Can my rabbits feel my pain

[Oreo and bella]

On Tuesday I lost my very beautiful and loving dog that I had for 6 years had to have him put to sleep because he had a fit and he cause him brain damage I am so heart broken I couldn't even be with him because of the horrid virus going around anyway since all of this my rabbit been acting strange especially Bella she is very timid and hardly let you stroke her I was giving them both food this morning Oreo nudged me so I gave her a stroke then Bella stood in her pen and for the first time she nudge me and I stroked her I couldn't believe it she always want it to be her way or no way I guess she could be getting used to me

 

[Catlyn]

Yeah, depends on the rabbit.
Musti would always seek extra attention and give more cuddles/lick me/lay with me longer when i was feeling really down, sometimes to the point of emotional grieving.
Storm on the other hand is a total jerk when it comes to sensing and acting upon my grievances. I'd just lost Musti when we brought Storm home. After a week i was still strongly grieving my lost sweetie and although Storm had accepted me, didn't give a care in the world, he acted like a jerk that he is.
Those two's personalities are absolute polars so you might have a bun of either exteme ends or smack dab in the middle.
I'm a little disappointed that Storm turned out to be such a cold and distant bun but we can't help it, it's too late to return him now...

 

[Hermelin]

@Catlyn Maybe storm just need a bit more time to warm up and he’s also a teenage boy now.

@Oreo and bella, I think bunny knows when you feel bad. I know when I lost Lilja, my bunny Odin would lay cuddled up on my chest and stay. He often will run away after a few minuets of cuddle but during the times I’m sad he can stay for hours and if he jumps away, he will come back and give kisses to check on me. Odin mostly just do his things, don’t like getting cuddles for long times and rather play around or patrol his kitchen. But during that period he was always close by and accepted whatever I wanted.

 

[Catlyn]

@Hermelin just a question: are rabbits more fussy and skittish after fixing? How long would it take for a bun to completely adultify and chill out a bit?
maybe it's true, maybe it's not. Storm has accepted me but he's still skittish and bossy and whatnot. He occasionally comes when he's near me and i call him, so i guess he doesn't hate me anymore. He still doesn't let me clean his eyes like, ever. I tried to hold him while dad manages his eyes and last time Storm bit him so hard that a bloody mark appeared and he snacked on my neck. It takes quite a bit more force to tear dad's thick skin but it apparently makes no difference to Storm as he lugs around bulky pieces of firewood with his jaws.... Yet he didn't bite me to bleeding? That is odd. I wonder why did he make that decision...
So i don't think that he cannot sense grief and sadness, but that it's just his personality.

 

[Hermelin]

@Catlyn bunnies can be really fussy after a fix, my bunny Odin turned into a bunny from hell biting and growling after he was fixed. But after 8 weeks he was back to normal and was kind.

But some bunnies take more time to open up, I know how much it hurts when a french lop bite. Lilja bit me once when I just had gotten her, she didn’t bite down so I started to bleed but I got a huge bruise which looked like someone had grabbed my upper arm. It was way worse than getting bit by a cat on the arm. I also got one shoe destroyed by her. I was lucky the shoe was a bit too big so she didn’t bite my foot She was on the dominant side and this happened before I managed to truly bond with her.

But skittish bunnies need a lot more time to build up trust, myself just recently gotten a better bond with Toste after 2 years with him. If it’s the skittish personality that make your bunny behave a certain way I would focus on positive reinforcement and make all the things that might be scary to something good. Toste can still sometimes go for biting when scared but when he notice it’s me he stops and will just graze his teeth on my skin. So storm stopping before breaking the skin is a positive reaction from him