Speaking Your Rabbits Language

Rabbits have fantastic personalities and are very good at communicating their moods through body language in various ways. In particular, with the use of their ears. Rabbit ears are not just for hearing , they are also used to express mood - not many people are aware of this. We wanted to share with you some tips of what your pet rabbit could be feeling through their body language. Even if you don't have a bunny, we hope that you enjoy our photos of our Rangers cute rabbits.

Here are a few signs of your rabbits mood:

Relaxed/Happy

Ears leaning backwards at about a 45° angle - this can usually be observed when your rabbit is laying or sitting down comfortably.

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Alert

The rabbits ears will point directly upwards and will turn to listen carefully. The posture of the rabbit will be them usually sitting upright or on back paws ready to move quickly if they need to. Some rabbits will do what is called 'helicopter ears' where one ear is down and the other is upwards (picture 1).

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Curious

The rabbits ears will lean (and often turn) forwards as they smell around and shuffle towards what has caught their attention. 

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Sleepy

If hunched the rabbits ears are often relaxed all the way back onto shoulders or the rabbit will be lying down completely the ears will flop in any direction and eyes closing/closed.

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Moody/Nervous

This can be confused with sleepy as the ears can often be lying backwards, however the rabbits eyes will be paying attention to surroundings and may also grunt as a warning that they are not too happy.

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Next time you spot your rabbits ears twitching, you'll be able to figure out what your rabbit is feeling! 

Share your photos of your rabbit displaying different moods with us and maybe we can guess their mood!