Rabbit behavior and body language

I am pretty good at reading the body language of cats, dogs, and horses- but am kind of at a loss when it comes to lagomorphs!

If you could enlighten me on what different ear positions, head elevations, tail carriage, vocalizations, stance, and so forth convey I would appreciate it.

We have a doe that pins her ears, gets all low, and kind of lunges when I put hay in the cage. I know she is evil, but can her behavior be modified or change due to her altering hormonal state? Might she calm down after she kindles, or should she go to FC? She is very pretty and has a nice coat, but I want to breed for good temperment so I am leery of using her in my breeding program. She was ok when I took her out to get photos, weight, and trim nails- I wore gloves, but she didn't try to bite or kick... here are a couple pics, though she isn't posed well and they were taken with a flash.

Beautiful bun!

This is an oft-referenced site for understanding rabbit-speak: http://language.rabbitspeak.com/

Some does settle down mightily after having a litter of babies. Others don't. You'll just have to see. There are many beautiful rabbits with equally beautiful personalities out there. Most meat rabbit raisers on here won't keep a rabbit if her personality doesn't moderate. It can be passed on to the kits, and it's just not a fun thing to deal with -- and can land you a very nasty bite.

I'll take a look at that site, thanks for the link!

My first instinct with this doe is to cull her. I was/am considering letting her have a "test litter" to see if her behavior changes after kindling. My concern is that we might be tempted to keep a kit even if we decide to cull her. So-o-o, if I breed her, I must have the Solemn Pledge of All RT'ers to convince me to send each and every kit to FC if her disposition doesn't change!

I have some stock that I am going to try to sell and she is the eldest prospective doe and would pair well with one of our eldest bucks. The thing is, I am new to rabbits and have yet to make my first sale and don't want to tarnish my non-existant reputation by selling a nasty doe.

BTW, she must be really peeved by her mani/pedi and photo shoot, because she no longer "kind of" lunges- she came at me very aggressively tonight. This was her 3rd or 4th nail trim, so she should be used to it!

Really flat with ears back generally means nervous and more hormonal or aggressive rabbits may get defensive if they feel they have space to guard. Once you take them away from their own personal space they are not confident enough to remain aggressive and either freeze down flat or attempt to escape. Sometimes raising a litter will improve their personality but not always. The behavior can be passed on to the kits both by making rabbits that are genetically predisposed to a nervous temperament and directly by teaching the kits such behaviors. Aggressive rabbits that remain more upright are rarer but of greater concern because they aren't just reacting out of fear and will not restrict their behavior to defending their cage. My doe attacked from the ground outside of her cage more than once. We spent about a year trying various types of positive and negative reinforcement with attempts to copy dominant rabbit behavior and it didn't change her any. The only thing that knocked her down a peg was the fact she was about 4lbs and she tried to pull that stuff against a 10lb champagne d'argent doe who really wasn't impressed. Eventually she and all her doe offspring were butchered to avoid spreading such an aggressive line. I kept one buck by my calmest buck to experiment with. His first litter is mixed results. There's some that are very relaxed rabbits like their mother and grandsire and 2 that I am concerned about.

A less aggressive rabbit may follow up a nervous posture with licking to show they are subordinate and willing to groom you or by thumping, grunting, and leaving if the rabbit feels dominant and dislikes what you are doing. The ears are often not as flat as during a more aggressive response.

Content rabbits have upright or relaxed ears at a slight slant and they will be a bit rounder or laying flat out without tension. Aggressive rabbits look like little coiled springs getting ready to lunge. The eyes will also be rounder in alert but happy rabbits or half closed in very relaxed rabbits rather than narrowed.

This is Amako slightly annoyed at being posed but not nervous. Her body is mostly relaxed except for leaning away with that front leg, her eyes are narrowed, and her ears are slanting back but not pulled flat.


This is Amako confident but alert because she doesn't want caught. Her eyes are rounder, her ears are up, she is not in a very aggressive pose but she is a little tense because she's planning to spin and run away if I try to grab her.


This is a very pissed off very pregnant Twix. Her entire body is coiled up against the blanket piled so she could bite but not being an aggressive rabbit she will not. She just uses a lot of body language and some grunting to express that she is very unhappy about being removed from her cage in her condition.


Happy Twix shortly after giving birth but a little apprehensive of why I'm pointing a camera at her and am I going to try to remove her from her cage


Then there's rabbits like Mocha


and Shimo


Completely relaxed and only mildly curious about that camera and flashing light.

I could probably go on for pages about rabbit interaction but you already have a long article to look at. If you check my rabbit photobucket section I can tell you the body language and situation of every single picture I've taken http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/bunny/

While I agree with the others about culling a truly mean rabbit and reading through the info given in the link (it's very good) I can't take the pledge. My best, nicest tempered rabbits are descended from a rabbit nastier than cat poo on a friendly toddler's hand. She had the 1st year of her life to change but only got worse. I kept a doe kit of hers and every kit and grand kit from her has been sweet as pie. If you can't get her to change, cull before someone gets hurt. If she's got everything else you want in a rabbit keep a kit or two and see how they turn out. Whatever you do don't sell her or any of her kits to an ususpecting buyer unless you're sure of their temperament.

I tried the routine on Rabbitspeak about acting offended. Thumper had been nipping me. After I read that site, the next time he nipped, I took him straight to his cage, placed him firmly in it, closed the door, and very dramatically turned my back on him. Then I walked away without looking back. I had to do this one more time -- after that, he didn't nip any more.

Nice reverse psychology. Annoyed rabbits give us,"The butt" so why not return the favor?

I would breed a really nicely tempered rabbit at the same time as you breed ill-tempered rabbit and foster the kits to her good tempered rabbit. Just breed the nice tempered rabbit for junk kits so you don't feel bad giving them to nasty tempered beastie. Nicely tempered rabbits teach their kits LOTS of good bunny behaviour.