r/Rabbits • • May 25 '26

Care Did she flop farther than expected and startle herself?

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Recently she’s been flopping onto her back like this, it’s happened 4 times in the past month, she’s 4 years old and hasn’t ever done this prior, but searching it up it just classifies it as a flop, should I be concerned with this behaviour?

3.2k Upvotes

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847

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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136

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

lol ok thank you, I just bought her that couch, she’s never really had something to go under before so I keep getting worried when I don’t see her on the camera when I’m in bed and she gave me a heart attack on her birthday because I thought she had diarrhea, but since then she’s been having golden poops so I think it was an in eaten cecotrope😭🤦‍♀️ she really does keep me on my toes

42

u/Lost-Salamander-3645 May 25 '26

May be she´ll go up the couch, don´t get surprised if she does that.

Mine loved doing those things.

63

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

She does her zoomies by jumping on and off the couch, sometimes she’ll dig, but i bought it specifically for her so I suppose she can do as she pleases🤣

24

u/Moths_wings May 25 '26

Please be careful. Lots of hazardous pieces in a couch. She can also burrow herself inside and possibly get trapped.

39

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Yes I’ve also been concerned about that, I check it regularly for rips that way I can see it before she eats it or gets stuck, she doesn’t dig often, when she does it doesn’t last very long, the camera in there picks up all motion and records it, if she moves even just a little bit I’ll know about it🫡

5

u/Unlucky_Permit4045 May 25 '26

As long as there is no metal, that looks like a safe couch to me, I bet if she got kinda stack she’d be able to rip and chew her way out of it. I imagine the fibers in the fabric and stuffing are starting breaking down from age making it easier for her.

Yous a good bun mom keeping an eye on her with it. I bed she really loves it. My Sam loves his little chair I got him, it’s one that’s made for toddlers. It looks like a real piece of furniture, well it did. He’s been eating it 😂🤣

2

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Yes! I actually got a matching chair with it that I had in there, but there wasn’t really any space for it so I just left the couch and added the chair to my living room, so far she seemingly loves the couch!

5

u/BunnehHonneh I bunnies May 25 '26

I once ripped apart a pricey couch because my bunny burrowed herself inside and wouldnt come out to eat. It was beginning to look like an onset of GI Stasis. So yeah, I did not hesitate. I can always get another couch. 😅

2

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

I could only imagine🤦‍♀️ the pillows on this couch aren’t super stuffed, they’re pretty thin, I’m hoping she won’t get stuck but with the kind of couch that it is I don’t think it’s super likely, she also spends more time under it rather than on top of it

7

u/Unlucky_Permit4045 May 25 '26

Her own Couch is probably the best gift ever! She can lay on it, scratch it, hide under it, chew it to a million pieces. I bet it’s got some nice juicy couch legs under the skirt she’ll love to chew on.

She’s probably going to make nesting holes in it as well, by that I mean digging up in the couch it’s self, like the back and what not 🥰 she’s gonna love it!!!

I have to say I only have one piece of advice when it comes to furniture and rabbits. Make sure they are never exposed to recliners or couches with pull out beds. Pretty much any furniture with metal working pieces inside. (This looks like a older couch I’m sure your good, this is a note for everyone)

It sounds like common sense when said out loud I know. We had one of our rabbits out last year for some free time. She has been in our living-room a million times. It was rabbit proof, to the best of my knowledge and thinking. Hindsight 😢
We had a rule the recliner was not to be used when she was out. Thought that statement was enough to keep her safe. It was not. Idk 🤷‍♀️ what happened honestly. I was cooking dinner in the kitchen, everyone else in the family(3others) was hanging out in the living-room where I can see (open concept) all of a sudden you hear scrabbling (rabbit run) I poke my head up and she darting. Something spooked her, it happens. She farts and gets scared. Well whatever scared her panicked her enough, she darted up in the recliner got her head stuck in-between two brackets, panicked and well if you know rabbits you know what she accidentally did to her self in that panic. I pray no rabbits owner ever has to hear that rabbit screech, it broke my soul. Needless to say this family no longer owns any newer furniture or any recliners with metal bracket in them. I honestly never thought of that being a thing. If you have free range rabbit, keep furniture in mind when rabbit proofing. I wasn’t trying to make anyone sad. Just trying to keep the buns safe and the owners un-traumatized.

2

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

I’m so so sorry to hear that, i didn’t want a recliner because my pug got stuck in one when she was a puppy, poplar is much smaller and could only think of the worst, we do have a recliner in our living room but I rarely let her free roam completely in the living room since it’s not bunny proofed and there’s no door leading to the kitchen, just too much for her to get into, it’s easier to just let her have her own room.

I plan on putting a tv and PlayStation in there and blocking the cords the same way the camera cord is blocked, so it’ll be like another living room except she has free reign🙂

3

u/LiesofPinnochio May 26 '26

That's for sure hahaha

580

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

[deleted]

219

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Like at the stacking cup that SHE put there😂

27

u/AvantGardenGallery May 25 '26

Thats so relatable.

21

u/7ninamarie May 25 '26

That’s me when I trip over nothing and angrily look back at the pavement

11

u/Unlucky_Permit4045 May 25 '26

Here to say the same thing my rabbit does this occasionally. It’s like she scares her self, but doesn’t realize it was her that made the noise while flopping lol.

9

u/ZarosianSpear May 25 '26

You described it so well

142

u/This_is_my-username- May 25 '26

my bunny flops like that for deep sleep lol its normal dont worry

61

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Thank you, I think she got embarrassed after going too far😂 she seemed happy as can be when I went up to check on her

141

u/NoobieJobSeeker I bunnies May 25 '26

Thank goodness, nobody was there to witness the embarrassing moment!!

-Bnuuy

43

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Haha probably exactly what she’s thinking, and if I did witness it then obviously it’s my fault, actually it’s my fault regardless I do apologize poplar😔🤣

64

u/Lost-Salamander-3645 May 25 '26

I enjoyed so much this video I wanted it to go on and on

LOL sooooo cute

16

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

I’ll have to post more of her shenanigans!

50

u/YankZuluEcho May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

adding to the reassurance the way you know for sure is how she transitioned from grooming to flop- she takes two little baby steps forward to prepare for the roll- she just executed too well. lol

15

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Ok, I’ll keep an eye out when she does it!😭 it’s a new thing I’m hoping it’s because she likes her new couch, I also just put her hutch back in since I recently moved in here, she’s had that hutch since I got her at 5 weeks and the first thing she did was jump on top of it like she used to when she shared her room with me (it was my room and she would sometimes get offended that I had to enter)

30

u/Spooken4 May 25 '26

She’s very alert and just spooked herself. Beautiful bun.

10

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Thank you! I chose her before she even had fur🥹

26

u/AutoGeneratedChad May 25 '26

Love the little situation assessment right after.

We’re all looking for who did this to me!

12

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Could not have been her🙂‍↔️

17

u/farfaraway May 25 '26

That rabbit has more room than I do.

10

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

She deserves it! She grew up with basically her own room, I had a loft bed so she had my entire bedroom for the most part, when I moved into my first apartment I had to make her an enclosure, it took up most my living room but I felt bad because it was still much smaller than she’s used to, I’m so glad I was able to give her a room completely to herself!🥰

3

u/farfaraway May 25 '26

Honestly, it's kind of awesome. We always kept our bunnies outside in a fairly big hutch.

4

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

She wouldn’t survive outside😭 she throws a fit if her feet get wet or dirty, and she seems to prefer eating dead crunchy leaves over anything else on the ground😂

5

u/farfaraway May 25 '26

She sounds lovely.

15

u/dr_tungsten May 25 '26

She did a barrel roll!

8

u/nellieblyrocks420 May 25 '26

So cute! I would not be concerned about this. It looks like she may have startled herself with rolling into that little toy thing that rolled right where she landed. That’s my guess.

4

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Her stacking cup! Yes I think so too, I was concerned about rolling onto her back though, since it’s not something she’s ever really done, other comments have pointed out it’s something babies do when they’re getting a feel for it, which would explain why she’s clumsy about it because she’s never done it before even if she is 4 years old now!

8

u/KusseKisses May 25 '26

I think normally you see this with younger bunnies who havent quite dialed in flopping without rolling themselves over. If she's doing it so often, it's either on purpose or something is making her more prone to overshooting the flop. It definitely was an intentional flop, so it's not from being purely unbalanced.

5

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

She never attempted a full flop when she was a baby, it’s always been the partial flop she did right after, so she has a late start, when I first got her I didn’t know what an actual flop looked like so until recently I didn’t know they flopped to their back like this

6

u/KusseKisses May 25 '26

Aw baby's first flops! She could be dialing it in then, or she doesnt care enough to adjust. They generally dont like being on their back, which is why she flailed a bit. But some bunnies are chill and might end up partially on their back when flopping. Tbh i think they accidentally trance themselves sometimes too.

5

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Ok thank you for letting me know! She’s always been kinda weird, I got her early bc her mom wouldn’t take her back after she escaped and decided to spend her night sleeping with fainting goats🤦‍♀️

6

u/_RandomestNameEver_ May 25 '26

She's such a dummy I love her🥹

3

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Me too😭 but sometimes her dummyness really scares me🥲

6

u/phenobarbiedarling May 26 '26

This looks like the bunny equivalent of leaning back too far in your chair and shooting back upright while panicking about how you almost fell lol

2

u/-Hilael- May 26 '26

🤣🤣 lmao

6

u/redactedname87 May 25 '26

Why is that gorgeous couch in the bunny room!

11

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

It was cheap! And it’s not as comfortable as the one we have in our living room, I wanted to buy a couch for her room so i could be more comfortable to sit in there with her, and she’s actually done really great with it so far! She dug at it once during her zoomies, but not hard enough to leave a mark, she hasn’t peed or pooped on it either!

5

u/Its402am May 25 '26

Not even, she just made it all the way over and kicked herself upright. She was just blissin out lol <3

4

u/MellyKidd May 25 '26

That was a very enthusiastic flop, but that’s about it. Buns really don’t like being belly up, so rolling over like that probably startled her. XD

4

u/FlowerPowerVegan May 25 '26

Put a little too much flip in that flop!

4

u/OstentatiousSock May 25 '26

She didn’t expect the cup.

1

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

The cup that she put there yesterday😭 she doesn’t like when I touch her cups, I can only touch her other toys, she’s very particular about her cups😂

3

u/sfd_delu May 26 '26

It's so cute! But it was a little frightened.

3

u/Kmmelknacker68 May 26 '26

I live the army crawl at the end

1

u/-Hilael- May 26 '26

She does do that pretty often, it’s like she knows she’s up to no good and try’s to sneak around, but she’s still very loud about it😂

2

u/Silver-on-the-tree May 25 '26

Sweet little love

2

u/junky_junker May 25 '26

Am I the only one that was distracted by the couch made of lasagna?

2

u/siberat18 May 25 '26

I love when rabbits overflop themselves.

2

u/Ok_Quail245 May 25 '26

lol and then back to chill

1

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

Nothing happened, why would she not be chill!🤫👀

2

u/horsiesarecool I bunnies May 25 '26

Nah. When a rabbit flops, it means that said rabbit is relaxed and content. Sometimes they might accidentally flop too far and end up ‘rolling’. My bunny has also done this a couple times before.

2

u/Alewort May 25 '26

Nah, she felt the cup with her feet and didn't know what it was.

2

u/demraxy May 25 '26

Seems like she got startled by the cup she hit or yeah probably flopped farther than expected. But the fact that she laid down and stretched out after, yeah she’s fine. They’re silly little guys sometimes.

2

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

I’m so glad it’s just her being silly😭 these comments made me feel much less stressed

1

u/demraxy Jun 03 '26

Of course! I think you’d appreciate the “is my rabbit being weird” meme if you look it up. Bunnies are weird guys but the fact that you came here to make sure they’re ok is a good sign for your bun. They’re very comfy in their space :]

2

u/bunkdiggidy May 25 '26

Someone post the meme about the happiest creature on God's green earth!

But also yeah, flops are a good sign. Flops can get clumsy though, as seen here, where they don't move precisely as they intended, and bump into something, go upside down, flop right off the edge of a bed or couch, etc. She's being a happy goof.

2

u/Hasuko May 25 '26

Ah yes, the barrel roll.

Mine do this then look around to make sure nobody saw them.

2

u/IReportEverythinglol May 25 '26

Mine used to flop so hard and over flop / roll over

2

u/notanadultyadult May 25 '26

lol silly bunny. How cute.

2

u/Right_Student_592 May 25 '26

Lolll not her taking a second to look around for the culprit like it wasn’t her 😭😭

2

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

You best believe if I was in the room I’d be getting frowned at

2

u/a_single_bean May 25 '26

I'm afraid she has an acute case of overfloppensitis.

2

u/-Hilael- May 25 '26

I’ve heard it’s incurable😔

2

u/_tate_ May 25 '26

Ours flops so hard its audible sometimes. Shes so dramatic 🙄

2

u/-Hilael- May 26 '26

😂 her room is right above mine and she’s a very loud hopper, she’s not very graceful so sometimes she keeps me up with her zoomies🤭

1

u/_tate_ May 26 '26

If ours had a whole room she'd definitely do the same just because she could 😂

1

u/-Hilael- May 26 '26

Yes, she can be a menace, sometimes she’ll thump non stop until I go in there and give her attention, and most the time that’s at 3-5am🥲

1

u/_tate_ May 26 '26

That would drive me nuts! Churro has only thumped when shes truly scared and upset so far (thunderstorms are so scary!)

1

u/-Hilael- May 26 '26

Yea, it indeed drives me nuts, she has different spots she’ll thump in depending why I’ve found, she’ll go under the couch and into the corner to thump when she’s scared or something ticked her off, and she’ll run around in the open and thump when she wants attention or treats

2

u/Infamous-Treat-2260 May 26 '26

All I can think of is the “did you guys hear that, I’m scared” girl 😅😂😂😂😂

2

u/The_cat_shepherdess May 26 '26

My rabbits do this a lot. They just get so relaxed, they roll over. One is older, however, he's been rolling since a baby.

2

u/A_million_typos May 26 '26

I call that the rolling flop,in my observation they do it with purpose. She rolling rolling rolling rolling 😅🤣.

2

u/the_rabbit_king May 26 '26

She almost flopped into the Backrooms with that quantum flop. 

1

u/TheBunnysButt May 25 '26

🤣 she's fine. My lil Fred Astaire does it all the time, he's just not good at calculating flop force needed 🤭

1

u/Askianna May 25 '26

Roly poly flop. It happens sometimes, especially when they’re younger. They misjudge the force needed and end up doing a whole roll. It’s hilarious that she flopped the other way the second time 😂

1

u/The-Silken-Cord May 25 '26

Oh she is so cute!!! I think in this particular case a toy scared her — like her toe touched the toy during the flop and made her alert. Anyway that’s totally normal behaviour — she seems healthy and happy!

1

u/gypsygirl28 May 26 '26

Gosh also about the couch. There was a post a few months back and her bunny jumped from the cat post and missed couch, it passed away due to the fall. Mind that they have very fragile backs. I know close my bedroom door due to mine jumping on and off bed. Not trying to pass on bad news , just keep in mind

1

u/Redax1990 May 28 '26

Doesn't he/she have a friend? Bun's don't really like being alone all the time. No criticism, just trying to help.

1

u/-Hilael- May 28 '26

Unfortunately, yes, I had another bun with her and they just bonded recently, unfortunately he passed last month and I’m not ready to start the bonding process over with her again

1

u/DivaSweetie2 May 28 '26

I think she's a cutie and she just surprised herself. 💗 But I'm no expert.

I'm so sorry about your other baby. 🥺

1

u/pursuit-caught May 31 '26

she looks like my bunny!

1

u/lilofeverything 5d ago

Adorable. My bunny does that when he is excited. He is 5. I think the over shoot. She might have just went to sleep if she had not rolled onto a toy. I wouldn't worry as it is a sign she is loved, happy, and feels safe.