Is this normal rabbit behavior?

[mk94]

I will let our new little bunny out to play and he will be such a spaz. He'll run around like mad and then come to a dead stop. He'll jump in the air, shaking his head, and swinging his hind legs to one side. When he lands, he'll kick his hind legs in the air a few times and then take off running. I assume that this is similar to what chinchillas do when they are excited, what I've heard some people refer to as popcorning. Would you say this is normal? That he's just really excited to be out playing?

 

[blondeangel]

guinea pigs popcorn when they get excited basically a spaz jumping up and down motion. my chinchillas normally hop along when they are out of the cage and literally bounce off the walls....never to weird tho. he may just be happy to be out of a cage of he has been confined to small cages for a while(meaning currently and previously before you got him)...how big of a cage do you have him in now??

 

[Parkerspetchins]

Yes, it is just like what chinchillas do. Your bun is excited and happy ).

 

[greenbean]

Yeah it's normal. I love watching them run around and play like that haha

 

[mk94]

guinea pigs popcorn when they get excited basically a spaz jumping up and down motion. my chinchillas normally hop along when they are out of the cage and literally bounce off the walls....never to weird tho. he may just be happy to be out of a cage of he has been confined to small cages for a while(meaning currently and previously before you got him)...how big of a cage do you have him in now??

He's currently in a 2x2x2 cage that has a platform level. He'll probably need a bigger cage if he gets bigger. He's a pretty little bunny right now.

 

[tkc1038]

awwww he a very happy and excited little guy.I love watching them at this age.

 

[blondeangel]

He's currently in a 2x2x2 cage that has a platform level. He'll probably need a bigger cage if he gets bigger. He's a pretty little bunny right now.

in my opinion that is still a fairly small cage for a rabbit - even a small one. my guinea pig who is probably just around a pound and a half is in a 40l x 21w x 18h cage. by the time you add in a hide/food bowl/hay dish/tumbler and a toy or two there really isn't much room left for him to burn off any energy in cage...

don't mean to sound mean about it! when petco (where i work) sold dwarf rabbits they would all go home with the same cage I have my pig in. mostly because even dwarf rabbits can grow roughly to 4-6 lbs.

 

[mk94]

in my opinion that is still a fairly small cage for a rabbit - even a small one. my guinea pig who is probably just around a pound and a half is in a 40l x 21w x 18h cage. by the time you add in a hide/food bowl/hay dish/tumbler and a toy or two there really isn't much room left for him to burn off any energy in cage...

don't mean to sound mean about it! when petco (where i work) sold dwarf rabbits they would all go home with the same cage I have my pig in. mostly because even dwarf rabbits can grow roughly to 4-6 lbs.

No, I understand. I am aware that the cage isn't a very big one. It was just what we happen to have at the moment. My husband wanted to put him in a 64 gallon breeder tank that we have (he can be kinda silly sometimes) and I told him this would be better. Our intention was for him to have access to an entire room. We just have to figure out how to litter train him or at least make him want to return to his cage to use the bathroom. Obviously there would be a stray poo here or there, I'm not worried about that. He just seems to like to pee wherever, which isn't so good. My hope was that if we bunny-proofed the room and that he was pretty consistent about using his cage as a litter box, then he could come out to play for longer periods with minimum supervision. I've heard of people having house rabbits, so I didn't think it was too terribly unreasonable. Anyway, he's probably going to get a bigger cage at some point.

 

[Euphoric]

Its called "Binkies" in langomorph terms. it means your rabbit is happy!
You can go to rabbitsonline.net for more rabbit information on everything.

My dwarf rabbit is in a NIC cage (A custom cage from "neat idea cubes" very popular) and is 42 inches long, 28 inches wide, 28 inches tall, and has a second level. It fits her size well.
But rabbits need 2+ hours of playtime a day out of cage anyways.

For litter training, liteally just stick a box in thier and place his hay around it/ in it. It usually comes nautrually, howeever if he isn't fixed he may not become potty trained.
My dwarf lionhead is boxed trained but wasn't before we got her spayed. My English Lop is not fixed (He is a show rabbit) and isn't trained..sometimes he pees only in the litter box but not all the time.

When you give him free time, make sure he iether has a couple litter boxes out ot pee in, or to have his cage open so he can go back and use the litter box.
Fixing yoru rabbit is VERY important to thier health and behavior.