Weird, noisy behaviour

[JazzyP]

At the moment, Jasper [my relatively new rabbit.] has been thumping and making a growling sound at night, so loud that we can hear it from inside the house. [The windows are open.] When we went out to see if he was ok, he starting making this weird grinding noise with his teeth. We gave them a little more hay and then left, soon after he started making the growling [and thumping] noise again.
It's really tiring going in and out to try stop him doing it in the night, and he is always with Bubble so I wouldn't think he was lonely. What could be making him upset?
[He is fine during the day, apart from using the cat-flap to come in and sleep.]

 

[JBun]

I would say that he probably senses, hears, or sees a predator or other animal out there, and he's nervous or scared. The growling and thumping are to try and scare it off. The teeth grinding is likely because he's feeling extremely stressed because of this.

I would suggest either moving your buns inside, or getting them a more secure enclosure with an enclosed area(if they don't already have this) where they will feel more secure and safe. If they already have an enclosed area to be at night, maybe provide them with extra tunnels and hidey holes and see if that helps.

It could be something like a fox, and if so it would be good to ensure their enclosure is fox proof. If you let them free roam the garden at all, I would suggest to stop doing this if there is any chance a fox or other dangerous predator is able to get into your garden.

 

[JazzyP]

Okay, they do have a large pen and hutch. I think we will have to move them inside again, as we do have a lot of foxes and cats in this area. I have ordered a little house and a few tunnels for them to play in, because they keep coming in through the cat-flap and sleeping on the sofas when they are distressed.

 

[JazzyP]

Thanks for the help!

 

[Lucky_2017]

My rabbit lives in my bedroom and when I toss and turn in the night he thumps and thinks its a predator. So I cover his cage up with a blanket so he can’t see out it stops the thumping immediately. If your bun is outside then you may want a really thick blanket so there are no shadows.
-Lucky2017 [emoji5]

 

[Ratsorizzo]

When he's in the living room room alone in his cage and it's quiet, Shaggy thumbs his foot really loud that it scares me . Is it because he's bored?

 

[Lucky_2017]

When he's in the living room room alone in his cage and it's quiet, Shaggy thumbs his foot really loud that it scares me . Is it because he's bored?

Like I said before he might be scared due to shadows or noises. Rabbits can hear noises that you might find you can’t hear. Try to put a blanket over his cage.