A rabbit to human interaction question

This has been puzzling me a bit.

I have mostly New Zealands of several colors and temperaments. They range from in your face friendly to the treat is nice but please dont touch me.

The ones that dont want to be petted or touched do an interesting thing when I go in the cage though.

If I put my hand out they stretch forward and bump it with their nose and then go back to the back of the cage. Not cringing or anything, just in a rabbit sitting comfortably position.

What does the head to hand bump mean?

Generally, it is a friendly gesture on the part of the rabbit. Maybe kind of like... "I like you but don't get too close! (And where's the treat?)"

MaggieJ":1tkozppq said:

Generally, it is a friendly gesture on the part of the rabbit. Maybe kind of like... "I like you but don't get too close! (And where's the treat?)"

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I thought so! About half of my does only want that much interaction so that is all I give them, a hand to bump and a handful of what ever weeds I have snatched up on the way to the cages.

Thanks MaggieJ!

Mine bump for affection, for me to move, for food, to notice them. Generally associated with wanting your attention lol

Mine do that too and I was thinking it was just an extension of a sniff. None of them seem to actually like being petted but will at least tolerate it for a bit. I try to interact with them once or twice a day to get them used to being handled. Not too sure how it's going. A couple are still really skittish. I hold them and then sit in the recliner with them and let them roam around on me and the chair. The buck has a habit of peeing on me and the chair and sometimes leaves some berries, but the girls seem to hold back. They seem to do pretty well for a while then they get over bold and want to jump around. When I tried to put Honda back the other day, he bit me! Not hard enough to break the skin but it was like he just had a hold of my skin in his teeth. Guess I need to limit their lap sitting to about 10 mins or so.

Dave put together a little exercise pen this afternoon and took the 2 does out...I suspect they've never been out on grass before. They're having a blast! Tomorrow we'll move it and let the buck out for a while to let him enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.

And then you will need a couple of these:

Wow, that's much fancier than the one we cobbled together! Whatever we do will need to be moveable since we also move our chicken coop/run around the yard in the summer as well. Should be interesting trying to find fresh green spots for 'em all

Is that an Angora? They're so cute! I saw some at the rabbit show...I think they look sort of like Yoda with those ears

I keep reading this http://language.rabbitspeak.com/ but it just seems to leak out of my ears instead of staying in my memory banks like its supposed to. :roll:

It's a good site, GBov... but it does take some time and effort to have you "thinking like a rabbit".

MaggieJ":1wp67kuc said:

It's a good site, GBov... but it does take some time and effort to have you "thinking like a rabbit".

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Our Captain Rex is just like the one they talk about that will nip and tug at your trousers for a petting/grooming session but we can pick him up and put him out of the way with no arguments after he has had his attention. :lol:

Its really funny, I had a long haired mouse once that would sit on shoulders and stick her nose in peoples ears and make a tick tock noise that would bite if she thought she hadnt been out of her cage long enough. Its really sad to loose ones heart to a mouse, they live such short little lives.

I noticed today that the batch of new kits we bought last week has two that will nose bump now. And one that stands up on its toes with ears tward me, stamp and then run away. I hope it calms down because as cute as it is at five weeks old, it will NOT be cute at 10 pounds!

Mine act very differently at different stages of the bunny cycle. They are most affectionate while they have babies and least affectionate when they have problems. I have a few who hang out the door and can't get enough petting and others who can take it or leave it.

Mickey,

I am on a city lot, so don't have room to move them about, so went for permanent pens with chainlink flooring. As you can see, they (there are 2 now) get some shade most of the day, but in the very hottest part, still need some additional shade, hence the sheet spring clamped to the south end of the pen.

Yes, that is my senior Angora buck ... he is a real pistol!

We're also on a smallish urban lot...less than 1/4 acre, but we're finding that you can do rather a lot with it if you really work at it, LOL. Since we have dogs, we do still want some grass, but we're removed a lot of it. The whole front yard was de-sodded a couple years ago, and we took out probably 1/4 of the grass in the back as well, around the perimeter. We finally decided we didn't want to be spending money to water a "crop" that was essentially useless. We've put in quite a lot of ornamentals, which do provide aesthetics, but we also plant veggies and grains in amongst the "permanent" plants. It's not your typical yard, but we think it actually looks rather nice. We're hoping that by moving the chickens and rabbits around the yard, they'll always have access to fresh grass, weeds, bugs, etc. The chickens are hard on the turf, but if we don't leave them in one spot more than about 3 or 4 days, it is able to come back in a week or two, so that it's fresh and green by the time the run gets put in that spot again. I'm hoping it'll be the same for the rabbits. Of course, we won't be leaving them there for days at a time, so it shouldn't be quite so hard on the grass I'm thinking we may throw a few alfalfa seeds in with the grass this spring...it should give all the critters a bit of variety.

Love your Angoras, Ann...it would be way cool, but...not sure I could deal with the hair...have a couple of dogs who need lots of grooming and that's MORE than enough, LOL!