Do rabbits Like to Watch TV? (The Real Truth!)

As intelligent animals rabbits need enriching things to do to keep their mind occupied. It’s not unusual to have a trusting house rabbit leap up and sit beside you while you watch the television but what is a rabbit actually thinking when it looks at a TV? Do they really like to watch television? In this short post, we’ll look at the facts, so first lets clear something up

Rabbits do not like to watch TV in the same way that we do. Although they may appear to be focused on a TV, a rabbit’s wider field of vision means that it can see almost 360 degrees around its entire head.

Rabbits do require enrichment to stop them from becoming bored so while they won’t necessarily be watching TV they may still enjoy sitting alongside their favorite human while they themselves watch the TV.

Rabbit Activity Levels

As crepuscular animals most active at dawn and dusk rabbits are great pets to keep for the right owner.

If you work a 9-5 job it would, of course, be cruel to leave a dog alone in a house all day as it would likely pine after you, and possibly bark. This can understandably be very antisocial if you have nearby neighbors that are home all day.

There are no such problems with a rabbit, it will make no noticeable noise that a neighbor would be able to hear, will sleep for large parts of the day, and once you return home it will be awake and ready to play! (some will play well into the night!).

For these reasons a rabbit makes a good pet for professionals however to leave a rabbit at home all day requires you to take steps to ensure the animal is entertained.

Regardless of a rabbits regular napping, toys, and things to do need to be available (especially for those that do not have a fellow bunny for companionship).

Why Do Rabbits Need Enrichment?

Rabbits are intelligent and inquisitive animals and they love to explore and find new things to do. They have personalities all of their own and become bored if they are in the same routine day in day out.

Rabbits also like to nibble so chewables such as branches, wooden toys, even toilet roll tubes will help to keep the rabbit active.

Overall else, companionship is by far the best form of enrichment for a rabbit. Like guinea pigs, rabbits need the company of their own species in order to live a happy life.

In the wild, rabbits also rely on companions to watch each other’s backs. Domestic male and female rabbit pairings a joy to watch.

What Do Rabbits See When They Appear to Watch TV?

A rabbits vision has evolved under very different pressures to our human eyes. We have forward-facing eyes and excellent color vision perfect for when we were once swinging through the trees and identifying tasty fruits to eat.

A rabbits vision instead evolved to detect predators coming from almost any direction.

The eyes are placed high on the sides of the skull which allows it to see in nearly 360 degrees, rabbits are also far-sighted allowing them to spot danger from far off predators often before they are spotted themselves.

The price a rabbit pays for 360-degree vision is a small blind spot in front of their faces where their field of view overlaps.

The blind spot prevents a rabbit from having a three-dimensional view of nearby objects and is also the reason why quite often you will see rabbits tilt their head to get a good look at something directly in front of them.

When it comes to color, rabbits have limited perception. While we humans can perceive various wavelengths of light as the colors of the rainbow, studies have shown that rabbits are only able to identify the wavelengths we know as green and blue.

Also, a rabbit’s vision is a lot grainier than ours although they can still recognize a human by voice, body movement, and smell.

This compensates for the limited color recognition and definition and means that long as you are not carrying something that breaks your usual silhouette and makes you appear big and scary, your pet will still recognize you.

So What About TV?

With all this in mind, while a rabbit might appear as though it is watching TV, the TV will actually only make up a very small part of the rabbits overall field of vision.

Unless the TV is a good distance away from the sofa, the image will be grainy and fairly dull to a rabbit compared to what we humans see.

This video provides a good explanation of how a rabbit sees it’s environment.

Will a Rabbit Be Scared By Images It Sees On a TV?

No, images on a TV are very unlikely to scare a rabbit due to the rabbits far-sighted vision described above.

You may then be wondering why you have witnessed your own rabbit react to scary moments in horror movies?

Well, the answer is that it is not actually what is on the screen, but is actually the sound!

As prey animals, rabbits make skittish pets, and their poor near sight means that unlike wild rabbits that would see you coming a mile off and flee it’s quite easy to sneak up on a pet and surprise it.

(You might have noticed this yourself if you have ever tried to offer your bunny a treat while its attention is elsewhere).

Just like fireworks, loud sounds from the TV can make a rabbit very jumpy, natural history programmes with predatory animals can be especially disturbing for a rabbit with the sound on.

Some rabbits may even stamp their feet in disapproval if they hear a loud sound from the TV.

Wrap Up

So is it worth leaving a TV on for a rabbit? Well, maybe.

Of course, TV is no substitute for a bunny companion but there is an argument that the human voices a rabbit hears from a TV could help it to feel less alone.

Just remember that although the rabbit won’t really have a preference for the type of moving images it sees on the screen, you should try to choose shows that are unlikely to have any startling loud sounds that could increase the rabbit’s anxiety levels.