7 (SEVEN) FUN GAMES YOU CAN PLAY WITH YOUR BUNNY

It is important to spend time with your rabbit because he depends on you for companionship. Even when a rabbit has a lot of room to run around, he may still get bored. A bored rabbit is often a naughty rabbit. If you do not make every attempt to provide your rabbit with lots of entertainment, then he will make his own entertainment in your carpet, behind your couch, or under your recliner.

Toys not only aid in keeping your rabbit out of trouble, they also provide mental stimulation and exercise. Some good toys to start with are:
Hiding toys: cardboard boxes, tunnels, paper bags
Chew toys: untreated hardwoods, untreated wicker baskets, grass mats, cardboard paper tubes
Toss toys: baby keys, many parrot toys
Noisemakers: cat toys with bells inside, baby rattles

Playing with your rabbit, whether it is training it for performance or just for fun, has three huge benefits. First, training or play is healthy for rabbits because it gives them both physical and mental exercise. Second, it will help you enjoy your bunny much more, and lead to a closer relationship between bunny and caretaker, which will be healthy for both of you. Thirdly, watching your rabbit play is one of the most important things you can do for it, because you will observe any changes in behavior or health problems as soon as they appear.

 

7 (Seven) Fun games your rabbits love:

Hop game

Build a wall out of small cardboard boxes, and encourage Bunny to hop over them by repeating the word “hop” and holding a piece of his favorite food in front of him. He gets the exercise and you get to interact with him.

Fetch game:

Your bunny is the retriever and you are the one doing the throwing. Some bunnies like picking up toys with their teeth and tossing them with a flick of their head. Toys for birds are great for this activity because they can easily grip them. You can also go a less expensive route and provide cardboard tubes from paper towel or toilet paper rolls. Stuff those tubes with hay to spike their interest further.

A Game of Tag

Grab a bunch of food, such as parsley, and take it to one end of the house. Bunny automatically comes after you, because he knows by instinct or smell that something good is coming. You make him stand on his hind legs and give him a tiny piece of the parsley before racing to the other side of the house and calling his name. Bunny hops after you and receives another tiny bite of parsley before you sprint to the next spot in the house and call his name. This goes on until Bunny decides that he had enough. Usually after 5-10 rounds. This is a great game, because it makes him and you run and spend time together interacting.

The Shell Game

Take 2-3 plastic cups, your bun’s favorite food, and sit down on the floor with your rabbit. You use any kind of herb for this. Place a piece the food inside the cups and put them upside down on the floor. Now encourage your bunny to get the treat out. You can play this repeatedly. Make it more difficult by placing the cup on top of an elevated surface or set up 2-3 cups at once and only add the treat to one of them.

Roly-Poly game

Take an empty paper towel roll and place it on the floor standing upright. Bunny can never resist nudging it and throwing it down. He will hop by it nonchalantly, pretend he does not care, and then quickly give it a nudge. Every time he does it, put it back up and encourage him to throw it down again. It gets even better once you balance something light on top of the paper towel roll, such as an empty cardboard.

Teach and Play game

To bond with your rabbit, teach a new skill! We found that any rabbit toys that require a bit of thinking to get to a treat are great, because when Bunny first gets one of them, you sit down with him and teach him how to get to the treat. This takes anywhere from half an hour to several weeks (with a “lesson” once a day). That way, you get to spend time with him and he learns something new. Once he has mastered the skill, he can play with the toy on his own and you can move on to something else.
Bunny loves to sit and watch TV with you and he enjoys “helping” when you do the laundry, work on the laptop, or do some kind of craft while sitting on the floor. 

Bunny bowling game

Finally a game that will appeal to their mischievous side, as they delight in knocking things over. Set up toy bowling pins and watch as your rabbit nose-bonks them all down. On a similar note, rabbits love to steal important papers (or apples you are eating) out of your hand and run away with them, most likely binkying along the way. Admittedly, this is not exactly a game… or at least not one in which you are a willing participant. But your bunny will certainly be amused.

When you are away from home, your bunny still needs to play, so it is a good idea to have a selection of toys available. One bunny favorite is a cardboard castle. Rabbits love to dash in and out of the doorways and make renovations by chewing on the walls and scratching at the floors.

For diggers and burrowers, provide straw mats, boxes full of paper shreds, and cardboard tunnels. 

These games, if played will go a long way in making your time with the bunny worthwhile as well build a stronger bond between you two.