Hi all!!! Need a bit of help with new nethies!

Hi all,

I am new to forum, and we are new to the joys of rabbies!

We have just gotten two lovely little agouti netherland dwarfs, called Moomin and tuffty.

We have been trying to look for ages on the net as the best way to introduce them too us.

We only picked them up on sunday and they seem to love their cage, we've had them out once and were running about quite happily.

They come up to us in their cage and Moomin even licks!!

We just need a bit of advice on how to make them get used to us (we don't want to scare them!) and also how to handle them.

We don't want to just stick our hands in a grab the ******* )

thanks for all your help

Dave

You should try not to pick them up while they are in their cage. They need to feel safe as that is their home.

To begin with I would open the cage door and let them wonder out on their own. Lie on the floor near their cage and as they come over to explore you give them a small treat to get them to associate you with good things. If they will let you try stroking them while they eat the treat. If they jump onto your knee you can try lifting them for a few seconds then putting them back down to get them used to being handled.

Hi there, thank you for that. The only problem being they are outdoor rabbits? Have you any advise for outdoor ones?

This morning was great, I changed their water and filled their food bowl and gave them both a treat (as I always do first thing in the morning)

The both came up to the cage on their hind legs and once I put the food bowl in, they were sniffing me and letting me gently stroke them!!

Hello Dave, I am also a new rabbit owner called Dave! We've recently bought a baby giant flemish who lives outside. She loves being out in the garden and is not very keen on being picked up and put back in her hutch for the night but we are working on this.

I've found placing one hand underneath her and one on her behind and then picking her up and holding her against myself is the best way and she wriggles quite a bit but settles for a time.

Good luck!

These leaflets were my Bible and are still very useful. They give a fantastic introduction to most aspects of good rabbit care including advice on handling buns:

http://www.houserabbit.co.uk/resources/index.php?section=leaflets.html

welcome to the forum :wave:

Emma