Thursday, February 12, 2015

When the treat is that good...

When the treat is that good, you execute extraordinary strategies to protect your "interests".

As has been written here before, the bunnies favorite treat is a Probios (apple flavor). It's a horse biscuit that aids digestion and although it's small, one is too big for any of our bunnies. So about 9:00pm every night, they get one biscuit, broken roughly into thirds.

But they don't always break too evenly. They like it so much that they have learned that if they eat their piece fast enough, they might be able to go snatch some of the big crumbs from someone else's portion (Ethel does not do this, but Bunya and Lucy will).

They have developed coping mechanisms to deal with this behavior. Ethel has learned to hunker down in place and eat hers really fast. Bunya usually does the same, although in this picture, he moved a little away. He stays close because Ethel's usually the easy target for poaching.

Lucy always runs away with hers so no one is close to her and she can keep an eye out while she's munching her treat. Another variation of this is that she will back into the space between their gate and the wall, into her own protective single bunny "cage".


Well, this night, Lucy got the big piece and she knew it. Instead of backing into her panic room, she went in head first so no one could approach her mouth or any of her crumbs.


From this vantage point, she kept an eye on Bunya and Ethel, and finished all of her allotted treat with absolutely no interference.

Bunnies are funny! And smart!

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