Free Giveaway
I believe it is traditional to reward your loyal blog readers with a free giveaway (can you tell I just read the handbook). I thought I’d save my one hundred and first book just for you. I want something in return though, yes, I know a little bit cheeky. As my book is about behaviour and I often write about Scamp’s odd habits, I thought I’d ask you what is the oddest thing you’ve even seen your rabbit do?
I’ll pop the names of anyone that comments with their rabbit’s odd quirks by Monday in a hat and send the winner a free copy of my book.
Then I’ll sit back and enjoy the funny/weird/wonderful bunny tales you share.
Ps. Has anyone tried making bunny biscuits? The sort for rabbits to eat not human biscuits in the shape of rabbits. I found a bag of fenugreek in our herb draw and apparently that’s like rabbit cat nip, so I was wondering about home made treats. Anyone got recipes/instructions?
Edit: And the winner is Annette! I’m glad I just pulled the name out a hat (well random number generated) instead of having to pick. I feel sorry for the people that don’t realise how wonderful bunnies are with their entertaining little quirks and individual personalities.
Tags: book
The weirdest thing I have ever seen my bunny do is “arrange” the laminate floor like it was a blanket. Usually he digs at the floor but on this occasion he was pushing it with his front paws. It was so cute!
Gotta make sure it hasn’t developed a wrinkle whilst he had his back turned, wouldn’t want to stretch out on an uncomfortable spot 😉
Oddest thing I’ve seen Mickey do is when he picks up his treatball and runs around with it like a dog with a toy.
I posted a video of him in action: http://zenofbun.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-treatball.html
Well that’s certainly a creative way to use a treatball and soo cute !
As far as homemade rabbit treats, there are some recipes on rabbit.org’s link page.
I will answer your question separately for each of my two bunnies!
Every once in a while, Biff does this bizarre behavior Jon and I call “creeping.” All of a sudden, it’s like all of his senses become keener, and he puts his loppy ears wayyyy forward, and crawls around sort of like an inch worm. (Hop out with front legs, stay with body extended for several seconds, hop with back legs. repeat.) He will do it anywhere from 30 seconds to an hour. And thne sometimes in the midst of “creeping” he will thump and run away. It’s actualyl not funny at all because he seems so terrified the whole time, and sometimes it scares sogna. But we have not been able to detect anything out of the ordinary when it happens that could possibly be causing it. We first noticed the creeping behavior about a year ago, after we had been in the new apartment for about a month. Biff still “creeps,” but not as often and generally the period of time is much shorter than it used to be. (would love any input you have about this).
As far as the Sogna’s odd behavior: that would probably be her, uh… Well. Sogna will mount anything remotely fuzzy. Whether it’s a plush teddy bear, a slipper on my foot, or a cardboard box with a towel draped over it. If it’s soft and has mass, she will mount it. And she gets so overzealous in the act that she will fall backwards and and do a backwards tumblesault. (Probably because she has poor balance because of her old foot problems from the neglect). It is both perplexing and hilarious, but out of concern for her safety we are careful to keep all slippers and stuffed animals safely out of her reach.
Oh my gosh, Sogna’s umm ‘habit’ is just … well sorry but I can’t stop giggling! I’ve heard, and I’ve never bred bunnies so I can’t confirm, that when a male, uh, does the deed as it were, he often falls off backwards and that’s meant to be a sign of success. It’s a little weird behaviour for a girl but equal opportunities and all that lol
I don’t know if it’s the same but Scamp will also crawl when he’s nervous about something. He gets really low to the ground and long, neck and ears stretched forward. Like really intense investigation and if you startle him during it he will often bolt back a bit. It’s directly towards things he can see though so one example was a helium ballot. He spent quite awhile creeping towards it, darting away if it moved and gradually getting closer as it didn’t do anything threatening. Eventually he decided it was safe and started eating the string. All I can think of is that maybe Biff is detecting something with his super bunny senses that you can’t hear/smell. I remember one bunny owner whose rabbit acted nervous a particular time each evening and it turned out a fox crossed her garden the same time each day – he heard it and they didn’t. It could be a fan coming on or noise from pipes etc. and possibly as he works out it’s not a threat he’s reaction to it had reduced. That’s my best guess anyway.
The oddest thing our bunny Anya ever did was when we first got her from the rescue centre. We’d bought a nice green, high tech litter tray for her but rather than use it as a litter tray she collected green things and arranged them on it!
I love that!
Wow, Scamp’s idea of interior decorating is eating the walls. Colour coordinating is definitely impressive.
Buttons goes crazy sometimes in our lounge and runs in a circle, super fast (so fast we almost can’t see him). The funny thing though is though that there is furniture in the way but that doesnt deter him from keeping going in his circle, he leaps up and over sofas and under tables!
Lol, I haven’t heard of a bunny doing that before. Scamp runs laps occasionally but in a path around things. It must be quite an impressive site to see Buttons hurtling around the room at top speed!
Buck tried to climb up the radiator once. When he’d scrabbled around for a bit and didn’t manage it he hopped away like nothing had happened.
Lol, wasn’t me looking daft. Thank you for sharing!
Malenkii likes to sit in his hay rack to eat. He will also climb the walls of his fence and drag his hidey-box around everywhere he goes “just in case”. Since he was a rescue, I’m not too surprised he feels the need to claim his stuff and keep a comforting place nearby.
Aww, rescue bunnies are awesome, and I like the name! Some bunnies are a bit nervous of venturing to far from a hidey hole so it sounds like a very smart chap to think of taking it will him.
hmmm, interesting request and I am racking my brain!
Wesley comes thru from the bedroom when I extend the baby gate and a few times he has taken a slice of carrot from me, held it in his mouth then ran off to the bedroom with it to eat, and a couple of times he ran back thru here with it, in his mouth, paused for about 5 seconds, then back to the bedroom! a very unusual sight and ofcourse I had to laugh at him 🙂
Arabella actually races up to me whenever I go near the fridge, and when she is feeling peckish. I will usually give her a big leaf of greens and she carries this off in her mouth, like a prize, to a nearby table, where she sit with it and eat for a while!
She is the first rabbit I have seen do this!
(now that I got those 2 down i am off to read everyone elses 🙂
thanks Tamsin!
Lol, I know bunnies like food but usually they just sit down and tuck in not do a honorary lap first! I guess you must have really really good carrot as he feels the need to show it off!
Congratulations, I picked your name from the hat! I’ll drop you an email tomorrow, but if you see this first please send me your address and I’ll pop your book in the post 🙂
Congrats to Annette :o) You will need to give us a critical review! ;o)
Well there’s a question. There are many, but the most incredible one was opening the fridge. She jumped up onto the sofa arm which sat beside the fridge, pulled the child-proof (but not bunny-proof!) lock off the door, wedged her head in beside the seal and kept nudging until it opened. She then proceeded to nom on the spring greens she found sitting handily for her right at the front, how kind of us! We had come into in to the fridge door open previously so it was fascinating to sit and watch how she did it!
I know it’s Monday now but I wanted to share my wee story anyway :o)
That’s just amazing. What a clever rabbit. I can see Scamp deciding to eat his way into the fridge but undoing the door and opening it like that is a very impressive feat. It shows how clever bunnies can be.
So, did you bunny proof the fridge or was her helping herself to cute to resist?
Many people really don’t appreciate how clever bunnies can be, but I think our madam was one of a kind! (Don’t we all!) I could fill a book with the clever things she got up to.
I’m afraid we ended up bunny proofing again, with a heavy box in front of the bottom door and duct tape all over the top door, which she never managed to get off. Thank goodness because as cute as it was, I had visions of coming home to her one day with her head in a packet of ham. We lost her last week and I am kind of missing having to inspect the house for destruction every morning.
Let’s see… When my sister picks up Coconut, the way her face is makes it look like she’s going to cry! 🙂 SO CUTE!!! And I LOVE it when she rears on her hind legs and sniffs around, (I know that all rabbits do that, but it is so sweet. :))