Animal behaviorists: What advice would you give to Mad Hatter’s family?
Nearly every day I hear from rabbit owners who have questions about health or behavior. The most entertaining emails and phone calls come from people who are relatively new to rabbits and are discovering just how smart and willful these “cute little bunnies” can be.
This week, I received one of the best yet. Mad Hatter had spent 1.5 years — nearly his entire life — at the West Pennsylvania Humane Society. A family started volunteering with the shelter rabbits last fall, took the Dutch mix home to foster over Christmas, and never brought him back.
What follows is their appeal for help.
He has blossomed into quite the little entertainer. The scared rabbit that I saw at the shelter who would only sit under a chair in the corner no longer exists.
He gets up with us every morning like clockwork and runs around the house for awhile when I’m making breakfast for Sarah — and for him, of course. When it’s time for Sarah to go to school, he will quietly go back in his pen and nap away most of the afternoon until she comes home.
Hatter adores Sarah and will lie at her feet on his back and just gaze up at her. If she is on the floor watching TV, he is snuggled right up against her.
Here is my issue: Hatter can be very demanding. When he wants something, he will just loudly thump until you figure out what it is. If he starts this at night, I can go in his room 10 times and tell him to stop and nothing happens. If he wakes Sarah, she walks in, says, “Enough, Hatter go to bed!” and there’s peace and quiet for the rest of the night.
Sarah was gone yesterday so I took his food in to him but he would not come out and eat until she got home. She always sits with him while he eats because the computer is in the same room and she is usually doing homework or something.
If the door to his room is not shut all the way at night, he will thump. If Sarah is out over the weekend and not here to put him to bed, he thumps. It makes for a long night and if I put my pit bull, Mojo, in with him—each lying on their own side of the pen—that will calm him down.
He has a good connection with Mojo, who is 10 years old. Hatter will put his face down between Mojo’s front paws and Mojo will lick his head and ears. Even the vet commented on what clean ears he had. I did not mention the strange dog relationship.
Other than that, Mojo is basically a step Hatter uses to get up on the furniture. I never leave them alone without them being separated by the cage or the gate.
Anyway — back to this thumping issue. Sometimes it’s just that he doesn’t want what you give him for dinner. He will toss the plate and thump until you come and see what’s up. Mind you, I don’t give in, I just put the food back on the plate and leave. He will eventually eat after two or three tosses and multiple thumps.
His favorite treat is a small slice of seedless watermelon. However, if you put it on the plate in his cage, he picks it up and drops it on the floor in front of you. I’m not sure why because he doesn’t do this with any other food but he wants you to hold it while he eats it. Then, when he is done, he goes on his merry little way.
Even when he is running around he will just stop in front of you and thump like you’re supposed to know what he wants.
The vet assured me that Mad Hatter is very healthy. He can jump like he has springs on his feet. Sometimes you just see this blur of fur go by. He is very good with his litter box. I really have no complaints, I just need to know some more about the thumping issue. Sometimes it disturbs me that he may need something and I’m not sure what.”
Dog owners, cat behaviorists, horse people, bird trainers — and, of course, rabbit folks — have you seen similar behaviors? How would you translate Mad Hatter’s thumping? What methods worked for your bossy or ”vocal” pets?
I will forward all feedback to this family and write a follow-up in four weeks.
Photo credit: Mad Hatter, W. Pa. Humane Society
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