Rabbits can get anxious and angry, no matter how adorable and calm they look. Unfortunately, rabbits who are in this situation tend to show abnormal behaviors. They’ll start lunging, growling, and biting you. But there is always a way to correct this, and here’s how to calm a rabbit.
Why is it important to know how to calm a rabbit?
One natural yet notable trait of rabbits is their sensitivity. These little furry animals are too sensitive that they can quickly and easily get stressed, depressed, or mad.
As a rabbit owner, you must at least learn how to calm a rabbit. Unless you like an everyday trip to the veterinarian,
Learning how to calm a rabbit will give you an idea of what to do in instances where your rabbit starts to have panic attacks. You can also immediately help them calm down when they are mad at other rabbits.
These things are essential since rabbits, like human beings, can also have adverse effects on their health when stressed or angry. It would help if you prevented this as a rabbit owner since these effects may lead to severe health problems that may be fatal to the rabbits.
There are quite a several ways to calm a rabbit. Read on, and you will know the most basic ways to calm a rabbit from stress or anger.
How to calm a rabbit: 7 Best and Most Effective Ways to Calm a Rabbit
1. Maintain your rabbit’s clean-living environment
Rabbits chew a lot and play a lot, which means their place may quickly get a little bit messy and stinky.
This means that you need to clean their area regularly for them not to be stressed. Otherwise, they might have some behavioral issues. They may scream, jump around, or completely go wild.
Maintaining the rabbit’s clean-living environment keeps them calm and happy.
Another reason your rabbits need to have a clean-living environment is because a messy and stinky environment may affect your rabbit’s overall well-being. They may get infected with bacteria that may cause them to have a lower mortality rate.
Thus, with this, you don’t need to calm a rabbit. They will leave with a happy, healthy, and peaceful life.
2. No obnoxious noises
Rabbits, being prey animals, have developed prey instincts over time. Their ears are sensitive too. Their excellent hearing ability allows them to hear noises that we do not hear.
There are several reasons why they hate loud noises. The most common one is predator-induced stress. Rabbits are prey animals.
It means that they are at the bottom of the food chain, and the loud noises may indicate that they may become the best dinner served to their predators.
Thus, the thuds and stomps they hear may cause them to panic and run for their lives. Unfortunately, if the rabbits have health issues or old age, hearing loud noises may cause them to die. Thus, it is important that you put the rabbits into a noise-free environment.
If not, put them in a place where they can hear fewer disturbing noises.
3. Use caution when handling your rabbit
Contrary to what most believe that rabbits love to be handled, they get stressed when you pick them up and stroke them in the wrong way. Also, rabbits are land animals and holding them a couple of feet above the ground will surely freak them out.
Allowing the rabbits to gain your trust before picking them up is the best way to handle them.
To do this, you play with them, feed them personally, or talk to them. They are very social animals, and somehow, they love the attention. However, you need to be careful when handling them.
Moreover, if you want to pet your rabbits or cuddle them, you may need to do this when they are physically active. Do not disturb them, pick them up, or cuddle them when they rest or sleep. This will just stress the rabbits.
4. Give your rabbit some space
Space is critical to rabbits. When put in a small cage, these territorial, furry little creatures get easily stressed. This is primarily for two reasons: one, they are hyper hoppers, and two, they are territorial animals.
For your rabbits to stay sane, you must build them a hutch ideal for their size. Or, you must give the rabbits enough time to play around outside their hutch.
5. Create a haven for your rabbit
Another way to let you calm a rabbit is by building a rabbit hiding place. This is an important technique that you must learn when you calm a rabbit.
Why? Rabbits are prey animals, and when their lives are in danger from predators or when they are frightened, they usually go into a rabbit hole to hide.
Thus, you must build a hiding place for the rabbits to calm them when they hear loud noises or feel that they are in danger. You can make a tunnel from a hollow log or pipe, or you may make a DIY hiding place for them using cardboard and other recyclable materials.
6. Give your rabbits rabbit-friendly treats
Another way to calm your rabbit is by giving him a treat. Giving them their favorite food, or treat, diverts and stabilizes their emotions. Because of this, you must have at least an extra bag of broccoli leaves and bok choy in the fridge or any of their favorite foods.
7. Take your rabbit to the vet
If there are some instances when your rabbit won’t calm down and the rabbit’s heart is racing so fast, we suggest that you bring your pet rabbit to the veterinary clinic. They may need some medication to calm them down. Otherwise, they might die from heart attack.
How to calm a rabbit at night?
You will most likely see your rabbits stressed at night, especially if they’re caged outside the house.
They may start thumping and screaming as they hear noises they think are from their predators. Or they may listen to loud noises that are too much for them. These noises may include thunder and fireworks.
When you hear or notice the rabbits acting weird, you must attend to them immediately. Give them space to run to or hide. You may bring them inside your house and let them play for a couple of minutes until they are calm.
Once they are calm, you may put them back into their cage or until the noises are gone. You may also cover your rabbits’ cage with a cloth to help the rabbits calm down and to help them sleep well.
But, do not fully cover the cage. Leave some open space for ventilation.
Is calming rabbit spray effective for rabbits?
If everything listed above won’t work, you may try a calming spray. There are rabbit-friendly calming sprays that you can buy in vet stores.
These calming sprays contain rabbit calming pheromone, which helps your rabbit stay calm and relaxed from stressful situations.
Fortunately, these calming prays last for approximately 5 hours which is enough time for the rabbit’s emotional and psychological stress to subside.
Can music calm a rabbit?
Lullabies are one of the best ways to calm a person, and it works perfectly fine with rabbits too!
According to some research, rabbits love mellow music. It calms them down. However, before turning on the volume, you must first slowly introduce the music to the rabbits.
To some, a piece of mellow music may work and calm them down, while others may find harmony, in general, irritating and stressful.
Thus, knowing their personality and traits will help you determine whether you need to turn that music on or just leave your rabbit alone.
Once you determine that the rabbit loves music, the next thing that you must learn is when you should stop playing music for the rabbits. You can let your rabbit listen to mellow music any time of the day – nonstop.
However, you need to be cautious about what mellow music you will play. You must be familiar with the music and select that music that is not high pitched or where there is electric guitar or drums solo.
You must not also play opera songs to your rabbits as these songs are said to irritate them.
Undoubtedly, your rabbits will jolt if they hear those sounds.
If you are unsure which music to play, you may look for beautiful relaxing piano instrumentals. They will surely love it! But do not just pick any of those piano instrumentals collections on YouTube or Spotify. You must know what is in the track itself.
Remember, you are playing music to your rabbits to calm them down, not to stress them out. Thus, select the right music.
Summary
It is normal for rabbits to get stressed, frightened, or mad. You can barely prevent those from happening. Instead, what you can do and need to do is calm the rabbits right away to prevent any side effects that may be fatal to them.
