Morgan M Baker
Chillin' with the herd
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2016
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- 11
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Hi everyone! I have some questions and would appreciate any advice about one of my male Mini Rex rabbits named Freddy. His behavior is very odd, the way he carries his body. Its kind of hard to explain so try to bare with me and invision what I'm saying in your head if possible. Its so frustrating because I don't honestly know how to explain it! I've been very curious about it for a while so here I am! He contorts/crouches his body in a weird way. Sometimes the middle of his back/belly is all the way down to the bottom of his cage with his head and back end up in the air, sometimes his whole body is down to the floor with his head up only, and other times his whole body is down to the floor with his booty in the air only, and sometimes he is all the way down! I'm not sure if this is "normal" or if I should be concerned. I sold him when he was around 4 months old to a guy and Freddy was a present to the guys girlfriend. But about a month and a half later he was given back to me because his girlfriend didn't take care of him and "he got stuck dealing with him and it was a hassle". I don't remember observing this behavior before he was sold to them. But I have a theory, even though it may sound stupid. I was thinking that maybe they had him in a cage that was too small height wise and he always had to crouch with no room to stand up or stretch up or anything and it just got engraved in his mind to constantly crouch. He does stand and sit normally sometimes though so I'm not sure. When he's in his nest box (all my rabbits either have 2 mats or a nest box to rest there feet as most of my cages are wire) he will have his whole body crouched in kind of a U shape with his chin resting on the side of it. I have his brother also and he doesn't do this, and I never observed any of his other siblings do this. I've attached some pictures but they don't even come close to portraying his behavior. I'm not sure if I should be worried, or if I should take him to my vet to get checked out? Other than this, he seems healthy, he eats and drinks well, and he is very friendly but when I go to reach in his cage or touch him, and even sometimes when I just open his door he immediately crouches down. He will also crouch, bring his head up and down, up and down and so on. Any advice will be greatly appreciated, I've just never seen or heard of this, even though I've been in the "rabbit business" for almost 4 years which isn't long compared to a lot of you! Thank you guys so much!