Hmm, strangely scaredy bunny all of a sudden

[Quartz]

I’ve had my bun for 4 months now.  He’s somewhere between 2 and 3 years old.  For a long time he’s been a very chilled out bun, and quite lazy at least in part due to some summer temperatures.  But strangely in the past couple of weeks he has been suddenly getting scared of everything very quickly, as if he’s a defenseless prey animal in the wild  Usually toward the evening time, after his morning and afternoon nap mood wears off.

For instance, he used to be reliably excited about his evening salad, waiting for me to make it, sitting at the entrance to the kitchen and staring at me expectantly, then making excited lops around me as I brought the salad to his pen.  There he tucked in and hoovered the food until it was done.

Now I have to call him and cajole him to come for his salad in the evenings–not every day but every other day.  He’s all wary going toward his pen if he happens to be in the bedroom at the time when I make the salad.  Once he starts eating it, he gets distracted often, doing the hind leg stand, ears up an facing forward, slightly tilted in a Y, like he’s hearing something potentially worriesome.  Periodically he’ll jump out of his pan where I put his salad dish, and I try to really talk him into getting back to finishing his salad.  I live in an apartment building, and there are always various neighbor sounds here and there, nothing new.  Nothing loud either, just normal living sounds.  Why is he suddenly like this now after months of being completely fine with everything?

Another example is he likes to chill out in our long corridor between the bedroom and living room.  Now in the evenings when I walk out of the bedroom (where my computer desk is), he gets up and quickly dashes of to the living room to hide behind the coffee table there.  I’ve resolved to come out of the bedroom *slowly* while talking to him preemptively, in case he was just being scared by sudden movement and a large looming shape in the doorway appearing suddenly.  Nope!  I did the slowest walk out of the bedroom, talking to him, and all the while I watched his back rise up from the ground into a crouching position, and then he dashed as fast as he could behind the coffee table.  I walked up to him and he was just fine, seeing it was only me.

Couple of days ago, he got super scared of me walking past him with a big fleece blanket wrapped around me.  I tried to walk toward him to tell him it was okay, and he was making loops around the table away from me.  So strange!  He’s never afraid of me otherwise.  He even flops directly across the bedroom threshold and is completely unafraid of any of us stepping on him accidentally walking back and forth.

He’s constantly in this weird wary state alternating with what seems like more relaxed states in the evenings, anywhere from around 6pm to until he goes to sleep around midnight (with us, by our bed).

Any ideas why he suddenly changed his pattern of behavior and is getting so scaredy?  I can’t get him out of these moods either–just talking to him gently, trying to show that there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of, is not working.

And for reference, he seems to not have come from any sort of troubled past.  He’s been quite comfortable around humans since I first saw him at the shelter, and at home he gets *more* excited when we have guests–visibly more awake and interested, and coming up to check everyone out, letting them pet him.

[jerseygirl]

Sometime they’ll get freaked out on one occassion & be a bit skittish, but usually they’ll come back to their normal manner. It’s a bit odd that he’s still so skittish.

The only things I can think *may* be behind it are:
-sudden loss of hearing or eyesight
-a mouse in the apartment
-new sound or smell in building (is it around a time of day that new cooking smells could be entering the apt?)
-neighbours have a new pet (cat, dog, ferret, snake)
-furniture has been moved changing his “mental map”.

Other the that, I cannot think what else would have him acting this way! I hope you’ll get your calm boy back soon.

[jerseygirl]

I just read that he is a lionhead bunny. How long is his mane?
Sometimes they need the mane trimmed as it obscures the vision, but also, they catch sight of their own hair out of corner of the eye and get a fright. :/

[Quartz]

Thanks for your suggestions!

His hair is not that long–certainly not a long fringe that goes over his eyes. It’s just a bit of a tuft by his ears that mostly stands up toward the ears, and his cheeks are puffy.

Sudden loss of hearing or eyesight is worrying. I think he sees fine. He does come out sometimes when I call him, so he must hear me.

We did get a change of tenants in the building on September 1 after various old students moved out and new ones moved in (it’s a student area of my city), so could be new extra noises. New pet… hmm! Doubtful, but who knows!

[beebun]

I don’t know about the other bits, but re: fleece blanket, Chito gets scared of my mum when she wears long skirts around the house. I think it just changes the way you look to the bun (your overall silhouette). I once did a light stretching exercise in our living space (he hangs there) and when I stretch my arms he scampered away. He’s used to humans looking a certain way, and changes (carrying big boxes, long skirts, blankets, and even in one weird case, wearing a chef hat) can make them a bit nervous.

Also, there’s a different noise you make when you walk in long skirts that doesn’t sound human to the bun. Chito gets incredibly nervous and I ask mum to just lift the skirt off a bit so Chito can see her ankles and figure out it’s a person.

We share our yard with five feral cats and sometimes Chito hears something I can’t, and tenses up. He also would detect things like thunder, fireworks, etc a splitsecond before us. Could it be strange noises that only bunnies can hear?

Aside from that I also think of mice/other animals..

I hope your sweet boy calms down soon!

[Author]

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