Why rabbits don't care about food like dogs?

Why are bunnies not interested in food on the same level as say a dog? They seem to only eat when they feel like it, but it seems they know when they want to stop eating. And can refuse food if they're not interested in eating, even if its their favorite food / treat.

The only food my bunnies will stop what their doing is graham crackers. If they are bored or mindless enough, they approach the food and start munching on it. They will eat vegetables too, but they will only eat it when they feel like it, they won't get excited over it like a graham cracker. But even then, they may get bored of the graham cracker and not want to eat it, even if I shove it in their face.

When kids see my bunnies, they all seem to obsess over the idea of feeding the bunny. Sometimes they will eat, but most the time they won't eat on command, disappointing the kids. Which causes the kids to keep shoving food in their face when the bunnies aren't interested in the idea of eating. I try tell them to wait, but most kids don't have the patience and start trying to put the food in the bunnies mouth thinking it will magically eat when it doesn't want to. I can't even feed my bunnies on command, I just have to leave food around them and wait around to see if I hear crunching noises of a carrot.

If my bunnies ate anything that they saw like a dog would, I am sure all the kids would be super excited. But I love my bunnies even if they're just sitting still like a pillow staring into space. How come bunnies have more self control when it comes to eating compared to a dog, like they can decide when they're not hungry?

When I lived with parents, who had dogs, the two dogs would walk up to me the moment I open the fridge. But not bunnies, they don't really seem to care about the idea of food like a dog does. I think kids should try feeding dogs because you can feed them forever and they probably never stop.

And plus, can bunnies even eat for fun? Their diet is pretty bland and boring, hence I guess the term "bunny food" when people describe bland / boring foods. They probably don't know what pizza tastes like or diary items such as ice cream, so I guess they have no need to be excited for food.

I would say it’s more personality of the bunnies. Myself have one foodie lover, one that will eat anything you give her and another people can shove his favorite food up into his face and he won’t eat.

The food lover bunny, will always be on guard after food. Hearing the fridge or rice bucket opening, you will have to catch a bunny before he jumps in. Open the garbage bin, you will have a bunny that smell like garbage.

While the one that refuses to eat food, will literally ignore you to no end. But instead he loves cuddles and it’s so docile during handling.

So it all comes down to their own personal preference and personalities [emoji5]

You just didn’t get the food loving bunnies. Sometimes I wish my bunny wasn’t so food loving.

My food loving bunny sitting on the rice bucket, trying to figure out how to open it.

Hermelin said:

I would say it’s more personality of the bunnies. Myself have one foodie lover, one that will eat anything you give her and another people can shove his favorite food up into his face and he won’t eat.

You just didn’t get the food loving bunnies. Sometimes I wish my bunny wasn’t so food loving.

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Yeah my bunnies would rather figure out how to run away than how to get food. Or be alert for potential danger, even if its not there, over food.

If they wanna run away, no food is going to stop them from achieving their goal.

We have had some that would eat, especially pellets, til they'd pop. We had 3 that would only eat a little bit of pellet and you could leave their bowl full and it would last more than a week. They are all different and some are even "picky" eaters.

I've had more food-motivated buns than not. A few would be overly crazy and super excited at the mere sound of the lid coming off the pellets jar. Then they'd eat them voraciously!

I had one that would scrounge and beg for any morsel. He would put his paws on the chair as we ate dinner and beg for a treat.
-We caught him (when the kids were little) eating bits of salmon once and sausage another time that had fallen from the table.
-He would sneak in the pantry and pull down the open bags of potato chips.
-at Christmas time, we caught him unwrapping some chocolate candy bars under the tree.

As for dogs, one of ours is not interested in food much at all. In fact it takes him hours to eat his dinner... a little at a time. Our second dog scarfs his food down so fast we had to get one of those bowls that makes them dig around for the nuggets.

Just for fun, here's our rabbits going crazy for banana. The brown rabbit, at that time, was super, super shy and would never approach us...but the smell of the banana would get him so excited, he'd lose all inhibitions.

Blue eyes said:

Just for fun, here's our rabbits going crazy for banana. The brown rabbit, at that time, was super, super shy and would never approach us...but the smell of the banana would get him so excited, he'd lose all inhibitions.

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All of my animals flipped out when that video started playing! My rabbits both ran to the end of their play pens and periscoped to look out the sliding glass door. My dogs leaped off the couch to also look out the door and my African Grey parrot, who is hanging out on top of his cage, skinnied his feathers and reached his neck out to look outside. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a unanimous reaction from my kids before! I didn't see anything going on outside the door unless I missed it. Ha ha! Sorry, off topic but I wanted to share. That is a really cute video!! I can't wait until I can start offering my bunnies treats.

You haven't met my rabbits ; )

Honestly though - dogs are predators (well, omnivores, but close enough). In the wild they don't get food as often, and have to eat all they can when they get the chance. With wild rabbits, grass is pretty much everywhere, they didn't need to evolve that big food drive to survive. You still see some that really love food, but generally they have less food drive than dogs.

Blue eyes said:

Just for fun, here's our rabbits going crazy for banana. The brown rabbit, at that time, was super, super shy and would never approach us...but the smell of the banana would get him so excited, he'd lose all inhibitions.

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So cool Blue eyes!! I love seeing others rabbits. 2 of mine reseble yours but are larger ( maybe 5 pounds each) what breed is the black and white one & also the breed of the brown one???