To the uninitiated, rabbits seem like totally quiet creatures since they don't bark or meow. For those in the know, rabbits really pound the pavement doing the Bunny 500 and you had better beware the pig grunt growl. The grunt/growl sounds cute, but could be followed up with a lunge and bite that won't be so cute. We have also learned to listen for sounds of bunny misbehavior. It is amazing that we have become attuned to the differences in a bunny who is eating or play chewing and a bunny who is consuming the house and furnishings.

With careful bunny parent training, we can now identify by sound a bunny who is chewing on cardboard, paper, or bunny chew rings from a bunny who is chewing the carpet, furniture, pillows / sheets, baseboards, and yes even the plaster and drywall! As we are in other rooms from Tigger and Shadow, it is never surprising to see one of us suddenly jump and run yelling to head off the offending rabbit.

Shadow is a particularly stubborn bunny. For months after we first got him, we thought he was stupid because he wasn't responding to No! Bad Bunny! Then one day after I had chased him around and we finally settled down for a head pet session, I was kind of chewing him out. I was saying things like, "Why do you have to be such a Bad Bunny. You know how to be a Good Bunny. You don't have to be a Bad Bunny." Shadow suddenly got up and turned around and looked at me with his head tipped to the side. It was clear he was questioning me. That is when I realized he did know the difference between Bad Bunny and Good Bunny and he was confused as to why I was petting him and calling him a Bad Bunny. After that we both watched him more closely when he misbehaved and realized that when we would start calling him Bad Bunny, he was hearing us and understanding and was trying to misbehave faster. He knew how much time it would take us to physically get to him and he was trying to get done before we could. Stubborn Bad Bunny!

Tigger has a different response. She does not like to be called Bad Bunny or be yelled at. She will stop what she is doing and hop off and then try to slink back to the bad behavior as soon as she thinks our attention is on something else.

I know some people will probably say you should never yell and we don't except when they are chewing and swallowing things. Household paint, pillow / furniture stuffing, sheets, and carpet are all very bad for a rabbit's digestive system and just like parents yell to try to stop a child in danger we do yell to try to stop them before they eat enough to harm themselves.

Shadow in particular seems to feel he is a bunny goat and can eat anything he can sink his little teeth into. If we ever have to have a necropsy done on him after death, I don't think I want to know what they find in his stomach!

~ Rebecca Pullin