Bunny Behaviour

[Torgeir]

Hello everyone,
I adopted my two-year old rabbit, Trinity, about a month and a half ago. I love her! But I have a question.
When its playtime for Trinity I always fill up a bowl of water for her and put it on the floor in whatever room we’re playing in, that way she doesn’t need to go all the way in the other room to get a drink (we play for hours at a time). This has worked well up until about three or four days ago. That’s when she started to turn the bowl over if we’re in a carpeted room so that the water spills onto the carpet. She then proceeds to roll around on the wet part of the carpet similar to how you would see a dog roll on his back, except she rolls from her belly to her back and then to her belly again. She does not roll on the dry carpet like this, and doesn’t do this on a linoleum floor.
Is this simply her way of playing because she finds it fun, or is she trying to tell me something?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[jerseygirl]

Welcome to the forums. : )

It is a bit of a funny behaviour, isn’t it?!
Maybe it’s a way to cool down?

Rabbits outside sometimes dig a shallow spot (called a scrape) then flop into it. You see house rabbits do this too. Dig right before they flop. I wonder if she would do the same thing if you brought in a tub of damp sand?

Has she had a wellness vet check since you’ve had her? I am thinking this is just a quirky behaviour, but if she had a skin infection maybe she might do this for relief?? I really don’t know!

Maybe some other members have buns that do this also,,.

[Torgeir]

According to the shelter I adopted her from she is perfectly healthy. I haven’t noticed anything on her skin. I’m thinking it’s just her way of playing. I haven’t brought her to the vet yet, but I’m going to make an appointment for her soon for a wellness exam.

I didn’t know bunnies play in sand – is this just like regular sand that I can buy at Toys R Us that goes into a sandbox? If so I’ll try that and make sure to wet it. But won’t the sand hurt her insides if it gets on her fur and she cleans herself and swallows it?

Thanks for the tips and I can’t wait to try the sand once I’m sure what kind to get!

[jerseygirl]

I was meaning damp sand just as one off occasion to see if it’s the cool sensation she is after. Wet sand would not be practical for long term digging box.
Some members recently have made sand boxes for their rabbits though. I’m not certain what kind they used.
I’ve certainly come across the idea many times but there is risk of it getting in eyes or ingesting some like you said.
I suppose if it a supervise only activity, owners can brush excess sand of their rabbits after.

I have a tub at home I’ve been wanting to make into a digging pit. I’m planning to use washed pea gravel. But I need to make it so I can wash everything off because I KNOW a couple of my rabbits will want to pee in it.

[BanditCamp]

I’ll answer the sand pit question cause I’ve recently done it and it’s worked good.

I’ll make a post in the habitat section and post a link here when I have it completed with pictures.

EDIT LINK:

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tab…fault.aspx

[WRXFamily]

I cant really give an answer but my two buns both do the same thing. It’s not a big deal for us as our buns have solid flooring and not carpet. We just switched to crock bowls hooked up to their Xpens because we couldn’t get them both to stop. They will flip both food and water bowls with their paws as well as their teeth. It looks like they are just playing or being clumsy when they do it.

[Author]

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