Way back when... I was an exterminator... and some of my customers had rabbit... they all told me that they were not good pets... maybe Nords can say if this is true or not.. but IIRC, this was 5 of 5 who said not another...
They did look cute... but I never did see them 'friendly'....
Like teenagers, it totally depends on how you raise them. What you do is what you get. That House Rabbit website taught us a lot, as did some books and a local bunny group.
The most socialized bunnies are raised inside human homes from birth, handled frequently, and groomed at least a couple times a day. The constant touching will accustom them to sitting in your lap and even being held cuddled upside down in your arms for belly rubs. (It has to be done when they're very young and it has to continue for years. If we tried that with our bunny he'd take our hands off at the elbows. Bunny teeth are sharp!) It's considered better to raise 2-3 bunnies together rather than just one. Letting them run around a room together is better than caging them, and indoors is less risk of parasites or poisonous food or predators. If they're around humans all day and have each other for entertainment then they're pretty friendly.
Our rabbit was apparently raised by women, teased by children, and spent a lot of time in a cage because he responds very strongly to spouse but is relatively hostile to kids. (We got him from the Humane Society, a year-old Easter bunny who escaped and was picked up a few days later.) He's not socialized-- we went to a bunny gathering and while all the other bunnies happily played together he was so threatened by their presence that he actually sat in my lap for protection. He'll let you pet him, stroke his paws (for nail trims), and check his teeth (for vet visits) but cuddling is generally out of the question.
Bunnies ain't exactly Rin Tin Tin. They're smarter than guinea pigs but not so cerebral as cats or even ferrets or any other predators. They'll eventually respond to a half-dozen commands-- if they feel like it-- but they need frequent practice & daily reinforcement. It's much easier to let them train you, by showing you where they want their litter box or where they want to be petted or which type of hay they prefer to eat.
They're very expressive, though. When they're happy or angry or frightenend then they immediately show it in their body language. When they want to play then they run around your feet until you let them chase you around the room (followed by extensive petting). If you laugh at their antics and they feel embarrassed by it, they pout. When our bunny wants to play, if he can see/hear me in another room then he'll make noises at the familyroom pet gate by chewing on it until I join him. (I need frequent practice & daily reinforcement.) When he wants to be petted he'll hop over to a particular chair, sit by it, and crouch down with an expectant look on his face. If he's really happy then he'll hop over to a side of the room, preferably in sunshine, throw himself down on his side in a huge bunny flop, and actually wriggle on his back with his paws in the air before laying down for a little nap. Any attempt to pet him in this vulnerable position, though, is met with teeth and "barking" (grunting).
They do not adapt to change very well. A few years ago we set our bunny up with several days of food & water and went camping for a couple days. When we returned home on the third day, he'd already stopped eating and was very upset by the lack of contact. He recovered quickly but, like a cat, spent several days leaving us little bunny presents in creative locations to show his displeasure. So now when we travel, even if it's only overnight, we have a neighborhood kid look after him for at least an hour a day.
They're amazingly fast-- I've seen ours jump at a centipede, bite it in half, and leap clear before either end of the centipede can respond. (Of course when he was young I saw him run full speed into a clear glass window, too. He bounced back about a foot before he figured it out.) I've seen videos of bunnies attacking king snakes and making them retreat in panic. When I pet a bunny I can almost feel my blood pressure dropping and my pulse slowing.
They're incredibly destructive. A bunny's world is categorized according to "yummy" and "yucky", and drywall/wood is yummy. Even paint is not an effective deterrent, although marine varnish offers some protection. They don't necessarily eat the stuff, just chew on it to keep their teeth ground down to size. Our familyroom room now has sheet-vinyl wall coverings up to two feet high. We stock the corners with scrap drywall, yummy aspen wood, and cardboard boxes. When he goes to his great reward I'll have to replace every single freakin' door trim and molding.
Their burrowing instincts are impressive. Our bunny will spend an entire day dragging around a cardboard box that weighs more than he does, chew holes in it, and get royally pissed off if you try to "help". After a couple days at his task he'll have dragged together a jumble of cardboard boxes, all with bunny-size holes chewed in their sides, that he can run straight through at top speed without touching. He'll go there for naps or run through it for exercise/play. We humans (and predators) can't follow his briar-patch shortcut and we're not welcome in his corner behind that labyrinth.
Wild bunnies live an average of 3-5 years. Housepet bunnies get 7-10 years, especially the smaller dwarf breeds. Well-tended & well-socialized bunnies get 12-14 years...
