Faking Illness for Attention?

[MeketatenBun]

Okay, so this is long, but it’s weird because I’ve never experienced this in a rabbit before, but ever since Meki’s eye injury in August where I spent a LOT of time with her, calling into work, etc., she’s seem to have become aware of the fact that if she’s not feeling well, I worry about her and don’t leave her side and give her tons of pets and love.

So one day a few months ago, I was preparing to leave overnight and come back the next morning, so I gave her a heaping pile of hay, a little more pelleted food, and then let her be to finish packing. Normally in the morning she runs for her food dish because she’s in love with her pellets, but that day not so. She looked apathetically at her pellets, turned her nose up at her fresh hay, and when I shook the treat bag (dehydrated peas and carrots, she will do anything for these and come running from a mile away) she huffed and puffed and laid down. I put a treat under her nose and she turned her head away, put a pile of the treats on the floor and she ignored it. I tried picking her up and she was just dead weight in her bed. So I immediately stop packing and start freaking out. I’m petting her, phone in hand to call the vet, mixing some critical care, looking panicked towards my boyfriend when he says “She does this EVERY time you leave…”

And it hit me… if I ever leave for extended periods of time, she acts sick, almost like she knows I’ll be gone longer than a few hours. So boyfriend convinced me to finish packing and we can take her to the vet if she still hasn’t eaten in an hour. Within five minutes of me leaving the room, I check in on her because I hear a shuffle. She’s shoving mouthfuls of hay into her face, the pile of treats is already gone, and then she sprints to her food dish and starts scarfing that down too. She waited for me to leave the room to stop dying. So ever since then I tell her I’m not falling for her fake sickness again because she clearly has me wrapped around her finger.

That brings us to last night where I had her out in the living room and picked her up to put her back into her pen. I set her down and and closed the gate to go back into the living room and she… walks away. Like back feet one step at a time, slowly. She walks like that into her litterbox, walks out of it like that, and then awkwardly settles into her bed. So I’m freaking out thinking I broke her hip or something holding her. Out of panic I go to my failsafe of shaking her treat bag…. and she’s suddenly healed. She sprints over to me and sits up on her back legs, periscoping, sniffing for her treats. As a precaution I took her into the vet this morning and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. X-rays turned out good and she has good muscle tone and no stiffness in her back legs at all.

So why is my rabbit faking illness for attention and how is she outsmarting me each time!? She’s 6 years old and coming up with new ways to trick me into giving her more attention and treats- and it works!

[Bam]

I have never heard of this in a bunny before, but dogs are known to do it. Dogs are so good at reading us and they soon learn that looking miserable gives them advantages (like extra treats). I’d not put it past a clever bunny to learn to read her owner.

[Yilina]

You have got a clever bunny there! I had never read of any bunny doing that, but, as bam said, I know dogs who do it. I have always read that bunnies are prey animals and hide theirs illness very well because of that.

Do you mind her acting like this? If you do, then, try to give her extra attention when she is acting healthy and a little less when she is acting sick. It may take a while but she will start shifting back to “normal” is the reward is attention -which she seems to love .

Hugs!

[Lupin]

Buns can definitely learn that acting a certain way will get them what they want (more attention or more treats).

I accidentally trained Bill to climb on one chair as I gave him pellets just one time while he was on it. Now, he climbs that chair all the time, maybe hoping for pellets. He knows how to jump into his litter box and wait for pellets too.

When my hubby told me that Bill has peed in his food bowl and made a mess everywhere to get revenge because I came home later than expected and his food had finished (only hay stems left which he does not want to eat), I was skeptical – I mean can bunnies really be vindictive? Bill is good in using his litter box and has only ever peed directly in his food bowl twice and that happened only on days when nobody was around when he got hungry. And then I hear about your Meki faking illness…well.. maybe the bunnies really know what they are doing and the consequences of their actions??

Bunnies can be smarter that we think.. but the poor buns can’t talk or make noises to tell us what they want, so they can only use body actions to get their point across!

[MeketatenBun]

I just can’t believe it! As Yilina said, rabbits are such prey animals and hide their sickness, which is why I don’t want her to cry wolf so much that I ignore her when she IS actually sick. I’ve got to teach her somehow that not sick= good without making her plot revenge when I stop petting her when she’s acting healthy. I’ve told my coworkers about it and they all think it’s hilarious because so many people think of rabbits as some mindless, cute ball of fur that poops a lot, but here’s my rabbit plotting and knowing what tugs at my heart strings hard enough to give her what she wants.

Oh, you’re going somewhere that isn’t work for the day? Alas, I’m dying.

Oh, you think you’re done petting me? Look, I’ve broken my hip, stay with me in my last hours, and give me some treats while you’re at it for good measure.
For the record, I caught her doing binkies last night in the dark. She thought I was sleeping, but I saw her.

It’s just that even my brother’s husky doesn’t plot like this! I’ve known rabbits are smart, I’ve owned them for 13 years now, but I never figured one could outsmart me! Multiple times in multiple ways! She’s named after a princess, so I guess it’s my fault that she’s acting like one!

[Tgbarber]

I am laughing out loud!! Challenging but cute.

[Author]

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