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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum BEHAVIOR The “Invisible Border”

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    • Eucalyptus
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        Sorry for the long read, but please take the time to if you can! This is a really strange issue, and any feedback is appreciated.


        Okay, this is definitely an odd case. The first time this whole thing occurred, it wasn’t an issue at all, but now it is. I have never read anything about this issue, but I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar occurrence or knows how to bypass the problem.


        When we first brought Java home, we didn’t quite have the area where our computers were at bunny-proofed, so we used some of the boxes from our move (we had just moved to our studio apartment) to make a wall so he wouldn’t get to the dining room and kitchen area (we use our dining room for our desks). Due to tons of work time and other stuff, we got a little lazy with getting everything we needed to bunny proof that side. It wasn’t a problem because he never tried to hop over (just peeked), and we had no problems stepping over the wall.

        So it was a couple of weeks before we got everything ready and removed the wall completely. However, Java would NOT pass where the wall used to be. He knew the exact “line” that the border was at, and would stretch his neck and head over the border to inspect, then dash off to a more comfortable place. We spent a lot of time trying to coax him over (feeding him salads there, giving him treats, etc.), but never got him to come over on his own. A few times we did have him come all the way over, and he would explore like a normal bunny and everything, then eventually he’d go back to the “safe side” and be nervous coming over. So basically, bunny proofing wasn’t even necessary because he will have nothing to do with the dining room / kitchen area. It’s literally an invisibly border that he can’t cross. It’s still awkward because there are times that we’re working on stuff online and he “can’t” come visit us.

        So, it’s happened again. We just got a new two-story indoor hutch/house/condo for Java. He loves his new home, but for the past couple of days, he does not come out. He came out maybe once yesterday, and only for a bit. Java is always binkying and zooming around, so it’s been weird. It wasn’t an actual concern in terms of health because he’s been completely normal overall.

        Just now, we realized that this “invisible border” phenomena has happened again. The house is technically smaller in area than his x-pen, but the second level gives him more room overall, which has been great. But, from the wall to the end of the house, it’s coming up short of where his old pen used to be. He can’t cross this “invisible border” that’s between the front doors of the house and where his old pen would end. He looks out with his ears perked forward (scouting mode), stretches out, clearly wants to come out, but then retreats upstairs and just looks out pathetically from the top floor. We finally got him to come out (it took ages) with the help of a banana, and now he’s stuck. He can’t go back in through the border. That’s how we realized it was the invisible border – he can’t get out or go back in without extreme coaxing, just like the other border between his pen and the kitchen. His pellets are currently waiting for him right inside on the first floor and he just sits outside staring back and forth between his house and us, giving us that “help?” look. It’s kinda sad, and we have NO idea what to do. We had no luck getting him passed the “invisible border” to the dining room, so we’re at a loss for this one. We don’t want him to be stuck inside or outside.

        This is the first serious issue we’re having with our bunny, so I’m really hoping to get some feedback on this. Obviously it’s not an emergency, but we really have no idea how to fix it. And if this is how it’s going to be … well, we’re worried that he’ll never be able to come out and hang with us unless we just go back to old ways.


        Update 3/11 : Java did eventually get passed the border to eat his pellets inside his house last night, but as of this afternoon, isn’t coming out (as usual). We’re thinking of just constantly rewarding him for every step he takes out of his pen until he’s comfortable with it. We did stuff like this with our dining room and it didn’t work, but maybe if we’re persistent enough …. *shrugs*


        TLDR / Summary : Our bunny seems to remember “borders” that blocked him from certain areas, and once they are removed, he still can’t pass them no matter how much we try to coax him to the previously blocked off area.


      • jerseygirl
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          This must be so odd to see!

          I wonder if he has low vision and had been relying more on mental maps to navigate his way about?

          How long has he had his new hutch house?


        • Elrohwen
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            What type of floors do you have? Is there a change in flooring where his mental barrier is? It’s pretty common for rabbits to play the “hardwood floor is lava” game and not want to cross it.

            I would start by getting a rug or something that you can put half inside his house and half outside and see if he will follow it if the flooring is the same.


          • Eucalyptus
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              We got the new house 4 nights ago, and the first night he was zipping in and out like crazy. Even the next morning he was fine – but after he went upstairs for his usual nap, that’s when it started.

              Our entire place is carpet except for linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom. The “border” is through a carpetted area, so there’s absolutely no change in flooring between either “border.” As for his house, the same blanket we used for his old x-pen is being used under it. It overflows a little bit on the edges, so there’s about half a foot of the blanket going through the border.

              Maybe I can take a video of how he acts when he reaches the border.


            • jerseygirl
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                A video would be useful. I for one am curious to see what he’s doing.

                Something to try: how about placing a hidey box, small tunnel or coffee table in the space between the dining table and his hutch? The zone where his in invisible border is.
                If he had a “safe place” in between, he might feel more confident going all the way between table and hutch.

                I’m wondering if he knows exactly how long and how many hops it takes to get back to safe zones i.e. under your table or in his hutch. So say if its 5 hops- he won’t go beyond 5 hops of the dining table because it’s more then 5 to then go on to the hutch. And vice versa. So he may hang out at the “5 hop zone” of each place happily enough but not beyond. Does that make sense? A silly theory maybe.


              • Eucalyptus
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                  Posted By jerseygirl on 03/12/2013 08:35 PM

                  A video would be useful. I for one am curious to see what he’s doing.

                  Something to try: how about placing a hidey box, small tunnel or coffee table in the space between the dining table and his hutch? The zone where his in invisible border is.
                  If he had a “safe place” in between, he might feel more confident going all the way between table and hutch.

                  I’m wondering if he knows exactly how long and how many hops it takes to get back to safe zones i.e. under your table or in his hutch. So say if its 5 hops- he won’t go beyond 5 hops of the dining table because it’s more then 5 to then go on to the hutch. And vice versa. So he may hang out at the “5 hop zone” of each place happily enough but not beyond. Does that make sense? A silly theory maybe.

                  He’s been making progress with leaving his house. The dining room area is not the real issue, it’s leaving his hutch. But he’s able to leave one of the side doors (there’s not a “border there, it seems), and then once he’s out of the hutch that way, he’ll be normal and zoom all over the place. I think he’s more willing to try and get around the border since he REALLY wants to come out and play, where as the dining room isn’t anything excited and he doesn’t care enough to bother.


                  It really is just such an odd case. He’ll stand in front of the front openings and stare at me as if the doors are shut. Even though they’re wide open and I’m offering him treats and calling for him to come out. He just stares helplessly or will try peeking out before backing off again. Like I said, he’ll go through the side door, but he still gets “stuck” if he has to go close to the “border.” So unusual.


                  I actually don’t think there’s a “hop distance” thing because he goes very far from his territory (on our bed, into the hall and into the bathroom), farther than where the dining room is. It’s very silly. I’ll have to get a video to show everyone, but I have to clear out some memory on my cam.


                • jerseygirl
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                    How funny. Odd funny I mean. Who knows what’s going on in their bunny heads sometimes. Great to hear he’s made some progress at least. Maybe all he needs is more time.

                    I look forward to seeing a video if you can manage to capture it.


                  • marisajune
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                      I had the same problem with my bunny!

                      For the first couple weeks I had him, he was only allowed in my bedroom as I have three other roommates and needed to make sure they were okay with Stormageddon being in common areas. There is a spare bedroom across the hall from mine, so once everything was bunny-proofed I let him have free reign of both rooms. He would just stop right at the edge of my room and stare into the hallway, maybe putting his front paws out of the door way and then would sprint back into my room as fast as he could as if he got spooked.

                      It took quite a bit of time, but he finally realized he could leave my room. I coaxed him out little by little by sitting in the other room and rustling his pellet bag. He also seemed far more comfortable going into the other room after I put some of his toys and a litter box in there; maybe because it smelled more like him.


                    • mia
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                        Whenever my buns will not cross into a new area, I physically carry them over the “border” and if need be, put a trail of pellets back to their “home” so they can orient themselves. Sometimes this needs to happen several times before they’ll go venturing by themselves while other times I just need to do it once.

                        This not only happens in areas of the house but for levels of their condo too. They were “stuck” on one level for a week -_-.


                      • Eucalyptus
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                          This is so funny. I’m glad that we’re not the only one that knows about this “stuck” thing. Java was stuck on his top floor for a day before he “remembered” how to use the ramp again (he was totally cool with his place the first night and morning after, going in and out and using the ramp perfectly, then “forgot”). Now he’s using both floors all the time.

                          I think we’ll try the pellet/treat trail. Leaving him to figure out how to go through the “border” hasn’t worked anytime the problem has arisen, so I think we’ll have to be a little more motivational about it.

                          @ miaeih, I laughed when I read that your buns were stuck on the one level. So sad but kinda funny because it’s so silly.

                          I just hope that we can get past this and he’ll be comfortable with his hutch and the rest of the place once again. Miss cuddling on the bed!


                        • sir-rabbit-pants
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                            Not exactly the same situation…but my Flower is a bit spatially challenged. The first month she lived with me, she could NOT figure out how to get into the condo. She would often get “stuck” in the little corner between the condo wall and the apartment wall. She could see inside the condo but couldn’t get in through the wall. She could not figure out how to go around the corner. She would spend hours there unless I picked her up and moved her. I started holding a treat in front of her nose when I could tell she wanted to get in but couldn’t figure it out and keep moving the treat in front of her nose until she got around the corner to the door. Now she has no problem getting out of the corner.

                            On a more positive side (for me), she does stick to a border I set for her. I had partitioned off a door to the part of my apartment that is not bunny-proofed. I got tired of stepping over it and replaced it with a very short board that’s easy for me to step over and is low enough she could jump over it. A few times, when I’m standing there, she’ll jump over it, look at me, and jump right back. The rest of the time she will go as far as the board, look over, and turn around. Reading this, I wonder if I could remove the board and she’d do the same thing.


                          • Eucalyptus
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                              I’ve heard that bunnies have trouble understanding things like “going around” and stuff. For example, there are two sections to the upper floor of Java’s hutch, and he usually hangs out in the front-most part so he can see us (and his box is there), but the ramp is in the back section, so when he wants to come downstairs, he sometimes can’t figure out that he has to go to the back, then down the ramp, to come down. He’ll stare at us as if he’s going to go through the wall. It’s sad, but cute. That concept isn’t why he can’t come out though.

                              You could always try removing the border. If your bunny is anything like ours, it’ll still “be there” without being there. Hah.


                            • BonBon
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                                I am actually going through the ‘invisible wall’ problem now as well. When I first got BonBon, I had some litter training issues, and because of that I had to close of parts of my room. after he figured out where his new litter exactly was, I opened up more of my room, my bed was low down, and he could jump up onto it, but only hung out in one corner of it, and would ‘mark’ that section. that was obviously problematic for me seeing as I had to clean my bed sheets constantly,I blocked off the bed, and no problem. but then my bed frame broke, and now my mattress is on the floor, and has opened the room up again. I thought it would be cool cause when I’m working on my bed, he could easily come and hang out with me. He yet again ‘marked’ that same corner, SO the wall came up again. then slowly I took away pieces of it, and actually put the wall on top of my mattress, so that if he came on the bed, and peed on it, then it would be an easier clean up. that was just too much of a hassel keeping in place, and my double bed became a single, so I put the wall slightly up again, but really only around the exact area where he was peeing on. and he will never cross onto my bed now. He looks at it, comes close to it, but no matter how much I try to show him its ok for him to be there, he wont come. I even tried caring him over the border, and placing him on the bed, and he ran off in a second, tried tempting him with treats, nothing.. I’m with you on this. But I think that I’m just going to have to change my physical position in the room when I’m working so that I am in his area, and he feels comfortable coming to me


                              • Eucalyptus
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                                  I’m not actually sure how to fix this problem. Java goes in and out now pretty easily, but I really think this is all because he was really willing to push through the “border.” Since he loves being able to come out of his pen, it was probably something that he was able to get through more easily than it being a border in the middle of a room because it’s one of those things where he has to go through it to even leave his enclosure.

                                  He still hesitates sometimes when he’s about to enter or exit, but he’s coming out a bit more often now, which is GREAT.

                                  Soo, for everyone experiencing this problem … I’m not sure. Java’s fixing it himself. I would just try what everyone else was mentioning, like using treat trails (we tried this and it did seem to help), and overall just constant encouragement and rewarding when they get through it.

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                              Forum BEHAVIOR The “Invisible Border”