bunny behavior.

Question
Hello,

I have had my bunny for about a year now. We seem to get along great, but still sometimes I just cant figure out if she is running from me when i approach her because shes playing or because she doesnt want to be near me.  If i sit on the floor she will gladly come to visit.  I try to make sure to bend down often just to pet her so she doesnt think i only want to pick her up.  Never the less 90% of the time she bolts when i come close to her.

Thank you for any help you can give.

Answer
Sounds like she is still reacting instinctively to the approach of a larger "animal" looming over her. As prey animals, rabbits are very wary of this. This instinct persists in varying degrees in individual domestic rabbits. Some seem to have no propensity to run from tall being approaching; others do it automatically even when they know who you are and are normally comfortable with you.

Her willingness to approach you when you are at "her level" (and, she has learned, much less mobile) indicates to me that her "aversion" isn't anything to take personally, just a gut instinct. She may overcome it with time, or she may always be a bit shy of the tall approach. If you accept it as just one of her little quirks, and make sure to spend a lot of time on the floor with her, you all should continue to get along fine.

The only other possibility is that she is hearing impaired and therefore is startled when you come into her vision. You can do some tests by seeing if she reacts to something that has no visual cue, such as a loudly ringing phone, a whistle, or a vacuum cleaner being turned on. If she is deaf or partially deaf, she can still have a great life--we have had many deaf rabbits in our home (it's more common than you'd think). But you may want to do things like stomping on the floor if you are getting close to her to alert her of your presence, put her cage if she has one in an area where she has excellent view of all approaches, etc. If she's deaf she may always be a little more wary and "startleable" than a hearing rabbit.

Thanks for being concerned for the well-being of your rabbit companion!

If you haven't checked it out yet, the site www.rabbit.org has a wealth of information on behavior, care and many other topics relevant to house rabbits and the people they live with. Best of luck to you both.

Gina