Share with us example(s) of your rabbit(s) intelligence.

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Do not underrate a rabbit's intelligence. Rabbits are said to have the same intelligence as canines. As a social mammal, they are naturally smart. It's their short attention span and tolerance that makes them seem dull compared to other animals.
 
Hahaha Harvey certainly has a short attention span but he's a smart bunny. Hey even I have a short attention span at times, but am in no way dumb haha.

Ooooh he's starting to get the hang of "spin" without me moving the craisen in a circle. Woo!
 
My Harvey has a fussy type of intelligence...
He doesn't like my bed being messy when he's up there
and if it's not tucked down tight he will spread his whole body across it to straighten up the blanket lol no exceptions for a messy bed :p

he also kisses on command and uses his litter and knows his name :)
 
I don't have any stories of 'tricks' really but these things come to mind:

When we had Smores and Giggles here, I had split combined two playpens together and so they had a split in the middle. Unfortunately, the one time I didn't realize that I had put the playpen section with the door in the middle as the splitter, they noticed it right away. Somebunny named Smores, opened the door and he and Giggles did the naughty in seconds. By the time we ran to separate them, they were each back in the sections, pretending to be busy with paper and food. I consider that smart, considering how quick it all happened, how he opened that gate (which he had never done before to my knowledge), and then to be smart enough to know they weren't supposed to have done it and were pretending nothing happened. :expressionless

My Wiggles had a thing for 'sliding'... If I was sitting and had my legs extended, she would jump on my lap and then let herself 'slide' along my legs... :confused2:She also knew exactly when I didn't close her cage well or if I forgot to block off the bedroom.

When I would come home with groceries, Bam-Bam would sneak into a bag, and run off with whatever he decided was interesting. He'd hide under the couch, in the far back, so that he'd have enough time to finish his bite while I scrambled to get to him. He'd always run off binkying afterwards. Cheeky butt. :expressionless

Just before yesterday, Crumble was playing in the cat tree. I already thought it was pretty cool to have a lil bun playing there. Thing is, one second he was there, the next he wasn't... Turns out the lil brat had jumped from the cat tree, onto the kitchen chair, then onto the table, and was happily licking away at my cupcakes! He too binkied away. :expressionless
 
I haven't tried teaching any tricks yet as he is too young for treats but it took him only two days to be litter trained and he was not kept in his cage the whole time.

The only time he is in his cage is at night while we are sleeping and only because the dog likes to sleep outside our bedroom door and I don't trust leaving the two of them alone yet. When we put him in there we then take the dog out for the last time. When we come back Thump goes to his cage door and will rattle it and stick his nose through for a last pat. He then goes to eat or to sleep.

I put his toys on top of a wooden box in his room that holds some of his supplies. He has learned his toys are put there and if I don't put down what he wants in the morning he will get it down himself.

He has a box that boots came in. The top is attached to the bottom and he will manipulate the box until it is lying open and upside down. He likes to run under it and to pretend to hide in part of it.
 
BunBun learned in 5 minutes that he was not supposed to go in the front yard.

BunBun then taught me to take him on walks around the neighboorhood. That took a few months. He got up to a mile a day and he made it clear early on that there would not be a leash, voice command only.

Are all rabbits this manipulative?
 
My buns do agility off leash, most of them know their names and some of them will do tricks via voice command.

I have bunny Einsteins :)
 
My buns all know their names, go home, breakfast, dinner, treat, up. They are fantastic at breaking out of their room and I had to resort to D locks that you need a thumb to work. Most impressive is their chess skills!

Chessbunnies106.jpg


Chessbunnies144.jpg

 
Ahh, Brandy, what an intellectual little bunch you have there... Perhaps Spyro and your guys can chat once in a while? He can often be found frequenting the internet. I believe some virtual chess may be in order.

409066_3039228380166_1133332119_n.jpg
 
I once left my purse unattended on the floor and left the room---when I came back five minutes later, Honey had chewed through the corner of the purse to get to an apple I had left in there! When I yelled in exasperation, he binkied away as if he had done some great deed...And when he wants attention, he'll chew on the bookcase or jump on the bed (where he knows he's not supposed to go). I go to chase him away from what he's doing, and he starts binkying around like a madman as if to say "I got mommy to play with me!" Manipulative little brat...
 
Our bun seems to recognize food names, i.e. parsley, apple, pellets.
If I say it to him, he often licks his chops and gets very excited and alert, quickly coming up to me. I taught him this by saying "apple" repeatedly when he is eating, or saying "parsley" repeatedly when he is eating. Of course, I only give him apples/carrots/bananas VERY rarely, because they are not very good for his digestive system and tend to contribute to bloat.

He also often comes running toward us when we call his name and say "come, come!" and reward him by petting his head (which he loves) when he comes to us.

He also knows how to perfectly dodge through table legs and chair legs placed about in the room at a SUPER high speed without crashing into any of them! He often races in the evening. He seems to have a mental "map" of the entire room layout.

We also have a large cage (for him to go in at night) that is constructed of squares with large spacing and other squares with small spacing. He recognized the squares with the large spacing and actually chewed a huge hole on his litter box to poke his head through the squares with the large spacing.

He also chewed a hole only in *one* side of his bunny cabin (but not the other side) because he wanted to have a "lookout" post toward the area that we are most often sitting (in the dining room). ;)

So many other things that I can't think of right now!

In effect, rabbits can be very clever, intelligent, loving and social animals, who can be affectionate to their owners if spent a lot of time with and given interaction and good mental stimulation (i.e. new toys, new towel textures, cardboard tubes and boxes, different shaped balls, etc).

We pet our rabbit a LOT, and make sure he gets plenty of exercise (at least 4-6 hours outside of the cage each day, i.e. in the evening). Exercise is important to rabbits (and humans!!) for increasing intelligence. If a rabbit is kept cooped up in a hutch all day, just like a human or any other animal, the intelligence will suffer!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top