Top 5 Behavioral Traits of Rabbits Explained
What are the Behavioral Characteristics of Rabbits?
One: Feeding Behavior
Rabbits exhibit a variety of feeding behaviors, including foraging, drinking, suckling, and coprophagy.
Foraging Behavior: Rabbits often display gnawing behavior, and when they are not eating, they tend to frequently gnaw on hard, angular objects like rabbit cages and feeders, especially before feeding time. Additionally, rabbits have a habit of pawing at feed, often using their front paws to push aside hay or feed, and sometimes even flipping over the feeders. Rabbits are also selective about their food, preferring juicy, tender green forage and pellet feed, while avoiding powdery feed.
Lactation Behavior: Newborn kits start seeking the teats to suckle shortly after birth, spending most of their first four days in activities like eating and sleeping. During feeding times, the doe will jump into the nesting box to wake the kits, and once awake, they will search for the teats to nurse. Kits typically switch between teats after a few sucks and continue to alternate, holding the teats tightly. If the doe's milk supply is insufficient, it may lead to a "suckling" phenomenon.
Drinking Behavior: Water is crucial for rabbits, playing a vital role in digestion, absorption of feed, excretion of metabolic products, and temperature regulation. Rabbits replenish their water through drinking, consuming juicy feed, and metabolic water. Rabbits usually drink water after eating dry feed, and their nighttime water intake accounts for over 60% of their daily total. Chronic dehydration in rabbits can lead to a decrease in appetite, slow production, or even halt it. For lactating does, dehydration can severely impact milk production.
Coprophagy Behavior: Rabbits develop coprophagy as they grow, which is an instinctive response. Normally, rabbits excrete two types of feces daily: hard feces, which are dry and abundant, and soft feces, which are softer and more finely textured. Rabbits consume the soft feces, which they naturally eat after defecating by bending over and consuming the feces from their anal area. Eating soft feces can help补充 certain nutrients and improve the utilization of trace elements like potassium and sodium, enhancing nutritional conversion efficiency.
Two: Territorial Behavior
Rabbits have a sense of territory and use glands under their chin to secrete odors for marking their space. They may also use urine for marking. Male rabbits have particularly distinctive territorial behaviors, which is why it's recommended to place the doe in the buck's cage for breeding rather than the other way around. If the buck is placed in the doe's cage, it may spend more time sniffing around, delaying the breeding process. By placing the doe in the buck's cage, the buck, in a familiar environment, can quickly mate with the doe.
Dr. Oxygen Pet provides some examples of normal rabbit behaviors, hoping to assist rabbit breeders in their care and husbandry.
