I got in trouble by a cat lover for saying rabbits are probably as smart as cats. A cat's independent nature does make it a little hard to judge but rabbits generally aren't given a fair chance either. I'm not saying it's wrong to cage raise a rabbit but how much intelligence can they display in a single level wire cage with only food and maybe a chewy toy? The people we got champagnes from was selling out to work with flemish because they sold so well as pets there. He said one he sold and was kept mostly loose as a house rabbit had learned when it's owner came home to untie his shoes for him. The complicated interactions of our colonies was rather interesting.
I have come to suppose, it is humans who are too unintelligent/ un-observant to understand animals, and not ,-animals are too stupid to understand people. -all my animals seem to understand me just fine, it is me that has a hard time understanding them. I talk to the animals like I would a child, using the same words all the time for what it is I am trying to communicate, and not getting all wordy and long winded in my talk, -- in short order they all learn what it is I am saying, -- I , however, have to watch them and try to pay attention to them for weeks, or months, before I can understand what they are saying. I once had a lot of chickens and sold eggs, -- I was able to understand in time what they were saying to me, and sometimes to each other. I had a group of S. American people come by one time to "see" the animals, [chickens, milk cow, calf, rabbits, fish , etc.] the group had an out spoken male among them, who was going on and on about how stupid animals were, - He was telling the "group" that chickens were so stupid that you could make them think it was daytime by turning on a light, and the stupid creatures would start to lay more eggs. I got tired of his attitude, and self importance, and said to the group ,that I thought it was humans and their arrogance, and lack of intellegence that made them suppose that the human lack of understanding, was the fault of the animals, and that animals had their own language but most humans were too "stupid" to realize it, or understand it. He said that was "impossible" and that I could not prove it, so I started to tell them "basicaly" what each one of the chickens was saying when they come over to see us, -- one of them came over and started some animated "talk" with us-and then went back over to her "favorite "feeder, and continued her "talk" and I told them she was saying her hanging feeder where she was at ,was empty, --so he ran into the chicken coop to check-- and sure enough that one was-- he had very little to say after that.
What I wonder-- is ---why it took me years of watching chickens to figgure out what they were saying, when it usually takes them only weeks , or days, to understand me. --The same goes for the other animals I work with.-- I know "body language" is important in human communication, but why do I have such a hard time seeing it as a part of animals "talking"???
I also play music when I'm in the Rabbitry. They seem to enjoy it
