What is a personality?
A personality is a combination of qualities and behaviours that make up a unique and distinctive character. These include traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities and emotional patterns. It is a product of both biology and environment, and it stays nearly the same throughout life.
The word personality originated from the Latin word persona, which refers to a theoretical mask worn by performers to play roles or disguise their identities.
About Personalities
My mother told me that my great-grandmother (my mum’s grandmother) always said that if you had 12 children each one will have a different personality.
It’s the same with rabbits. Every rabbit will have a different personality. Your bunny will have a different personality to my bunny; but it’s up to us as bunny owners to discover their unique personality.
There are 5 things that affect a bunny’s personality:
Environmental Factors
These are the things that a bunny learns just by existing. For example, “Ouch that hurt”, or “that tastes yucky”. Environmental factors are learned by the individual, which helps develop different personality traits for each bunny.
Colony / Family Factors
Are the traits that are passed down from parents to the kits. They can be the traits of copying parents when and what they are eating and getting excited when food is being presented. Humans can also be part of a rabbit’s family, and they can learn certain things quickly from humans.
Natural Factors
These are intuitive and instinctual that every rabbit should have. For example running away when scared or sitting still and listening to a sound.
Individual Factors
Are individual traits that each bunny decides on. For example, one bunny likes carrots, and another doesn’t.
Breed Factors
These are the things that are defined by genetics, like Mini Lops are bred to be super friendly, and New Zealand Whites are bred for meat.
How age affects personality
When baby bunnies play with each other you can see their personalities. Some will be adventurous, others will run around a lot, some will play with objects and each other, some will copy behaviours from the more active kits, and others will sit and watch. As they grow, they will carry those personality traits with them.
Depending on the experiences the kits have when babies will set them up for life. Most caring breeders will pick the babies up from an early age to get them used to human contact and scent. If this doesn’t occur early on, the bunnies will not be as comfortable with humans. You can tell a bunny who has had early contact with humans compared to bunnies who started having contact later. The early-contact bunnies look at humans through a “trust” lens, where they trust your behaviours, attitudes and beliefs. While a bunny who was started to be handled from, say, 3-4 weeks of age, are a bit more skeptical. If they are handled later, from 1-2 months, the bunny won’t really like human contact and learn to put up with it.
Mixed with the handling is the bunny’s personality, so for example, if you have a bunny who has been handled since 2 weeks old, and have the personality of being adventurous, that bunny will grow up to be a fast learner and easily trained. While a bunny who wasn’t handled until 4 weeks of age, and is adventurous, that bunny will most likely run away from humans and not like being picked up.
Three months old is when the hormones kick in for bucks (males). You can tell when adolescence starts because they lose all use of the litter box, they start circling, mounting, spraying and nipping. Your bunny isn’t being bad, it’s just time to get him desexed.
If you don’t get your bunny neutered or speyed, you will see that your bunny will have a more hormonal response to situations. It will hump, get aggressive, and more subtle personality traits will not be visible. If you get your bunny desexed early, males at 3 months and females at 4 months, the hormonal personality traits won’t kick in and you will get a more easy going rabbit. If you wait longer to get them desexed, the hormones will take longer to deplete, and that’s why they say don’t put bunnies together until 2 months after the operation.
The older bunnies get, you’ll notice that they go through a stage called “stroppy teenager” which can last until they are 2 years old. Bunnies may be more active, less likely to want pats, and not enjoy being handled as much. They have their own mind and will let you know it. Once the “stroppy teenager” symptoms pass, your pet will be your best friend.
Male Bunnies
After desexing, male rabbits are more relaxed and easy going, while females are more active and interested in everything. In the wild, females dig the burrow and males protect it.
Male rabbits are known to be easier for bunny beginners. They get into less trouble and can be less active than females. Once they have been desexed, they settle down. If they are not neutered, they can become aggressive and swipe their paws at you.
They say that if you can’t get your male bunny desexed at an early age, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. However, I disagree, as hormones will set in and the longer you wait, the longer it will take for them to settle down after the operation.
Personally, if I was going to get a young kit again, I’d get them desexed as soon as possible so the hormones don’t have much of a chance to kick in.
Warning: If you are considering a bunny for a pet, factor in the cost of the desexing operation. It can cost upwards of $400 per bunny, and more if you have a female. If you can’t factor in that price, then maybe consider adopting a rescue bunny, they come to you already desexed and vaccinated.
Some people say that bunny personalities are hard to define, but if you’re after a bunny who is laid back, friendly and attention seeking then get a male bunny.
However, my bunny, Buttons is none of those things. He does his own thing, and if he doesn’t want to know you he will ignore you or even move away. If he wants to be patted, he will lay his head on the floor and wait. If he wants to be picked up, he will get into a particular pose. It’s all him, all his personality. I cannot force him to do any of those things.
He is not attention seeking at all, nor does he climb all over me. Although if I lay on the floor (at his height) he will come over, sit on my shoulder or back and snuffle my ear. If I try to pat him when he doesn’t want it, he moves away. That’s his choice, and part of his personality.
Buttons’ personality are clearly a mix of the 5 factors listed above:
- Environmental factors: He wasn’t handled much, if at all, until I got him at 12 weeks old
- Family factors: His mother taught him to be scared of humans
- Natural factors: He was scared, careful and wary of humans
- Individual factors: He isolated himself away and hid
- Breed factors: He has a digestion issue, which is caused by genetics, this stops him from eating a lot of foods that other bunnies can eat without issue
After many months of hard work, he has chosen to trust me and has overcome those factors as much as he can in his own way. He makes decisions about his actions (you can actually see him decide what he will do), and this is clearly his individual understanding and ability to overcome these factors.
Update – March, 2024
Now that he is nearly 2-years old (in May 2024), he decided that he really likes pats and he now comes up to me for them. We have seen a significant change in his behaviour over the past month or so, where he asks for pats. It is known that when bunnies turn 2, their personalities settle down and they become not so feisty.
Female Bunnies
They say that females are more difficult to take care of because they have destructive and aggressive tendencies.
I have never met a female rabbit with these behavioural issues. Yes, they like digging and scratching, which I call diggy-diggy. But I have never met an aggressive female rabbit. I have heard stories of aggressive female rabbits, even savage ones. I have a suspicion that it is because they were either neutered late, or even had a litter or two and then neutered, or they have been given the wrong environmental and family factors in their early life.
Digging is a natural behaviour for female rabbits, you can’t stop them from doing it. All you can do is bunny-proof your house and give her somewhere to dig. Female bunnies dig the tunnels, and they even dig newer smaller ones when they are about to have a litter.
People can’t usually pin point personality traits in female rabbits, but I’ll give it a try. Female rabbits are active learners, they set trends and they always make sure they complete tasks. They are friendly, sociable and very cheerful. They are happy, full of love and very, very cute. On the flip side, they can like spending time by themselves and won’t want to be disturbed. They enjoy being in boxes, tunnels or paces that are out of sight, which stems from hiding in burrows with babies.
I recommend getting your bunny-girls speyed. However, it is a nasty operation and will cost more than getting a male neutered. They have to open the bunny up and remove the ovaries, then sew her up again. Some bunnies won’t survive the anesthesia because bunnies are fragile. If your bunny has breathing issues, or even a small rattle in the lungs, tell the vet when you book your bunny in for the operation. Keep in mind that it can take a month or so before your appointment, so book it in early. Also, good bunny-savvy vets will do a preliminary health check on the rabbit to see if there are any health issues.
Typical Bunny Personalities
When you deal with a lot of rabbits, you see that they all have their own unique personalities, but there are similarities between them.
- The Athlete: Binky first, run around and bump into everything
- The Hardcore: Bites for attention
- The Muncher: Do anything for food
- The Dreamer: Will flop, all the time
- The Possessive: Chin rubs everything
- The Hairstylist: Loves playing with human hair
- The Lickity: Licks everything
- The Creep: Always watching, never touching
- The Cuddler: Loves hugs, kisses and pats