Hello all, I’ll get right into this. I’ve grown up with rabbits and have had them for quite a few years now. My rabbits are all direct rescues so I’m used to them being a little off until they settle and adjust.
The rabbit I’ll be asking about today is Grove. I got Grove about a year or so ago while I was out and about and saw a person selling rabbits in abysmal condition. The mother, a lionhead, was well kept, but all the babies looked awful. The sign advertised them as “nice and fat bread-fed rabbits”. Using these poor babies as food for snakes or people is unfortunately more common than keeping them as pets where I was at the time, so my heart sank as it usually does. I got out of my car, and when I came to them they understandably all backed off and thumped at me, aside from one, who toddled right up to me like an idiot. Self-preservation skills and general survival instinct = nil.
This guy swore up and down that they were all lionheads, showed me the mother who was a white lionhead, showed me the father who was an orange lionhead, all of the babies matched, aside from one. The one that stupidly walked up to a possible threat. As skeevy as that guy was, I was inclined to believe that maybe he really didn’t know what happened with that one. He was clearly the same age as all of the others, they treated each other like brothers and sisters, all of the other ones looked like the mother and father. This one stuck out like a sore thumb, was over-friendly, and by far the fattest. He’d be an easy target for anyone, so he was in the most immediate danger.
That rabbit is Grove. I bought him, and checked him over when we got in the car. Short fur, cinnamon coat. Not a hint of his parents in him. His fur is too short to have tangles, but he had a cut on one of his paws and another on his nose, both have since healed. I called the local SPCA on the way out, which hopefully did some good. In the car, Grove was alert, and even started cleaning himself and stretching out. The amount of trust I saw in this rabbit right off the bat was unheard of to me, especially in a moving car. I don’t think even rabbits with cushy lives were this trusting, and his brothers and sisters were clear reflections of the stuff they’d already gone through.
Over the year I’ve had him, he’s had other weird behaviours. Not even my other rabbit knows what to do with him. He doesn’t seem to register thumps as a threat, instead responding better to actual commands, much like a dog. Max would thump and he wouldn’t acknowledge it until I give him a firm “No”. Him and Max got along amazingly well until Max figured out something wasn’t right. Grove wouldn’t really respond to a lot of the bunny talk Max tried to do. He didn’t seem to know what tooth purring was, and only sees grunts with curiosity. He only really responds to chinning and nose bumps. For the rest of it, I have to practically interpret what Max wants to say as a command for him to register it.
He hates clover, loves dead leaves [only the deadest ones], attempts eating everything that can’t [or shouldn’t] be eaten, adores hot sauce [which I put on Max’s bars to keep Max from chewing them], falls asleep with half of his body in the food bowl and the other half flopped out, and continues to wander up to possible threats like my dog and unruly children that stomp around the rabbits until I get them to stop. He’s quick to chin me whenever I do anything around him, which feeds into that unnatural affection. He also sometimes tries to eat my nails. My hair, I’m used to it, but I’ve never found a rabbit that wants to have a taste of my nails.
What I’m left wondering is if this is normal behaviour for a normal house rabbit [since I’ve never had one, they’ve all been rescues] or if this is maybe some rare, odd way of dealing with trauma? Maybe some form of rabbit autism or other mental problem? At first I thought it might be some parasites doing it, and he had some when I rescued him, so I went to the vet and we cleared them away, but he still acts the same. I deworm once a year to be on the safe side but he’s still ridiculously dumb. He’s even scared of tile flooring, but not a big loud dog knocking things over and barking for his food. He barely even uses his little hole. It’s almost like whatever sense of fear he has is non-existent in the places it matters most.
What is up with this silly little guy? Is it normal for them to act so dumb? Is this just an odd quirk and I’m reading too far into it? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve been typing for way too long and everyone is probably bored out of their minds if they’ve made it this far. Thank you for reading all of this! Sorry if this is actually totally normal and I’m wasting everyone’s time, it’s just completely unusual in the circumstances of the rescue and my past experiences with my rescues.