The amicable rabbit – interactions between pet rabbits and their caregivers based on a questionnaire survey

Abstract

As the popularity of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) kept as pets is steadily growing, the applied aspects of rabbit-human interactions draws increased attention. Factors, such as human-directed aggression and friendliness, are important from the aspect of animal welfare and owner satisfaction. In an online questionnaire for Hungarian pet rabbit owners (N = 1039 entries), we targeted the interactions between rabbits and their owners as well as interactions with strangers. The sex, reproductive status, breed, origin, keeping conditions of the rabbit, diet, and the owners’ knowledge about sensitive period treatment, were asked in the questionnaire. Principal Component Analysis yielded three behavioral dimensions (explaining the 63.5% of total variance) – which, based on the encompassed items, were named ‘Amicable’, ‘Aggression towards strangers’ and ‘Aggression towards the owner’. In the next step we looked for significant associations between the three behavioral components and the aforementioned fixed factors. We found that ‘Amicable’ had higher scores in the case of male rabbits (vs. females, P < 0.001), intact rabbits (vs. spayed/neutered, P < 0.05), and dwarf pet rabbit breeds (vs. large traditional meat rabbits, P < 0.001). Low ‘Amicable’ scores were given to rabbits that were adopted from shelters (P < 0.01), and also to those that were never let out from their cages/pens (P < 0.05). Interestingly, the owners who knew about the importance of the early socialization period, had the most ‘Amicable’ rabbits (P < 0.05). Finally, individually kept rabbits and those that received the longest time of maternal care (kept with the mother even after weaning), were considered as more ‘Amicable’ than those rabbits that had other rabbit companions (P < 0.05); or were separated from their mother before normal weaning time (P < 0.05). We found similarly detailed results regarding the associations between the independent variables and the two ‘Aggression’ components. We also found more unique associations, for example between the type of food and aggressiveness; rabbits fed with muesli-type feed reportedly behaved more aggressively with humans (P < 0.05) than those that were fed mainly pellets with additional hay. Understandably, there are also limitations as we could not establish causality from these results and also the distribution of the subjects among the various categories was sometimes far from balanced, which may lessen the representativity of the results in particular cases.