A frantic rabbit’s signature tell is bolting away with a racing heart and wide eyes. But this natural ‘flight’ response may not be possible for your homestead or pet rabbit if they are stressed or frightened in their rabbit hutch, outdoor enclosure, or while being held.
The inability to react to stressors in this instinctive way can greatly stress rabbits and lead to a state of deadly shock. This is why it is so important to be able to calm and soothe your bunny. Fortunately, we at Hobby Farm Heaven have picked up a few tips and tricks when it comes to calming a rabbit down, so read on!
How To Calm Your Rabbit Down
Before getting into how to calm your bunny down, let’s understand why your bunny is stressed, startled, or frightened. This will help rabbit owners in reducing stressors and frightening events for their bunnies.
Rabbits As Natural Prey Animals
According to their nature and relationships with predators such as fox, lynx, and wolf, rabbits are natural prey animals. As such, they have evolved characteristics that serve them in this role, for example:
- Well developed 5 senses
- A flight response rather than a fight response to danger
- A zig-zag running pattern
- Making homes in underground burrows or dens
Without doubt, these characteristics are of an animal that is used to running and hiding before danger gets too close. Understanding this will help homesteaders and pet rabbit owners avoid stressful situations for their rabbits as well as know how to best calm them down.
How To Help A Stressed Rabbit: Calm My Rabbit Down
There are a few methods we have used with our homestead rabbits that have worked well in calming down a stressed bunny, they are as follows:
- Very gently stroke your rabbit’s head and ears – touching your rabbit’s ears is like rubbing a dog’s belly; they will relax, stretch out, and begin enjoying it immensely. Note that this method only works if you are close to your rabbit.
- Allow your bunny to make first contact – this means not rushing a frightened or stressed bunny to come to you. If they want to hide for a while, allow them to do so, removing all noise sources that you can!
- Bring best friends together – if you have two bunnies that really enjoy each other’s company, bring this best friend of your stressed or frightened rabbit around. This will help soothe and calm the stressed rabbit.
- Give your rabbit space and time – if your rabbit is stressed and wants to react with its natural flight response, allow it to do so. Let your rabbit hide in its hutch, go in its outdoor den, or hide under the couch until she feels safe again.
How To Calm My Rabbit Down At Night
If your bunny seems overly excited or nervous at night, here are a few tips to calm and relax them:
- Hold and pet them for a while – this will naturally relax and calm them.
- Ensure they are in a familiar setting – a new location or place filled with new smells at night may put your rabbit on edge
- Use essential oil pet remedies – try a natural, herb infused spray or oil that can be used with pets, such as valerian or sweet basil.
- Provide them with a safe, dark place – rabbits create burrows in the wild and love safe, dark and private places as they are instinctively familiar and calming.
When it comes to calming a rabbit down, you must remember that your rabbit will have a hard time relaxing and feeling safe in any environment that contains sudden and/or prolonged loud noises such as housecleaning, dogs or other animal sounds, or loud farm equipment. Traveling with rabbits can also stress your furry friend. Therefore, it is essential to provide bunnies with some form of a low noise, dark and private space as these are where they naturally feel most comfortable.
How To Treat A Rabbit In Shock
Shock is a serious state for any rabbit to be in because it poses a serious health threat to your furry friend. If you come across your rabbit in shock, increasing body heat is key! You can stimulate its ears and make it warm and comfortable in soft blankets or towels. For more information about rabbits in shock please read How To Treat A Rabbit In Shock.
How To Help A Stressed Rabbit
If your rabbit seems slightly stressed but isn’t exhibiting signs of shock, there are a few steps to take that can help.
- Ensure your rabbit is warm and comfortable – this may mean bringing a warm blanket, rubbing her ears gently to increase blood flow and exchange heat, or taking her to a different room that is warmer.
- Remove sources of loud noise and bright light – if you rabbit feels that it is hidden and safe she will immediately begin to relax.
- Offer a favorite fruit, veggie or leafy green treat – offering your slightly stressed bunny a favorite treat may help them realize the surroundings or situation isn’t hostile and will help them naturally relax.
To calm a nervous rabbit is very similar, feel free to offer familiar or calming scents, gentle grooming, or space until their heart rate lowers and they seem relaxed.
Finally, note that a rabbit may be stressed due to illness or disease. If your rabbit seems overly lazy, dehydrated, or weak, begin to observe their eating and defecating patterns and speak to a vet immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions Related To How To Help A Stressed Rabbit
How do you tell if your rabbit is stressed?
A stressed rabbit will be sitting rigid and low to the ground with ears back, their body will be frozen and eyes wide, and they may be breathing heavily. Advanced stress leads to glazed and unfocused eyes and a drop in body temperature.
How bad is my rabbit’s pain?
A Smithsonian Magazine article speaks to the development of a rabbit pain scale that helps people understand how much pain and discomfort a rabbit may be experiencing. By observing rabbit behavior in the areas listed below, we can use the scale to determine rabbit discomfort. The rabbit pain scale is a kin to the “grimace scales” developed for determining pain levels in other animals such as lab rats and mice.
The Rabbit Pain Scale – Observe your rabbit for the following “actions” and refer to the linked article for more information.
- narrowing of the eyes
- abnormal ear movements
- bulging of the cheeks
- twitching of the whiskers
Here’s a great “How To” video about Calming Your Rabbit!
Final Thoughts on How To Calm A Rabbit Down
As natural prey animals, rabbits can become easily stressed or frightened. This is why it is essential, as a rabbit raiser or pet owner, to know how to respond gently, calmly and safely each time you have a stressed bunny.
Knowing how to calm a rabbit down is a best practice of bunny stewardship.