Building a strong bond with your rabbit is important if you want your partnership to grow old and you don’t want to seem as if you have the rabbit locked inside your house. When you bring a rabbit into your house, you should know that there are quite a few things that are going to change.
First of all, you will have to rabbit-proof your house, and make sure that you provide the animal with a bit of space where it can run around. If you love your bunny, you need to look at its behavior and figure out whether it reciprocates your love or not.
You obviously won’t have a way to communicate with the animal with words, so it’s important that you focus more on its body language and behavior around the house.
Rabbits make small squeaking sounds when they are content and satisfied. More importantly, you might notice its tail wagging from time to time too. Have you ever wondered why your rabbit might be running in circles around you?
There are plenty of different signs of affection that you should know about the rabbit, primarily when the rabbit is absolutely content.
Running in Circles
The most obvious sign that your animal is in love with you is when it starts running around in circles. Bunnies usually get overwhelmed when their owners come home after a while, and as soon as you enter the house, the animal is going to start running around in circles to greet you. It is by far one of the cutest things that you will have ever seen.
More importantly, you should know that this indicates happiness and contentment. The bunny is absolutely happy to be in the house and content with its lifestyle. But, you should know that running around in circles is often a way for the bunny to beg from you.
It’s a fun way used by the animal to get more treats. If you have something in your hand that the animal loves, it is definitely going to start running around your feet in circles.
There are several reasons why your bunny might be running around in circles. Apart from simply being an expression of love, you should know that bunnies do this for a variety of reasons. For instance, the bunny might be showing courtship behavior. Circling is often considered by bunnies to be a form of mating dance.
If you haven’t gotten your bunny neutered or spayed as yet, you should know that the animal is simply going to start circling your leg before trying to hump it! In the wild, bunnies often do this because they are looking to court a female, so you can expect this behavior at home as well if the animal hasn’t been neutered.
Then, you should know that animals are going to run around your leg in circles to establish dominance. It is just like dominance, and rabbits usually do that because they are looking to try and establish their dominance. However, this is only possible when the animal doesn’t get any attention from you and is usually ignored.
Furthermore, there is also a chance that the animal will carry out this behavior to seek your attention. Rabbits are generally quite attention-seeking animals, and they are going to try their best to gain your attention whenever they feel they have been ignored for a longer period of time. It could be a way for them to ask you for a treat or for food, or for anything else that the animal wants.
From time to time, the rabbits might just encircle your leg because they want a bit of grooming or need to be pet. Rabbits also circle around a person’s leg because they are trying to initiate play.
Rabbits love to chase each other, and sometimes even themselves, as a means of initiating play. They are also liable to jump in the middle, which is a clear sign that the animal is just trying to play with you.
Finally, one of the reasons why the animal will start encircling your leg is simply because it is bored. Boredom is one of the major reasons why these animals may start running around. It’s a common sign of compulsive behavior shown by rabbits, and sometimes, they might even begin to pace back and forth.
For instance, if you have kept the animal in a small cage, it might be a wise idea to make the cage slightly bigger and give the animal something more to do. If you don’t provide the animal with enough fun activities, it is simply going to turn destructive over time.
Neutering the Rabbit
Making sure that you neuter or spay the rabbit is vital. If you haven’t already gotten your rabbit neutered or spayed, now might be the ideal time to do it.
Remember, the earlier you get your rabbit neutered or spayed, the better it will be for the animal. Male rabbits, for instance, can prove to be a real nuisance if they aren’t neutered or spayed on time.
You have to make sure that you take the rabbit to a vet and get it neutered or spayed at the earliest time. Male rabbits, for instance, will start spraying as soon as they hit sexual maturity, and you should know that their urine has an incredibly pungent smell. You sincerely don’t want that smell around your house!
On the other hand, female rabbits will often lift their behinds up in a position that they are ready to be mounted. You have to make sure that you get the animal spayed or neutered before it hits sexual maturity. There are plenty of reasons why you should consider getting your rabbit fixed.
For starters, it’s going to significantly bring down problematic behavior in the animal, such as excessive fierceness or spraying urine all over the place. Remember, if you are going to coexist with a rabbit, you have to make sure that you tone down their tendencies.
Rabbits Multiplying Quickly
As mentioned above, one of the reasons why rabbits tend to run around in circles is because they are trying to court a female rabbit. If you haven’t gotten the animal spayed or neutered yet, it won’t be long before they are mounting each other.
For instance, if you have a male rabbit and a female rabbit in the house and the male is simply circling your leg, it’s a clear sign that it’s trying to court the female.
You might even see the male rabbit trying to mount the female from time to time, and if the female decides to let him mount her, she is simply going to raise her hind legs and let him do so. Before you know it (probably within a month), the female rabbit is going to give birth to a litter of rabbits.
There are some particularly confusing hormones in rabbits that make it difficult for them to identify a female rabbit, and it’s one of the reasons why it will simply start encircling your leg. When there is no female around, the animal will simply jump on your leg and start humping you.
This is a common behavior among unneutered male rabbits. It usually happens when their reproductive hormones tend to go wild. Another common sign that these animals are going into a hormonal frenzy is when the animal starts to become more and more territorial about its space. If the rabbit is constantly spraying urine all around, it might be a wise idea to get it neutered.
Many of these behaviors are going to stop immediately once you decide to neuter or spay your rabbit. Almost all of their courtship behaviors are going to fix as a result.
Rabbits Love to Play
Have you taken a look at your rabbit’s lifestyle? Rabbits are incredibly fast thinkers and they like to keep themselves engaged all the time with different activities.
If the animal doesn’t have much to do, it’s going to get bored really quickly. You have to make sure that you provide the animal with something fun to do throughout the course of the day.
If they don’t get anything interesting to do, the animal is simply going to come up with different games that it can play on its own. For instance, they will just begin to run around your legs. It’s a fun way for the animal to keep itself entertained, and it usually does that to attract attention as well.
You might want to consider creating a playpen for the rabbit. Remember, rabbits are generally small creatures, and there is a chance that the animal will sustain an injury if you are not careful about where you tread.
If you accidentally end up putting your foot down on the animal, it could seriously cause harm to the rabbit. You will have to rush to the vet to get treatment.
Therefore, the best thing to do is create a safe space where the rabbits can play. You can put in a number of different toys for the animal and also try to spend at least one hour with the rabbit. A common mistake that many people make when it comes to raising rabbits is that they tend to leave the animal in its cage for longer periods of time.
That’s a bad idea and could cause a series of different problems. For starters, you need to make sure that you get the rabbit out for at least an hour or more in a day. Simply leaving the rabbit confined in its cage is going to cause boredom for the animal and it is going to turn very destructive very soon.
You should consider putting up a proper play area for the pet, where you can spend time with the rabbit and also provide it with fun activities. It is important for you to make sure that you supervise what the animal is doing.
Despite the fact that rabbits are generally quite tiny, you should know that these animals require quite a bit of oversight otherwise they are likely to get into trouble.
Other Signs of Affection
Rabbits are going to show their affection for their owners in a variety of different ways. A common way by which the animal is going to show its love for you is when it tries to nuzzle up to you.
You will find the rabbit trying to squeeze in between your arms or just getting on your lap and falling asleep. Rabbits, as you might know, are generally quite sensitive creatures, and they usually avoid sleeping around things that they do not trust.
So, if your animal is going to the extent of falling asleep in your hand or on your body, or even near you, it is a clear sign that the animal loves you.
Remember, you have to create a feeling of positivity around the rabbit, and the best way to do that is by making sure that you always provide some sort of a treat or food to the animal. It is important for you to make sure that you give the animal food at all times and shower it with love.
Rabbits like to be groomed and petted from time to time, and it’s important that you do that. It’s also critical that you never make any sudden movements around these animals. Remember, rabbits are prey animals, and as a result of that, they are often quite twitchy and get scared very easily.
If you make any sudden movements around the animal, it is going to reduce your trust and the animal may try to keep its distance from you.
These are just a few things that you should know about rabbits running in circles around your legs. It is of the utmost importance for you to make sure that you learn how to care for the animal and provide it with everything that it needs.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Film/Video/Media Studies, as well as an associates degree in Communications. I began producing videos and musical recordings nearly 15 years ago. I am a guitarist and bassist in Southwest MI and have been in a few different bands since 2009, and in 2012 I began building custom guitars and basses in my home workshop as well. When I’m home, I love spending time with my three pets (a dog, cat, and snake) and gardening in my backyard. I also like photographing wild birds, especially birds of prey.