Is my Bunny stressed/depressed?

[Ampee]

Dear Everyone,

We’ve just adopted a new female Bunny, She is pretty young (2016. 08. birthdate). She is not spayed yet. She’s been with us for 2 weeks now and I think she is unhappy/stressed….just something is wrong with her. She grooms herself very frequently, and for very long periods (around 30 minutes), she stays under the bed very frequently and at nights when we lock her inside the cage she starts to chew on it, like she wants to get out (which is accompanied with loud noises). I feed her with hay and I give her rabbit snacks 2-3x a day, she has plenty of fresh water. Inside her cage she has hay, water, hayball hanging from top, paperroll, and a towel. Outside she has around 20m2 space to play, she has 3 sound making rolling balls, a little bunny house, a paper tunnel. But nothing gets her attention really. Yeah, sometimes she bites the balls and puts them around but thats about it. She wouldn’t even touch the bunny house, nor her hayball inside her cage. Tried rolling the balls to her but no luck. She accepts/requests petting 1-2x a day. And another thing is the 20m2….she never leaves the carpets, she only stays where there is a carpet. She could go outside the kitchen or the hall, but she won’t, because we dont have carpet there.

She previously lived in a household where she had a companion (female) bunny and they wouldn’t get along (according to the owner) and they also had a dog, and I think by the time they adopted the dog, they just kept this little bunny inside the cage, not letting her out.

She is very afraid of the sound of sacs. When she hears it, she runs hiding as quickly as possible.

We really do spend time with her, pet her, talk to her, try to play with her. She is locked inside the cage during nights. She is out from 7-8am till 22-23-24pm. What could be wrong? Is she still suffering from the previous owner’s environment? (this friday will be 2 weeks that she is with us, to be exact)

Thank You for reading, and thanks If You answer!

[Luna]

Hi! I think she is still getting used to you

. It can take a long time for a bun to adjust/bond – it was months before Luna and I bonded. I’d be surprised if she was bonded to you already in just 2 weeks! Just keep spending as much time with her as you can, even if it’s just laying next to her cage or sitting and talking with her. The fact that she accepts pets from you is good. I agree that the bar chewing seems like she wants to be let out of her cage. It doesn’t seem like it would be out of boredom because it sounds like she has plenty of environmental enrichment (I’ve bought Luna toys before that she has either only touched once or not at all). Even if you were to let your bun out of her cage 23 hours of the day I think she would still end up shaking the bars. Luna would get to be out of her cage all the time, and if I put her in her cage at night she would shake the bars because she wanted to be out “when she said so” and not when I chose to lol. Now she is out all the time except when I’m not home. Non-carpet surfaces tend to be slippery for buns, so either she doesn’t like the lack of traction or (more likely) she is not comfortable enough yet to explore too far away from her cage. I think you are doing great, just keep at it!

[Ampee]

Thank You for taking Your time answering me.
We are thinking of letting her out even during nights,but we need to bunnyproof the TV area, one way would be to unplug all of the consoles/tv for the night, but we don’t want her to chew the tv nor the consoles.
(of course she wouldn’t go there since there is no carpet, but no rest for the wicked……i bet she would jump up to the tv if we’d let her out during the night)

[AcornBuns]

I’m a new bunny owner as well, but wanted to throw my .02 in about the non carpeted areas. Our bathrooms and kitchen aren’t carpeted either and it took our bunny 2 months to build up the courage to explore in those areas. He would just stop at the carpet border, sniff all along it and turn back. Even now, he’ll walk on it, but super slowly as he doesn’t have any traction.

[Tony's Mum]

Same, Tony will walk on the wooden floors now, but he’ll still only binky on the carpet/rug because otherwise he just skids!

Is there certain times she prefers hiding under the bed? Tony loves to nap behind the couch in the afternoons. Rabbits are crepuscular so she likely isn’t going to be very active during the day anyway, she might just be hiding there because she feels safe in there and wants to rest a bit. I would give her some time and not worry too much It took a while for Tony and I to bond (and even at that he’s an indepedent little diva), so just let her settle in at her own pace. It sounds like you guys really care about her and have provided a great home for her, so I’m sure when she adapts she’ll be a super happy bun! Try just sitting on the ground and read a book or watch tv while she potters around and eventually she’ll get curious and come over to explore you.

As for the grooming, it could very well be just be that she’s shedding/moulting. A lot of rabbits are right now, because spring is here and winter coats are no longer stylish among fashionista buns. Try to grrom her if you can, especially if she’s long haired. She might not let you just yet though.

[Ampee]

Yesterday she was under the bed from 9am to 2-3pm and later in the evening she was under it for an hour (around 8-9pm).

She already lets me groom her. She is long haired yes.
We ended up buying a bigger holding cage for her but this cage shaking/chewing just wont stop. But at least she jumped a few times inside the cage so she might like it.
How often does Your bunnies “happy roll”? She hasn’t done it yet, and also she rarely lays down in that “relaxed” position (where her back legs are streched out).

[Luna]

I agree – sounds like a normal bun napping schedule . Luna likes napping in the afternoons too. A “happy roll”? Not sure if it is the same as a binky, but I’ve never seen Luna do anything like roll over. Sometimes she will binky multiple times every day, and sometimes she won’t (or I won’t witness it) binky for weeks. She almost always lays out with her feet stretched behind her, though it was months after I first brought her home for her to do this initially.

[Ampee]

I think I meant “roll over” sorry. So I saw couple of videos bunnies doing this roll over, and neither of our two bunnies did it.

But She binkies very often. Like 2-3 times a day, and She never misses a day to binky

[sarahthegemini]

My bunnies – especially my boy bun – will flop multiple times a day and both will often roll completely onto their backs for a second before rolling back on their side. Sometimes they roll from one side to the other. It’s hilarious

[Author]

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