought for them. Instead, they like to dig in cardboard boxes and shred paper from phonebooks.

We typically think of how predators (like dogs and cats) play – chasing things, biting, etc.

Bunnies are prey animals, so the things they do are different than dogs and cats. They play by practicing things that they would do in the wild like digging and chewing. For them, that’s fun!

[Monkeybun]

Mine don’t really play with them either, until me or the hubby are in there playing with them. Thats when Moose gets all excited and starts tossing stuff, or chewing, or rolling, or digging at stuff. lol.

[Kafrn]

3 of mine LOVE big plastic balls. Rabz picks them up and throws them for hours, which is very noisy lol, and mr bunny sits over the top of them and digs and digs and digs. Sparrow likes nosing them constantly…
The funniest one is Stu Bob. When she was in the hospital, Sally gave her a little ball, similar to a cat toy, but chew proof. If you hand it to Stu she will take it from you and toss it to you with a flick of her head. So funny! And the new bunny Squee got a big mirrored ball with other balls inside the glass kind if but that he loves to chin. He tried to pick it up but he doesn’t really know how to play coz he was in a cage fir so long. This ball was a baby’s toy but it was safe for the bunnies and they LOVE it!

[LBJ10]

Mine like toilet paper or paper towel tubes, cardboard boxes, newspapers or phone books, and the willow twig balls. They like to pick stuff up in their mouths and then toss their head up and down. Then they let go and whatever was in their mouth flops to the floor. I will stuff the boxes with shredded paper and they just love getting in there and making the biggest mess possible.

[Beka27]

Willow toys are the greatest in my opinion! They much prefer things that they can tear apart!

[Queensbun]

My bun doesn’t play much with toys either. He does chew on willow or grass balls but prefers to explore and scoot around from maze haven to cottage, cardboard boxes, etc. that are scattered throughout the aparment. My small apartment is basically a big ol’ rabbit funhouse!

[SmokeyBunnyRobinson]

I’ve spent money on Smokey and she doesn’t play with store bought toys. She loves when I take an empty tissue box and stuff it with hax. Or giving her something with wicker ( untreated, of course ). Anything she can shred/destroy.

[cainan]

Merry loves chewing up the willow balls and baskets. I don’t generally have to prompt her for those. She also loves chewing anything sea-grass or woven timothy.

She will play “basketball” with this huge grass ball I have for her if I put it in front of her. She’ll pick it up, throw it – sometimes land on it so she looks like she’s about to start standing on it and doing tricks. I have video of all this somewhere.

Otherwise, she’s not really a toy person. Er, bunny…

[Ali925]

My two are completely different… Oreo loves LOVES anything willow, and eating hay out of various cardboard/paper bag variations. Recently we gave her a big cardboard box filled with newspaper and it’s the most fun I’ve seen her have in a long time. It’s so funny watching her dig under it, poke her head out, etc.

Blu likes willow, but he’d take it or leave it (Oreo will devour it in a day or two if it’s small enough)…he prefers the woven timothy stuff/seagrass matts…but Oreo won’t even bother with those. Blu also likes tossing things. He has little blocks (alphabet ones from petsmart), balls with bells in them (the woven ones) and like tossing anything if it’s in his way. Oh and of course he’s a big fan of eating hay out of various containers as well.

But the most exciting toy for them, aside from willow, is a brand new cardboard box to chin and claim for their own. I cut holes in strategic places or just leave as is and they have a blast shredding….

Oh and they absolutely LOVE their cottontail cottages, I don’t know what they’d do if I took them away…I’ve replaced the floors several times at this point!!

[Bumblebunny]

My bunny goes in cycles. He always has a willow ball in his home and he will leave it alone for weeks and all of a sudden he will start chewing on it until it is gone. He has a phone book and newspaper in a recycle container- same thing. He leaves it alone and then for a week it is his main job to tear the paper and phone book. Other times he will just spend days exploring and moving his boxes around. We basically leave the same setups around and let him choose what he wants to play with.

[GimmeYop]

My Rabbit plays with them for maybe a day, and then just ignores it. XD If i take it out, and reintroduce it a week later, I get another day of play. She has a realllly short attention span XD
It’s funny how they can have with a cardboard tube you put on the ground, but will ignore all your expensive toys.

[peppypoo]

As everybody has said, buns seem to be most content with just cardboard, phonebooks, etc. Anything they can tear apart/destroy/eat (make sure there are no hazardous parts) can be great bun toys. Great thing is, they’re the cheapest toys too!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’ve learned that the cheaper the toy, the more bunny likes it!

Some faves at my house are:

-cardboard and brown paper bags to shred
-toilet paper tubes stuffed with hay and pellets or little bits of treats
-hard plastic baby toys that make noise for tossing
-Cat balls with bells inside
-apple tree twigs (not really a toy but it keeps them busy)

[longhairmike]

we have an endless supply of plain cardboard flaps that come with our doll boxes. the buns like to sit on one and then pull off shreds and make a complete mess. they also love the center tubes from rolls of packing tape. they’ll dunk it in their water bowl till its saturated, then toss it across the cage spraying the other buns. a flattened one wedges perfectly inside one of the grid squares so they can nibble, yank, or pull on it as if it was a tree root.

 

Rini also loves her licky-companion Hamtaro. she’ll sit and wash him for hours

 

[nugget]

Oliver LOVES to run through tubes. I purchased one of those crinkley cat tunnels, about 3 feet long and there is a little hole in the middle that he will poke his head out of. Every now and then I am able to find large cardboard tubes (like a toilet paper roll on steroids), they are about 3/16″ thick and about 10 inches long….he just barely fits…but he is able to wiggle through those as well.
He also has a large bell in his cage. He will sit with it directly in front of his nose and then twirl it around his head over and over. I have a great video of him doing this…but I don’t know how to upload it. I have a Kodak EasyShare camera, and the videos are in some weird format and I don’t know how to change it.

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