Bunny eating greens at super-speed!

Just for fun!

Bunnydom activities of daily living - 1

This week, RR will try to explore the Activities of Daily Living for bunnies. Won't hit them all in a single week, but we'll see what we can do.

#1: Eating

Sharing a bowl of crumbles
(FYI, Oxbow Bunny Basics/T,
as recommended by vet & GHRS)

Sharing a plate of greens.
This one includes fresh carrot tops (not the comedian)
- one of this trio's absolute favorites!

Vanity license plate: ORGANIC

Bunya loves filling up his grocery cart with ORGANIC greens!

But he needs to wait until he's paid for them before he starts eating.

Tunnel bunny at dinner time

Came home and fed the bunnies. That starts with their crumbles. Even though they have two food dishes, they often all hover over the same one. Tonight, in part by how they rearrange their pen "furniture" during the day, Lucy ended up looking like something carrying her tunnel home on her back, a combination inch-worm-bunny and hermit-crab-bunny.

And she stayed there even after the greens were placed on the table.

Bunny as entertainment

For my money, there's no better bang for your entertainment buck than watching bunnies eat, especially their greens...

Shortened from over 4 minutes to about 40 seconds. You may want to watch more than once to focus on each of them (well, okay, maybe that's just me).

Shown in real-time (no slo-mo or speed-up).

Bunya's nomming ear down flat, like if he makes himself more aerodynamic, he'll be able to eat faster and get more greens. Silly rabbit ...

Many times, the greens in another bunny's mouth have much greater appeal than what's left on the plate. Then they snatch it out of each other's mouth. Not in this clip, but we'll keep trying to catch that on video, too.

Bunny version of "manna from heaven"

As said before, bunnies are smart. They learn patterns, cues, triggers...

When preparing the bunnies' greens, we give them a second washing (the first rinse is when we buy them and put them in the frig). This is to get any dirt or other residue off the food and also to leave their meal "moist", so they get more water in their system (keeps the flow going).

The sink has a faucet that can be set to a spray. As soon as the spray turns on - if it's at mealtime - Bunya bounds excitedly over to the counter and begins his stare. He used to look for any spare sprig that may have dropped to the floor.

Now, we will take a piece of the parsley or cilantro and toss it high in the air, targeted to land near him. He will pounce on it and devour it.

Bunya awaits his pre-meal "amuse-bouche".

Then he happily follows the server and dinner plates to the pen, often with waggling ears and a little binky (it's not a big binky ... he's happy, but doesn't want to take so much time as to make himself late to the plate).

Lucy eating her greens

Lucy gives this task tremendous concentration.

The new camera is great ... you can see her blue eyes.
Well, eye.

You can also see that some white hairs are popping through the black. I hope an almost 2 year old bunny is not getting gray. This is pre-grooming, so that's probably what it is. Look near her tail and you can see tufts of fluffy hair, suspended in mid-shed.

This video above is what was going on right before Lucy went back and rejoined the other buns to get some more greens, seen here.