Rabbit chasing cockroaches

[vinceyprince!]

We currently live in Sdney and have three house rabbits vince, simon and peep.. Our house is quite old and there are lots of gaps for the big “bush” cockroaches to get in, especially in the summer and when it rains.

 We have noticed a lot of these turning up dead or injured and stuck on their back since we adopted our third bunny simon. He was a wild rabbit who was rescued after escaping a cat and has been neutered and vaccinated. We have noticed him ‘playing’ with some of the roaches and flipping them over, nudging and nibbling them. I stopped him when i first noticed it as i thought the roaches may have been poisoned or sprayed adn have asked the housemates to not use chemicals to kill them just in case, but they are still turning up half dead, always in the areas where we keep Simon.

I found some anecdotal evidence online suggesting that some rabbits have occasionally been known to eat insects but nothing very convincing. I was wondering if anyone had ever seen or heard of a rabbit killing insects but not eating them? Or if there is something very strange going on min my house! Well, stranger than usual!

[LBJ10]

I don’t know about domestic/European rabbits, but cottontails (in the US) have been known to occasionally eat invertebrates. It isn’t something they do often. My guess is that it is a protein source when certain foods are scarce. Have I ever seen my buns mess with insects? Nope. That doesn’t mean your bun doesn’t have a strange fascination with them. Especially if he was fending for himself out if the wild for some time.

[Philomena]

I wouldn’t be surprised that your bun is just killing them and not eating them. I can imagine that like most animals (most notably cats) that they will act on an instinct to kill the bug or bird but won’t have a need to eat it since they aren’t lacking anything in their diet.

[Mimsy]

They found recently deer eating road kill. So sometimes those herbavores do eat other things.

Maybe diet related, might not be. I think most bunnies would live off of alfalfa pellets, fruit and other bad foods if given the choose and it definately wouldn’t be healthy. Just like some humans like to live off mt dew, beer and chips. My rats say they could live off candy bars and ice cream, they are pretty sure they are lacking them in their diet.

our bunny Willow will make a run for the dog food if she thinks the bowl is down. I know that isn’t healthy, but she says yum.

Your bunny may just think insects are yum..or maybe just good chew toys. (kinda yuck, but there is no accounting for taste)

[MoxieMeadows]

Moxie ate a ladybug once…I think she was more trying to give it a warning nip to go away, but that ladybug ended up getting eaten…

[Mr. Bun-bun]

Moxie that was too funny. The wording was perfect. I think for future reference I’ll not be drinking coffee while reading posts. Lol

[Mr. Bun-bun]

Moxie that was too funny. The wording was perfect. I think for future reference I’ll not be drinking coffee while reading posts. Lol

[Mr. Bun-bun]

Moxie that was too funny. The wording was perfect. I think for future reference I’ll not be drinking coffee while reading posts. Lol

[Author]

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