Rabbit behavioural scientists suggest that boops are classed as a polite greeting. Bunnies boop each other if they have been away from each other on separate sides of the pen for a short time. The boop may then turn into a full-on lick of the forehead, or a grooming session.
What are Boops?
In most documentation about bunnies and this behaviour it is called a nudge or gentle nudge. However, I classify a nudge as when the bunny pushes you with their forehead, not their nose.
I call it a “boop”, because that is exactly what they are doing, pressing their nose against your finger as a form of communication.
According to the Bunny Lady, bunnies give gentle nudges to indicate that they want a pat. This is very true.
Boops as a Communication Tool
As they use boop as a polite greeting to each other, they also use it in the same manner to everyone in their human family. Some rabbits expect everyone to boop first, then pat. If they see you are near them, they will wait for your hand to come down and they will boop it before you pat them. This is an important greeting. It is like you are accepting their “Hello, how are you?”.
Sometimes they will boop you several times because they are happy to get pats. Other times they may boop you and move away. That means they are accepting the hello, but they don’t want further contact.
All rabbits will boop, but to different strengths. Some rabbits will just move their cheeks towards yor finger, others will bump their nose against your finger with emphasis. It all depends on your rabbit’s personality.
The Science of Boops
A rabbit’s nose is very sensitive. It is covered with tiny vibrissa (hairs) that pick up electromagnetic signals from other animals, food and the environment. Imagine having a constant tingle of static electricity on your nose the whole time, that’s what rabbits have.
Not only that, their nose has very acute smelling receptors, which means they can smell something much better than us, or as the scientists put it: 10 times better than a dog, or 50 times better than us. That’s a really powerful sniffer.
When a rabbit is twitching it’s nose, is it moving the vibrissa up and down so it can sense environmental changes. For example, if a rabbit is sleeping with their eyes open, their nose will twitch and then stop. You can notice the nose will twitch when there is a change in the environment, like another rabbit changing position, or food being put in the cage. The electromagnetic signals caused by those changes makes the sleeping rabbit’s nose twitch to readjust the signals that are being sent to the brain. That is for two reasons:
- sleep is a very important activity in a rabbits life, and they don’t want to be woken up every time something changes
- if something changes, they don’t want to be startled by it when they do wake up, so the nose pre-senses the changes and the new information is sent to the brain
That means the brain recalibrates the positions of items and the rabbit doesn’t need to wake up, unless of course there is a reason to wake up… like food.
When a rabbit is fully asleep, with their eyes closed, their nose won’t twitch very often. That is because even their nose needs sleep. I know it sounds silly, but imagine the strain on the muscles to make the sniffer twitch all day every day. Everything needs sleep, and so does a bunny’s booper.
As for breathing, a bunny can breathe quite happily without twitching their nose. They basically put their nose on pause leaving a tiny opening and continue breathing normally. A relaxed and asleep rabbit won’t twitch their nose often.
When it comes to boops, a bunny will sense your finger about 5cm away from it’s nose through the electromagnetic energy picked up by the vibrissa. When your finger gets closer, you will see that their cheeks start pointing towards your finger. That is an automatic response to the static electricity. That’s the senses in the brain saying “Hang on, there’s something in your nose’s proximity”. The rabbit will then do one of two things:
- push its head forward to have physical contact with the finger (which is a boop)
- pull its cheeks back and remain asleep
Training for Boops
Rabbits can be trained to boop. All you have to do is gently put your finger on their nose and say “boop”, then remove your finger. It will take a couple of months of practice. Some rabbits will take it up really quickly because it is a natural behaviour, others will take longer to get the idea especially if the rabbit is older and hasn’t been with other rabbits for a long time.
Buttons and Booping
Ever since I brought Buttons home he booped. All I had to do was touch his nose each time he pushed it towards me and say “boop”. It took him about a week to get the idea that the word was connected to the action. Now he boops on command, mostly.
I use it with him to check if he is awake or asleep. If he is anywhere between 50%-100% asleep he won’t respond with a boop. If he is resting, he will give tiny boops where he doesn’t put any effort into them, or if he is awake, he gives power boops, where he pushes his nose against my finger.
Boopy Myths
I have read some stupid myths about touching rabbits noses, the shortened versions are:
- They will die
- They will get permanent sneezes
- They will get GI stasis
- They will stop eating
- They will go into a trance
All if these myths are incorrect, let alone scientifically implausible.
Warnings
If you press your finger on their nose too hard, you can hurt the rabbit, because their noses are very sensitive. You must always boop them with caution and be extremely gentle.
Never have creams, strong scents, or soaps on your hands when handling rabbits. Make sure your skin is product free. That is to make sure that the rabbit doesn’t ingest or inhale products that can hurt or even kill it. You must be acutely aware of what your hands have on them when handling rabbits at all times.