As mentioned here, the new guinea pig is affecting my rabbit's behavior.
However, until a few days ago, all behavior changes were traditional territorial cues.
Two days ago, my female rabbit (who seems bonded to me slightly more than her bond mate) started acting very quirky. Rather than hanging and following me around, she seemed to actively try to avoid me aside from a few minutes per day. At one point I came into the room she was in, sat down, and said her name, which caused her to get up from her flopped out position and move to the room on the opposite side of the house! ... I just figured she was feeling poorly.
However, when she started chasing her bond mate, I decided to hold her for a bit to distract her, and she immediately started purring (not out of the question, but usually I have to have her in my arms for at least 20 seconds). She's currently moulting, so I also began to pluck her. After about 5 minutes I hit a sore spot and she started to strugle like she would like to be put back down. However, once I got a better grip on her she'd continue to purr, even while I only plucked instead of petting.
She also seemed to be actively looking for mischief: chewing on things she normally has no interest in; taking large chunks of paint off the book shelf and trying to eat them; eating the strips off the sides of my shoes; etc. I gave her a Timothy cube and the destructive behavior stopped. However as I'm writing this she's trying to climb out of the condo into the storage area next to it, and this reminds me that she's been climbing the furniture all day (waiting for me on the arm of the couch closest to the door while I was out).
About a week ago she started becoming more aggressive about making it to the right food bowl first (we have 3 scattered throughout the house to keep them guessing), and somehow is able to get to the top of a 4 floor condo that I built for them faster than I can dispense them (making it very difficult to place kibble in the bowl). However, as of 32 hrs ago, both rabbits have been extremely kibble focused, and the female is now standing on top of the food bowl and prairie dogging over the top of the condo. Even stranger, and what spurred me to post was that 10 minutes ago she tried to leap over the top floor barrier at the small cup of kibble I was carrying. Fortunately, she got her back legs hooked in the barrier and fell back to the top floor.
Could any of the following really be just a bonding thing?
- Reckless climbing and begging?
- Disturbed by my presence?
- Very happy when picked up?
- Chewing on unusual things?