Rabbits let other bunnies know how they feel both mentally and physically regularly. Bunnies can communicate their feelings through visual and auditory signals from every few seconds up to about 5 minutes. They continue the communication all day and night so other bunnies around them know what is going on.
Emotional communication
- Love – laying next to each other, grooming each other
- Contentment – shown by a flop where the bunny flings itself onto its side or back, it may purr teeth
- Joie de vivre – a binky
- Anger – biting, growling, lunging forward
- Fear – big eyes, ears flat on body, fast breathing, racing heart
- Irritability – turn its back, flick back feet
- Bossiness – demanding food
- Jealousy – the belief that another bunny or person is getting more attention more frequently
- Insecurity – bunny shows insecurity and hang out of reach
- Grief and depression – sadness, inactivity, loss of appetite, loneliness
Head
When relaxed rabbits lower their head, it means that they want to be groomed. Some rabbits will flatten their heads on the floor with their ears flat against their back, and want to be patted. Other rabbits may tilt their heads back, with their noses in the air and enjoy the pat.
Bunnies flick their ears in a happy movement which is like a tiny binky, where their feet barely leave the floor. This is play behaviour and shows happiness. A bunny who shake their head like they are saying “no” is indicating frustration or agitation. Their lips may be pulled back and may look disgusted at you. Ear discomfort is shown with slow flicks and maybe excessive grooming.
Bunnies can tilt their head to the side and stare at you. They may have a quizzical look on their face, with one lip pulled back. This means they are wondering what you are doing and whether they can involve themselves, or “help”.
Body
A hunched body usually shows that the bunny is in pain. They have a curved back and sunken eyes. Their ears may be flat against their body. Their feet are usually tucked in under their body.
A relaxed rabbit in a hunched position is usually in a loaf. They usually have half-closed eyes and a straight spine. Their ears will be relaxed, either slightly raised, or flat against their body but turned so they can listen. Some bunnies will loaf with their arms poking out, sometimes at different lengths, or even neatly tucked in under their body.
A flattened body position is where the bunny flattens like a pancake on the ground to reduce its visibility to predators. They lower their ears and tail, and make sure their bottom is as flat as they can make it. This can show they are scared of the environment, but it can also mean they are wanting a full body rub. To tell the difference, a scared bunny will have bulgy eyes and be breathing rapidly.
When a bunny is sitting, with their chest and tummy off the ground, back feet facing forward, and arms resting on the ground in front of their tummy, it means they are checking out their surroundings and keeping an eye-out for changes.
When a bunny is lying down on their tummy, their back legs indicate how relaxed they are. If they are tucked under their hips, they are ready to leap up, or if they are stretched out as far as they can go, the bunny is relaxed. This also applies to the temperature of the rabbit. If the bunny is crunched up, it is cold, or if it is stretched out, it is trying to expel heat.
Ears
Ears are very important for communication, and are used as a visual communication system between rabbits. When a bunny is investigating something both ears are facing forward and alert. If there is an unusual or unexpected sound from a particular direction, or the bunny is paying attention to the sound while looking in another direction, one ear will rotate towards the sound. A relaxed bunny’s ears will be on a 30° angle.
Relaxed rabbits’ ears face outwards, and are not as open because the muscles are relaxed. A very relaxed rabbit will rest its ears along its back. A cold rabbit will do the same because the thin fur at the back of the neck expels heat and will warm the ears.
Scared rabbits flatten their ears against their back, with bulgy eyes, raised tail and a low body position. The bunny may freeze or even take flight. If the thing that is scary stays around, the rabbit may become aggressive and lunge, scratch or bite.
Rabbits with deformed ears, like a lop, cannot use their ears for communication. This can make it hard for other bunnies or their owner to understand their emotional state.
Eyes
A bunny’s eyes are used to show if they are scared. They tighten the muscles in their face, making their eyes look bigger. Their eyes look like they are bulging out of their heads, and the whites are visible. Bunnies will blink less.
While a relaxed bunny will have their eyes partially closed.
A rabbit in pain will also have their eyes partially closed, but the eyes are sunken.
Lips
When a bunny is interested in something and is investigating it, it will have rounded upper lips. If the rabbit is investigating an object on one side of its face, it will flatten the upper lip on that side. A scared bunny flattens both lips because they have increased muscular tension, which in turn widens the nostrils.
Tail
A bunny’s tail is an important part of communication. If a bunny is scared and it is running away from danger, it will flick its tail to flash the white underside. This is called a scut. They might lift their tail to show interest, or arousal, or wariness.
Rabbits may also flick their tail in defiance.
Binkies
Binkying comes in two styles, a full binky, where the bunny leaps in the air and kicks its back feet out. Or a partial binky where the bunny runs around and shakes its ears, with or without a jump. This behaviour was first believed to be training for escape, but now it’s been discovered that it is pure happiness and only happens when the bunny is relaxed and happy without any threats around.
A binky was originally known as joie de vivre.
Running
Bunnies can run really fast for short distances, this is called a sprint. It may or may not have a binky performed with it. It is considered as a play behaviour and only happens when the bunny is happy and relaxed.
Chasing
There are two types of chasing. One is a form of play behaviour where it is very similar to tag, or hide-and-seek. The second is to get to a new resource first (like food or a toy), where the chaser (the rabbit who is chasing) has a lifted tail, and a streamlined body, and the chasee (the rabbit who is being chased) is sleek, flat and direct.
Back feet
When a bunny flicks its back feet, it shows frustration or irritation, and it may kick up dirt, water or litter to make its point clear.
Bunnies thump their back feet onto the ground to warn others of a danger or simply to show their disgust about something. It is considered as a social communication for fear and anxiety, and even frustration and disgust. Sometimes it is used in playful situations, and to express their excitement.
Audible Communications
Rabbits have many different vocalisations, most of them we can’t hear with our ears. The ones we can hear are mentioned below.
Grinding Teeth
Bunnies grind their teeth for two reasons, one is because they are finding the situation pleasurable and the bunny is calm. The second is because it is in pain.
Usually, the rabbit is enjoying being patted or having the other bunny groom them. The teeth grinding will be side-to-side movement of the molars, it is sometimes quiet and all you can see is the side-to-side movement, other times it makes a clicking sound. If you respond with clicking your teeth together the bunny will settle in more because you’re giving feedback.
When the rabbit is in pain the grinding is a lot louder, forceful and for a longer period of time. The bunny will also be in a pain crunch position and have sunken eyes.
Honking, grunting and growling
A honk sounds like a low rumbling eh, eh sound, that is made in playful situations.
A grunt is a low-pitched guttural sound that is more forceful than a honk. It is connected to sexual behaviours and usually only male rabbits make it.
A growl is very similar to a low-rumbling dogs growl that only goes for a short time because of a bunny’s small thorax size. They growl to show anger or when they feel like they are going to miss out on a resource like food. It usually indicates a high level of stress. They flatten their ears and have wide eyes.
Screaming
When a rabbit is in acute pain or in an extremely scary situation, they can scream. It is also known as the death scream.
Scent Glands
Rabbit noses have an organ inside called the vomero-nasal organ, which detects pheromones. Pheromones are spread by the scent glands under a bunny’s chin, in its urine, poop and other glands that secrete liquids, like the mammary and inguinal glands.
Humans can’t detect the pheromones, but other bunnies can with their nose.
When a bunny chins an object, it puts its jaw on the object and pushes its head forward, it leaves behind submandibular gland secretions. Both male and female bunnies chin objects, but it is not as often when they have been desexed. They think it’s to mark territory, I don’t I think it’s to let other bunnies know who has been around in a similar fashion to dogs peeing on trees and fire hydrants when they leave a message for other dogs.
Spraying urine is a rabbits way to signal leave their scent on objects. Bunnies run and rotate their hind legs and sprays a jet of urine. If the urine hits another bunny, it is called enurination. Males do this as a sexual behaviour, neutered males don’t do it as much. Females spend time investigating the urine because it holds a lot of health information, and hormones like testosterone.
Bunnies have anal glands that can be controlled voluntarily. They can compress the gland to be able to change the scent on their poops. The odour will be stronger in males than females and hits a high in breeding season. Rabbits poop in one place, these are called dunghills or latrines, and have a rabbity smell. Rabbits spend time in the latrine by sitting and lying down.
Female rabbits with babies use mammary pheromones to teach their young. They release the pheromone from around the nipple which causes the baby to behave differently. It also helps the kit to find the nipple quickly, it helps with learning new scents and mixes of them, which are important for pattern recognition of good and bad scents later in life. When newborn kits are introduced to the human smell, especially around the time of nursing, decreases their fear response to humans later in life. This is important for reducing stress responses in adult rabbits.
Inguinal gland pheromones give each rabbit their own distinct smell. Rabbits can tell each other apart quickly by smelling the pheromone.
Rabbits have glands near their eyes that excrete a tear film that helps them blink less than humans. They also produce ocular pheromones that help with individual scents.