Is my bunny deaf?

[Dudley Bunny]

I recently got an English Angora rabbit, and we have been trying to train him to come to his name by calling him and feeding him treats. We discovered through this however, that our bunny may be deaf. We go up behind him and clap and make noise and he doesnt even lift an ear. Even when we take him for walks in our back yard and make bird noises and preditor sounds that he should react to through animal instinct, he doesnt seem to acknowledge them at all!

Is he deaf? or is he just care-free and layed back? He is very calm and doesnt mind dogs or cats or anything for that matter. Even if he is deaf we love him that way as it has made him such a calm bunny without a care in the world who loves just lazing around in the air conditioning all day!

What other things can i do with him if he is deaf? Can he still be trained to do other things?

 

[kahlin]

He may or may not be deaf....but if he is, he can still be trained.

We trained one of our deaf bunnies to come when 'called' by flicking the lights.

We trained another by tapping on the floor (she felt the vibrations).

But for the most part I haven't needed to 'train' them. They learn our schedules and react to that.

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

i prefered to think layed back,,not deaf,,there are ways of testing,,a high pitched squeel may send him into orbit,it is a distress sound from another rabbit,,or thump the floor behind him,,this means caution,,attention or leave me alone,,,have you already had his ears checked for mites,bugs,etc.,,try waving his favorite treat around in front of him,,old age affects all animals,,.could be just mental aditude,,elimiating all physical problems,,just watch his behavior,,sincerely james waller

 

[bengal77]

You can find out if an animal is deaf by making a new noise. Try to sneak up behind them and make a noise they've never heard before. You could try banging a spoon against a metal pot.

It's possible that he is used to normal noises and that's why he isn't reacting. But if he doesn't react to a new noise then he's probably deaf.

 

[elrohwen]

You can definitely still train a non-hearing bunny (if it turns out he is deaf) quite easily. My bun can hear, but he really doesn't understand voice commands very well - he responds much better to body language. My theory is that bunnies are very quiet prey animals as it is - they're not really wired to listen to the things we say so much as watch the things we do. They understand tone of voice and simple sounds (grunting, treat bag shaking, etc) but I don't think they're very good at understanding individual words (not as much as dogs are, for example). They communicate just as well as a dog, but they do it through quieter methods which means your bunny will be perfectly well adapted to "listen" to your body language and hand commands.

 

[RandomWiktor]

One thing that is important when you do have a deaf rabbit: they can startle easily if you don't make your presence known before getting near enough to spook them. Our rabbit Wendy is deaf, and when she's in her pen, we have to have to be careful that she sees us well across the room. If we suddenly "appear" next to her, she goes into a pretty wild panic. It's a good way for a rabbit to smash into a wall and hurt their neck or back. Hopefully your bun is just laid back, but if not, do be sure to work out a system of alerting the bun to your presence - flicking lights, making vibrations, something. It also goes without saying that a deaf rabbit is more vulnerable to danger outdoors, and should never really be left alone outside unless the play area is 100% enclosed on all sides, top, and bottom.

 

[kahlin]

RandomWiktor wrote:

One thing that is important when you do have a deaf rabbit: they can startle easily if you don't make your presence known before getting near enough to spook them. Our rabbit Wendy is deaf, and when she's in her pen, we have to have to be careful that she sees us well across the room. If we suddenly "appear" next to her, she goes into a pretty wild panic. It's a good way for a rabbit to smash into a wall and hurt their neck or back. Hopefully your bun is just laid back, but if not, do be sure to work out a system of alerting the bun to your presence - flicking lights, making vibrations, something. It also goes without saying that a deaf rabbit is more vulnerable to danger outdoors, and should never really be left alone outside unless the play area is 100% enclosed on all sides, top, and bottom.

I agree with all of that. For Lindor (deaf bunny # 1) we used the lights to alert her (as well as blowing at her before touching her).

With Teagan (deaf bunny # 2)...she didn't catch on to the lights. Poor Teag. So I would enter the rooms really slowly and try to 'read' her to see if she knew I was there.

And now with Zayne (deaf bunny # 3 - and still with us) I do the light switch thing, but find I don't have to very often. The way it's set up now, she can feel the vibrations of our movement in the floor. I do make sure to move slowly because that's what she's more comfortable with. I find if I'm rushing around (because I'm late or whatever) I scare her a lot.

 

[Dudley Bunny]

hmmm he probably isnt deaf then because he is never frightened or gets a fright when we come close to him or come up behind him. I think he just chooses to ignore our commands he does respond well to tapping though. Can you use a bell maybe to commans them to come to that to get fed or something?

Why senses to rabbits mostly rely on? I know you said they dont really respond well to words as such but is their main sense they use most smell? or vibrations?

Thanks so much everyone for all your feed back! its a big help