New bunny: A couple questions?

[Pandaran]

Hello, and sorry if this is in the wrong place,

My 6 week old rabbit, who joined this family yesterday, is now brave enough to sit out of her little hide-away box. She lets me calmly pet her, yet she charges at my hand when I put my hand at the entrance of her box. She like charges but doesn't bite, then just sniffs my hands and goes back into her little hidey-hole.

I have this straw hay ball toy thing that I put in her cage, and when I rolled it out of the way she started chasing it and charging at it like with my hand.

She ran a fast bounding lap around her cage before I decided that it was time for her first expedition out in my room, so I put her and her hidey hole and that ball on the floor. She hopped around, sniffed everything and nibbled at the carpet a couple times (each time I slammed on my desk to get her to stop). She rested a bit, panting in between sniffing and exploring.

My questions are:

1. Is the charging at my hand (without biting) and ball playful behavior or is it aggression?

2. It's a short-fiber carpet, would ingesting a little of it hurt her?

3. Is it normal/safe for her to pant like that (or is she too hot?)? It reminds me of a scared little rabbit who almost got eaten by something. She's obviously not scared, she was laying down first few times and now she's grooming herself.

4. If I put her litter box from her cage on the floor when she runs around the room, will she use it out of her cage?

5. Are "peace-lilies" (Spathiphyllum) toxic to them?

-Thanks much

 

[Michaela]

Congratulations on your new addition, do you have any pictures of her? 6 weeks is a little young to be in a new home, so I'd expect she'll be quite nervous.

I'd guess the charging isn't aggressive, buns don't like their space invaded, so she's probably just surprised and checking out what's happening, nothing to worry about.

Bunnies like to eat things they shouldn't, unfortunately! A little carpet probably won't have any effects, but monitor her poops, make sure she is pooping enough, and encourage her to eat a lot of hay to help it pass through. As she is so young, I'd try to be very careful she doesn't eat any more, just in case.

Is she actually panting? Rabbits do breath very fast, are you sure it isn't just that?

She may or may not use the litter tray out of the cage. Even if she does, litter training goes out the window when they hit puberty! So you should get her spayed when she's old enough (5 or 6 months) by a rabbit savvy vet, as this is very beneficial for her health (no uterine cancer which is very, very common in unspayed does) and will help with litter habits.

I'm sorry, I've never heard of that plant, I'm going to see if I can find anything on it.

Congrats again, I hope you enjoy being a bunny slave.