Honking?

[MATH]

My bunny is five years old and has always been very healthy. He gets a diet of leafy green veggies, a small amount of kaytee pellets and free choice kaytee hay.

The last 10 days or so he has been SO vocal. Whenever anyone in my family is near him we can hear a strange throaty noise. The first time I heard him make this I thought he was choking or sick, but he shows no other signs of illness. He is eating, drinking, and acting just fine. I ended up googling bunny noises and I think the noises he is making are called honking. I listened to some clips and it sounds very similar.

But why? He has always been a VERY quiet bunny. Only occasionally could I hear him grind his teeth when I would pet him. Nothing has changed in his environment. I will say he is unneutered, but has never shown any typical unneutered male behavior...

I thought about putting this in the infirmary section, but as I've been monitoring the situation & nothing leads me even mildly to believe that he is ill besides the odd noise. Of course, I'm no expert so would love some advice on why he would suddenly be so noisy after all these years? Should I take him to the vet? Is he happy? annoyed? In love? I've seen a lot of different things online that this could mean.

Thank you!

 

[curiouscarrot]

I don't know, but if it's related to hormones/sexual maturity/desire to mate you can't really judge it by how he's been in the past, because hormones aren't a constant, but something that fluctuates. He may be getting more interested in mating as he matures.

Maybe he's just discovered he can "talk" and wanted to tell you

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

Ripley hardly did it for the past 3 months since being neutered and just now he's been honking every time I come in his pen to see him.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

When we rescued Lilli, she used to honk a lot, especially at veggie time. Now all she does is grunt when she's excited, usually about food or treats. Kind of miss the honking.

 

[carlysoup]

My buck often honks when my boyfriend's mom comes to visit with him, but often at no other time. Before he was fixed, though, he would honk a lot at my feet. If your bunny doesn't look/act like an ill bunny, I would say keep an eye on him and try to take note of when he honks.

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

My Ash isn't neutered and he honks when I come to see him. Sometimes he honks when I come to see him sometimes he doesn't